Crucifixion 1965

Francis Bacon made this 'Crucifixion' triptych with oil paint, and what strikes me most is how those red grounds and flesh tones just scream off the canvas. I can almost feel the brushstrokes, frantic and searching. I imagine Bacon in his studio, maybe after a night out, wrestling with these figures. The painting process itself feels like a kind of struggle, the artist grappling with the weight of history, the agony of existence. Those bodies are just a mess of contorted forms, and in the thick paint you can feel the tension, the raw physicality of the medium. Look at the way he smears and distorts the figures, how he uses colour to convey emotion, and how he brings the old masters into the present. For me, it’s as if Bacon is in dialogue with artists like Picasso and Soutine, pushing the boundaries of representation, asking us to confront the darker aspects of the human condition. It's a reminder that art is always a conversation, a back-and-forth across time, where we can re-imagine the familiar.