Moving pictures: Francis Bacon and the movement-image
Rogers, Molly Paule
Master of Arts
The English painter Francis Bacon had a specific interest in the cinema. From this interest, though not independent of his other artistic concerns, arises two aspects of Bacon's images that relate to the cinematic medium: the sense of movement that the paintings engender, and the strong affect that they have on spectators. Bacon conceived of his images cinematically, that is, in series, and employed the technique of Eisensteinian montage with each panel of his triptychs functioning as a shot. Further, the spectator experiences Bacon's imagery both as presenting and representing movement, a condition of all cinema, and in a deeply affective manner, characteristic of certain film images such as the close-up. In short, Bacon's paintings are experienced phenomenologically in a manner similar to motion pictures.