Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation (Paperback)

by Gilles Deleuze (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'Altogether, an entertaining read' Art Monthly; 'A lively and systematic study of Bacon's work. The book is clearly organised, helping to make complicated arguments easier to follow.' Modern Painters; 'A path-breaking work on the aesthetics of sensation, the philosophy of colour, on form, and on painting in general, Francis Bacon is one of the most important, if not the most crucial, of all of Deleuze's writings.' Tom Conley, Harvard University --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

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 work—presented in lucid and nuanced translation—also 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 (1925–1995) was professor of philosophy at the University of Paris, Vincennes–St. Denis. He coauthored Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus with Félix 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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1 edition (May 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816643423
• ISBN-13: 978-0816643424
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #110,118 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cerebral Bacon, July 18, 2006

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Gilles Deleuze is one of France's most important philosophers, and in that role he has influenced many branches of the arts with his scholarly investigation of the subjects he chooses to investigate.

Deleuze here writes about the 'sensational' aspects of Francis Bacon's art, art which he knows well, living with several of Bacon's works in his home. His exploration of the inspiration of Bacon's various trademark strokes and subjects grows naturally out of his applying philosophical musings on visual subjects: this book is a thesis on aesthetics for which Bacon is simply but powerfully the nidus.

Though the book was written in 1981, it remains one of the more fascinating books on aesthetics and the influences on Bacon's work along with sidebars on music, film, and writing that make the work more of an informed 'novel' than simply the intellectual volume it is. For this reader the addition of more visuals would have made more of an impact, but the writing (or translation from the French!) is so seethingly seductive that soon the visuals would become secondary. This is a tough read but a most important one. Grady Harp, July 06

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars modernist polemics, July 11, 2007

By	William Theodoracopulos - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

this is an excellent book for any artist or intellectual interested in modern art. Deleuze understands the canvas better than bacon,creating powerful justifications for the modern approach to art .
though people criticize him for unintelligable thinking,i feel it is more appropriate to say deleuze wages a war on the cliche, which includes our habitual methods of thinking...to understand deleuze is to graduate from the sterile plane of habitual thought and enter a zone of creativity ..a zone that deleuze recognizes as the arena of art..

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a rare insight into the life of a painter, May 22, 2009

By	Neal D. E. Rock "larock" (LA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been a painter now for over 20 years and very rarely have I come across the kind of insight and intelligence demonstrated in this wonderful book. For some reason at art school I avoided Deleuze but I'm glad I found him at what is probably the right time for me and my development as a painter.

I also read this book after seeing the recent Bacon retrospective at Tate Britain and its words resonated all the more clearly for this. As a discussion on the life and work of Bacon I feel it is insightful if not biographically informative (but that's not really the aim or purpose here), but Deleuze goes much further than this. At its best it offers a series of interpretive, intellectual models of analysis for artists. Like Bergson before him, Deleuze offers a non prescriptive and discursive manual for others to spring from. It manages to confront that terrible old dichotomy of theory versus practice by creating a performative space in written language that has a qualitative relationship to the stuff of paint, bodily movement, smell and touch.

A must have book, not just for painters but for anyone interested in visual art and philosophy. It's also a very good introduction to the work of one the 20th century's greatest thinkers