Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation

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A&C Black, Jun 22, 2003 - Philosophy - 209 pages
Gilles Deleuze was one of the most influential and revolutionary philosophers of the twentieth century. Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation is his long-awaited work on Bacon,widely regarded as one of the most radical painters of the twentieth century.The book presents a deep engagement with Bacon's work and the nature of art. Deleuze analyzes the distinctive innovations that came to mark Bacon's style: the isolation of the figure, the violation deformations of the flesh, the complex use of color, 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 CTzanne's notion of a 'logic' of sensation, which reaches its summit in color and the 'coloring sensation.' Investigating this logic, Deleuze explores Bacon's crucial relation to past painters such as Velasquez, CTzanne, and Soutine, as well as Bacon's rejection of expressionism and abstract painting.Long awaited in translation, Francis Bacon is destined to become a classic philosophical reflection on the nature of painting.
 

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Contents

The Round Area the Ring
xv
Note on Figuration in Past Painting
6
Athleticism
10
Body Meat and Spirit BecomingAnimal
18
Recapitulative Note Bacons Periods and Aspects
25
Painting and Sensation
32
Hysteria
42
Painting Forces
54
The Diagram
97
Analogy
109
Every Painter Recapitulates the History of Painting in His or Her Own Way
120
Bacons Path
133
Note on Color
142
The Eye and the Hand
152
Index of Paintings
160
Notes
171

Couples and Triptychs
63
Note What Is a Triptych?
72
The Painting before Painting
84
Index
195
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Gilles Deleuze was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII. Daniel W. Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University, USA. He has translated books by Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Klossowski and Isabelle Stengers.

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