Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation

Gilles Deleuze was one of the most influential and revolutionary philosophers of the 20th century. Francis Bacon is widely regarded as one of the most radical painters of the 20th century. This title presents a deep engagement with Bacon's work and the nature of art. Deleuze analyses the distinctive innovations that came to mark Bacon's style: the isolation of the figure, the violent deformations of the flesh, the complex use of colour, the method of chance, and the use of the triptych form. Along the way, Deleuze introduces a number of his own famous concepts, such as the "body without organs" and the "diagram", and contrasts his own approach to painting with that of both the phenomenological and the art historical traditions. Deleuze links Bacon's work to Cezanne's notion of a "logic" of sensation, which reaches its summit in colour and the "colouring sensation". Investigating this logic, Deleuze explores Bacon's crucial relation to past painters such as Velasquez, Cezanne and Soutine, as well as Bacon's rejection of expressionism and abstract painting.