Lying Figure – Q2B

‘Lying Figure’, produced by Francis Bacon in 1969 and turned into a giclée print mounted on aluminium by HENI in 2015, portrays an anonymous male figure laying naked on a bed. Depicted in an indoor space, the sitter’s face is characteristically blurred, seemingly exploding into a shapeless mass of flesh. Isolated on a simplified bed, the figure is alone in a bare room, its dull brown floor contrasting starkly with the pastel shade of the walls. These formal elements emphasise the sense of the sitter’s complete loneliness. Two ceiling light holders float over the body, directing viewers to inspect his obscene nakedness.

While in this image Bacon maintained explicit allusions to spatial settings, the naked body appears suspended on the flat, monochromatic background. The bulbous body of ‘Lying Figure’, faceless and seemingly lifeless, recalls Bacon’s fascination with the religious imagery of the dead Christ. Like the rest of his oeuvre this image, through distortion of human anatomy, is suggestive of the countless psychological traumas of modern life.

Bacon’s ‘Lying Figure’ represents a timeless image of raw human experience, conveying the desolation of the human condition. Avoiding symbolism, the artist accentuated the confrontational nature of this simplified yet powerful naked figure.