Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe 1968

Francis Bacon made this large oil painting, Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe, sometime in his career. Bacon throws fleshy pinks and reds against sickly greens, and that cage! It's like a stage set or a bull ring, ready for some kind of drama. Up close, you can see how physical the paint is. Look at the figure; it’s like he attacked the canvas, smearing and blurring the body. There’s a real tension between control and chaos, between the way he renders the space, and the way he explodes the figure. It's a dance between representation and abstraction. Bacon reminds me of Philip Guston, especially in the way both artists grapple with the messiness of being human. The painting is unresolved, full of anxiety, but that's where its power lies. It doesn’t offer easy answers, just raw, unsettling emotion.