'Seeing-as': The Modality of Looking in Bacon's Portraiture. Issue 3 (1st September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Arya, Rina
• Is Part Of: Visual culture in Britain. Volume 21:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: 296
• Page End: 309
• Publication Date: 2020-09-01
• Subjects: Francis Bacon -- portraits -- phenomenology -- the figural; Art -- Great Britain -- History -- Periodicals; Performing arts -- Great Britain -- History -- Periodicals; Art and society -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Performing arts -- Social aspects -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 700.94105
• DOI: 10.1080/14714787.2020.1860340
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1471-4787

Abstract

Abstract : This article examines Francis Bacon's treatment of portraits of sitters who were close to him – a closeness that is seen in the intimacy of their portrayals. Bacon cut through the surface to capture the energy of a person. This study articulates Bacon's pictorial problem by arguing for a particular way of 'seeing-as', to draw on Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy, that involves the 'noticing of an aspect' or 'dawning of an aspect'. Interpreting Bacon's portraits by using Wittgenstein's understanding of perceptual concepts and the phenomenological perspective of the immediacy of experience presents a novel way of looking at his work.