Three Studies for a Self-Portrait 1980

Francis Bacon made these three oil paintings of himself, each a study in tone and the plasticity of paint. The dark ground of the canvas sets the stage for these faces to emerge from a kind of internal struggle. I can imagine Bacon wrestling with his own image, trying to pin down some elusive truth or feeling. The paint is worked and re-worked, smeared and blurred, it’s like he’s using the act of painting to literally de-face himself. Look at the way the mouth is rendered in the painting on the left. That slash of red, like a wound, but also so carnal and alive! It's as if Bacon is using his own face as a battleground, pushing and pulling the paint until it yields something raw and visceral. And this is something other painters have done too, you know, like Philip Guston, only Bacon uses a completely different visual language. Painting becomes a way of thinking, a way of feeling, and a way of being in the world. The artist gives us so much to think and feel along with them.