Art as Uncontrollable Strength: Interpreting Violence in Francis Bacon’s Art Through the Gaze of Contemporary Disciplines

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CHAPTER 1 
 
Bacon and the Sartre: art for the 20th Century embittered man 
 
FB: I am always surprised when I wake up in the morning. 
DS: Doesn’t that belie that you’re essentially an optimistic person? 
FB: Ah well, you can be optimistic and totally without hope. 
1
 
 
In a single exchange, this dialogue between the art critic David Sylvester and the painter 
Francis Bacon encapsulates the core of the latter’s conception of life. Bacon’s work has been 
interpreted by academics primarily in terms of the artist’s relationship to Existentialism. This first 
chapter explores scholarship that has studied Bacon’s art purely from an existentialist perspective 
in order to discuss whether the artist is consistent or inconsistent with the features of this 
existentialist allocation. Gilles Deleuze and Martin Hammer are only two of the numerous 
writers who have identified Bacon as part of the existentialist movement, despite the fact that 
their view is based entirely on a visual description of Bacon’s works. 
2,3 
On the other hand, Rina 
Arya, one of the academics who has made important contributions to the enrichment of Bacon’s 
research, defines Bacon as an existentialist when considering his life and therefore the complete 
character that formed the artist. She analysed this issue in her text ‘The Existentialist Dimension 
of Bacon’s Art,’ which will serve as the foundation for the arguments that will be advanced. This 
discussion will be followed by an in-depth examination of the Sartrean principles that 
characterised Bacon’s interpretation of the existentialist philosophical current, and I will 
demonstrate how these principles were applied to Bacon’s art, in particular to Study of a Nude 
(1952-1953, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich) [Fig. 1]. Using the painting as a point of 
reference, I will add more points – beyond those already raised by Arya – which are relevant to 
Bacon’s position among the adherents of the existentialist current.  
 
The forerunners of twentieth-century Existentialism were Arthur Schopenhauer, Soren 
Kierkegaard, Fedor Dostoevsky, and Friedrich Nietzsche, among many others. 
4
 However, it was 
Sartre’s atheistic Existentialism, which is the philosophy Bacon proved his adherence to, that 
drew the most attention from 1944-1945. Many classical philosophical principles, such as the 
 
1
 Sylvester, Interviews with Francis Bacon, p. 78.  
2
 Deleuze, Gilles. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation. Trans. Daniel W. Smith. (London: Bloomsbury, 2003.) 
3
 Martin Hammer, ‘Contradiction and Continuity in the art of Francis Bacon,’ Francis Bacon: Critical and Theoretical Perspectives. 
Edited by Rina Arya. (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012.) 
4
 Gordon Marino. Basic Writings of Existentialism. (Modern Library, 2004, p. IX, 3)
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nature of being and the foundation of knowledge, are ignored by Existentialism in favour of a 
novel approach. This philosophical and literary current runs counter to the belief that people are 
capable of acquiring objectively new knowledge and adopting a disinterested attitude toward the 
word. 
5
 As defined by Arya, there are two approaches to the concept of twentieth-century 
Existentialism: Existentialism as a systematic philosophy, which addresses philosophical 
concerns about the nature of being, identity, and free will, and Existentialism as a literary or 
aesthetic sensibility that emerged from the Parisian café’s culture of the 1940s. Arya begins her 
text with a distinction between Philosophical Existentialism and Literary Existentialism in order 
to place Bacon in a precise philosophical current. The differences between the two are numerous 
because there are as many types of philosophical Existentialism as philosophers who theorised 
them. Nonetheless, Arya’s examination shows that Bacon embodies certain principles from both 
the first and second kinds of Existentialism. 
6
 
 
The second type of Existentialism, namely Literary Existentialism, arose within the 
artistic world and has influenced the disciplines that fall under its umbrella. The twentieth-
century Literary Existentialism has a significant influence on many creative works, such as the 
novels of Franz Kafka and Albert Camus, the movies of Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen, or 
the poems of Thomas Stearns Eliot, a poet whom Bacon declared to have had a strong influence 
on his art. 
7
 Literary Existentialism differs from philosophical Existentialism mainly in that it 
enjoys the ego’s solipsism by placing the self against the world, whereas philosophical 
Existentialism is based on the Sartrean concept of being in the world with others. Bacon’s 
inclination towards Existentialism is visible in his painting Head VI, which depicts a single 
subject contemplating his fate in an unfamiliar environment with no escape route, which is an 
image that reflected one of the Sartrean existentialist concepts. Indeed, when speaking of Bacon, 
critics have mainly linked him to Literary Existentialism, but Rina Arya aims to show that Bacon 
also adhered to philosophical Existentialism, to which I will add several points to support her 
case. 
8
 
 
Academics have labeled Bacon as an existentialist painter for two reasons. The first is the 
era in which he lived, as he was born in 1909 and rose to prominence as an artist relatively late, 
starting to paint in the 1940s. Throughout the preceding decades, he used to paint but merely 
 
5
 Rina Arya, ‘The Existentialism Dimension of Bacon's Art,’ Francis Bacon: Critical and Theoretical Perspectives. Edited by Rina Arya. 
(Bern: Peter Lang, 2012.) 
6
 Arya, ‘The Existentialism Dimension of Bacon's Art.’ 
7
 Sylvester, Interviews with Francis Bacon.  
8
 Arya, ‘The Existentialism Dimension of Bacon's Art.’
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imitating the works of Picasso and those that had piqued his interest and inspired him to pursue 
a career as an artist. 
9
 On the other hand, the rise of Literary Existentialism was the period during 
which he gained great fame, and the influence of this cultural current can be seen in the sense of 
alienation that pervades his artworks. Another viewpoint advanced by Arya is that Bacon’s art is 
an example of Literary Existentialism, and the reason for this may be that Bacon’s art is alienated 
and disconnected from the artistic dimension of the time, which was trying to restore balance to 
a war-torn nation. However, Francis Bacon’s art was not only influenced by the Existentialism of 
the Cafés Parisienne but also – and above all – by philosophical Existentialism, as Rina Arya 
demonstrates. According to her, the existentialist messages communicated by Bacon consist in 
the recognition of one’s own responsibility for one’s own life, which, following Nietzsche’s 
nihilistic theory, is no longer in God’s hands, but in those of men. 
10
 The other two existentialist 
principles to which Bacon adhered and wished to convey were the absence of metaphysical 
consolation and his existential obsession with death. 
11
 Despite Arya’s valid arguments, I believe 
there are additional points that confirm the influence of philosophical Existentialism on Bacon’s 
artistic creation and I will refer to the painting Study of a Nude, created between 1952 and 1953 to 
demonstrate this theory [Fig.1]. 
 
Study of a Nude from the 50s is one of the few that was not created as part of a series. 
Because his creativity suggested that sequential images would be more effective, the artist used to 
paint subjects in series. As a result, he found that series was the best way for him to convey the 
idea of a sequence. In contrast, this work stands alone and is one-of-a-kind, which is probably 
the artist’s first message of existentialist influence that he wanted to communicate to the viewer. 
When compared to other works created in series, it is likely that the loneliness of this work is 
meant to imitate the loneliness of men, as dictated by Sartre’s Existentialism. The man is alone 
and distinct from every other human being, just as this painting is conceptually distinct from the 
others produced by Bacon, precisely because it was not created in a series. Beginning with a 
visual analysis of Study of a Nude, the central figure is the first thing that attracts the audience’s 
attention, because it is painted in light colours, in contrast to the rest of the artwork, and because 
it is located in the centre of the canvas. The naked body with its sculpted muscles, most likely 
that of a sportsman - one of Bacon’s figurative passions - is surrounded by a kind of luminous 
aura, which draws the viewer’s eye even further. But why Bacon wanted to attract so much 
 
9
 Cristophe Domino, Francis Bacon: Painter of a Dark Vision. (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers, 1997.) 
10
 Friedrick Willhelm Nietzsche,Thus Spake Sarathustra, New York: Dover Pubns, 1999.  
11
 Arya, ‘The Existentialism Dimension of Bacon’s Art.’
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attention to the naked body, which is itself a condition that would have drawn the viewer’s eye 
even without other stratagems?  
 
In contrast to the transparent body, there seems to be a zone of blackness into which the 
body is going to plunge. Keeping loyal to the artist’s existentialist inspirations, I have discovered 
numerous interpretations that may be interpreted in this gloomy zone. The first meaning is the 
artist’s inherent fear of death. Bacon show himself as an existentialist, specifically an atheist 
existentialist. His relationship with religion remains dubious and will be explored further along 
with the analysis of the painting Head VI (1949, Art Council Collection, Southbank, London) in 
the next chapter, but, in Bacon’s own words, it is legitimate to define him as an atheist [Fig. 4]. 
According to this type of Existentialism, God no longer exists, and therefore no longer 
determines the destiny of man, who consequently is defined solely by what he does. 
 
‘A man is the sum of the acts that make up his life.’ 
12
 
 
Atheistic Existentialism envisaged the acceptance of Nietzsche’s Nihilism, hence the awareness 
of the death of God. 
13
 As a result, Sartre’s Existentialism included the consciousness of the 
absence of an afterlife to look forward to after death. Despite his resignation to the existence of 
a guiding and protective entity, Sartre was an advocate of active nihilism, arguing for the 
importance of responding actively and responsively to the absence of God.  
 
Having an atheistic existentialist view of life, the artist’s conception of death differed 
from that of the Christian. In other words, Bacon was aware that the time we live is all we have 
because there will be nothing after death. As a supporter of Sartre’s philosophy, Bacon declared 
himself not afraid of death, claiming that he was used to it because many people close to him had 
died recently. This translated into a desire to live his life to the fullest, without regard for the 
afterlife, which Existentialism had questioned.  
 
‘The lack of ultimate meaning is precisely the reason for making life extraordinary with 
experiences and activities that are meaningful to us.’ 
14
 
 
 
12
 Gordon Bigelow, ‘A Primer of Existentialism.’ College English 23, no. 3 (1961): 171-78.  
13
 Nietzsche, Thus Spake Sarathustra.  
14
 Sylvester, Interviews with Francis Bacon.
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He saw death as ‘a stimulus for life.’ Despite the calm and confidence with which Bacon spoke 
about death, the treatment of this subject in many of his paintings shows how it was a recurring 
topic in the artist’s mind. For example, the frequent presence of animal flesh in depictions 
demonstrates how he used it as a symbol of death, and thus how he employed art as a method of 
dealing with the fear of death itself. 
15
 Study of a Nude is another painting in which Bacon deals 
with the theme of death: the subject appears to be about to dive into the void, which can be 
interpreted as eternal sleep [Fig.1]. His strong attachment to life stemmed not only from the 
existentialist influences that shaped his ideas but also from asthma that accompanied him on a 
daily basis. His desire to live a fuller life was extremely strong in him as he struggled with death 
every day, revealing how terrified he actually was of it.  
 
The second interpretation of the dark crater in the figure from Study of a Nude is that it 
could be indicative of the anguish caused by the existentialist ‘project.’ This concept, coined 
again by Sartre, consists in human beings’ responsibility to build their own future, aware that 
there are no external forces that can influence it, not even the Higher Power, whose existence 
has been denied. Thus, human beings are thrust into a world full of obstacles that they must 
continually overcome. They must make an effort to recognise and judge reality, while also acting 
within it, fully aware that the consequences of their actions are solely their responsibility. 
16
 As a 
result, the darkness of that abyss, of that void, which is realised in the difference in colour from 
the rest of the artwork’s background, may represent not only death, but also uncertainty about 
the outcome of one’s choices, uncertainty about what will happen, and the recognition that 
facing the world will be difficult when there is no certainty. The announcement of the freedom 
to shape one’s own future solely through one’s own will and choices causes deep and dark 
anguish in the twentieth-century man. It is not only a realisation that individuals are the only 
ones who have control over their own future, but it also implies a recognition that, in the 
absence of a superior entity, the choices of the singles will affect the entire humanity. 
17
 
 
Nietzsche theorised that humans, unable to cope with the chaos and irrationality of the 
world, concocted a false but comforting reality, as long as it was characterised by order and 
meaning and, most importantly, a reality in which God served as the pivot. 
18
 This world 
collapsed at the turn of the twentieth century, causing new freedom of choice but eliminating the 
 
15
 Arya, ‘The Existentialism Dimension of Bacon’s Art.’ 
16
 Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism. (London: Methuen, 1966.) 
17
 Bigelow, ‘A Primer of Existentialism.’ 
18
 Nietzsche, Thus Spake Sarathustra.