Dimensions: support: 1651 x 1422 mm frame: 1853 x 1627 x 90 mm
Copyright: © Estate of Francis Bacon | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Francis Bacon's "Seated Figure," currently held in the Tate Collections, immediately strikes me with its suffocating atmosphere. The subject seems trapped. Editor: And what's materially compelling is how Bacon achieves that sense of enclosure. Look at the layering of paint, the way he builds up and scrapes away. It's violence rendered in oil. Curator: I wonder if he was depicting the psychological unease of post-war Europe. The face is almost obliterated, reduced to raw flesh. Editor: Or is it the sheer cost of being? The price of pigments, canvas... the labor to depict such turmoil? It's all a transaction, a brutal one. Curator: Yes, brutal indeed. It leaves a lasting impression, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely. A stark reminder of art's complicated relationship to reality and economics.
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Bacon’s portraits are explorations of the human condition as much as they are character studies, particularly in works such as Seated Figure, in which the identity of the sitter is not disclosed. They also represent a complex exploration of pictorial space: the figure is simultaneously posed among some elegant items of furniture and confined within a box-like frame. This device, which was one of Bacon’s trademarks, underlines the sense of isolation as well as generating a claustrophobic psychological intensity. Gallery label, July 2012
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