Figure and flesh : Francis Bacon's challenge to the figurative tradition in Western art

Abstract

When figuring the body is at stake within the Western tradition of art, figuration comes up as a question of framing and controlling the mass of body (flesh, bones, body liquids etc…). The apparent obsession of Western art with perfect body figures might be understood as an attempt to make safe the permeable boundary between the inside and outside of the body; between the inner self and outside world. Yet the depictions of human body in Francis Bacon’s paintings reveal a disobedience to the conventional norms proposed by the figurative tradition and demonstrate a deliberate failure in controlling the mass of flesh. This thesis aims at a critical discussion on the dualist premises that lie at the core of figurative tradition in Western art by mainly following the path of Deleuze’s examination of Francis Bacon’s work