Figures in a street 1983

This painting, *Figures in a street*, by Francis Bacon, feels like a stage set, doesn't it? With a stark, theatrical use of color, the eye darts from the fleshy pink figure to the claustrophobic architecture. It's a world of raw, exposed feeling, rendered with an almost brutal directness. The material presence here is undeniable; you can almost feel the grit of the pigment. Bacon's handling of paint is so visceral, that it's like he's wrestling with the canvas. See how the color pools and smears, creating a sense of unease? The arrow pointing down at the figure is so strange, a signifier of something that we can never quite know. Bacon’s work reminds me a little of Philip Guston in the way it seeks to capture raw feeling, but there’s a nihilism to Bacon that is all his own. His images linger in the mind, prompting us to confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves and the world we inhabit. Art isn't about easy answers, it's about embracing the questions.