Where Flesh Escapes: Bacon, Deleuze, and the Body without Organs

Abstract

This article analyzes the painting of Francis Bacon through the Deleuzian concept of the Body without Organs. To this end, it takes as its basis the philosopher’s book dedicated to the painter, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, while also drawing on other works and key concepts that support the argumentative structure, especially the notions of becoming and hysteria. According to Deleuze, hysteria in Bacon’s painting does not refer to the painter or the model, but is an intrinsic characteristic of the painting itself, distributed across the canvas. The concept of becoming is crucial to understanding how Bacon creates images composed of forces operating within the immanence of a Body without Organs. This article argues that Bacon, as a painter of sensation, was able to transform the concept into artistic expression through pictorial images that modulate the paradox between the visibility and invisibility of the Figure’s body.