Francis Bacon : The Logic of Sensation

by Deleuze, Gilles

• ISBN13: 9780816643424
• ISBN10: 0816643423
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-25
• Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr

Summary

Translated and with an Introduction by Daniel W. Smith Afterword by Tom Conley Gilles Deleuze had several paintings by Francis Bacon hanging in his Paris apartment, and the painter's method and style as well as his motifs of seriality, difference, and repetition influenced Deleuze's work. This first English translation shows us one of the most original and important French philosophers of the twentieth century in intimate confrontation with one of that century's most original and important painters. In considering Bacon, Deleuze offers implicit and explicit insights into the origins and development of his own philosophical and aesthetic ideas, ideas that represent a turning point in his intellectual trajectory. First published in French in 1981, Francis Bacon has come to be recognized as one of Deleuze's most significant texts in aesthetics. Anticipating his work on cinema, the baroque, and literary criticism, the book can be read not only as a study of Bacon's paintings but also as a crucial text within Deleuze's broader philosophy of art. In it, Deleuze creates a series of philosophical concepts, each of which relates to a particular aspect of Bacon's paintings but at the same time finds a place in the "general logic of sensation." Illuminating Bacon's paintings, the nonrational logic of sensation, and the act of painting itself, this workpresented in lucid and nuanced translationalso points beyond painting toward connections with other arts such as music, cinema, and literature. Francis Bacon is an indispensable entry point into the conceptual proliferation of Deleuze's philosophy as a whole. Gilles Deleuze (19251995) was professor of philosophy at the University of Paris, VincennesSt. Denis. He coauthored Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus with Felix Guattari. These works, as well as Cinema 1, Cinema 2, The Fold, Proust and Signs, and others, are published in English by Minnesota. Daniel W. Smith teaches in the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University.

Author Biography

Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) was professor of philosophy at the University of Paris, Vincennes-St. Denis.

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction
Deleuze on Bacon: Three Conceptual Trajectories in The Logic of Sensation	p. vii
Author's Introduction to the English Edition	p. xxix
Preface	p. 3
The Round Area, the Ring	p. 5
Note on Figuration in Past Painting	p. 10
Athleticism	p. 13
Body, Meat, and Spirit: Becoming-Animal	p. 19
Recapitulative Note: Bacon's Periods and Aspects	p. 25
Painting and Sensation	p. 31
Hysteria	p. 39
Painting Forces	p. 48
Couples and Triptychs	p. 55
Note: What Is a Triptych?	p. 62
The Painting before Painting	p. 71
The Diagram	p. 81
Analogy	p. 91
Painters Recapitulate the History of Painting in Their Own Way	p. 99
Bacon's Trajectory	p. 109
Note on Color	p. 116
The Eye and the Hand	p. 124
Afterword: A Politics of Fact and Figure	p. 130
Notes	p. 151
List of Paintings	p. 169
Index	p. 175
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