Professor Rohit Goel's talk entitled ‘Bacon: Art, Movement, Thought’ was part of a day-long event, 'Bacon, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis', held at King’s College London on 7th September 2023. The event was a collaboration between the Estate of Francis Bacon and KCL’s Centre for Philosophy and Art.
Goel deeply considers movement in Bacon's work and talks about how Bacon recorded the effects of movement, referencing Gilles Deleuze's statements such as how painting 'incites movement'. Goel discusses how, in interviews with David Sylvester, Bacon relayed his thoughts on this, for instance when Bacon says, "To me, the mystery of painting
today is how can appearance be made. I know it can be
illustrated, I know it can be photographed. But how can this
thing be made so that you catch the mystery of appearance
within the mystery of the making?"
Goel, from the Bombay Institute for Critical Analysis and Research (BICAR), could not be present and spoke over an audio link only. The talk is included here to keep it together with the other talks from the event.