Color theory, art history, Paul Sérusier, Francis Bacon, The Talisman, Three Studies for Figures at the base of a Crucifixion, artistic expression, painting techniques, modern art, expressionism, symbolism
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Analysis of the use of color in Paul Sérusier's The Talisman and Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the base of a Crucifixion, revealing their styles and expressiveness.
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[...] Introduction Paul Klee claimed that « color is form and subject. She indeed occupies a central place in the study of a pictorial work and has become one of the main criteria in the appreciation of a work to found an aesthetic judgment or to express a criticism. Color can serve to hide or cover the reality of a thing. In this, color is defined according to its luminosity, its hue or its saturation. Color is therefore an essential tool for painters who use it to express sensations and emotions. [...]
[...] To support these statements, it is necessary to analyze the works of Paul Sérusier and Francis Bacon, The Talisman, painted in 1888 and Three Studies for Figures at the base of a Crucifixion, a triptych painted in 1944. In what way do the colors used in these works reveal the style and expressiveness of the artists? What is its place in relation to the other components of the work such as forms or composition? The respective study of Sérusier's painting and that of Bacon allows us to understand how these two artists use color. Because ultimately, it is their approach to the use of color that puts the rest of their work into perspective. I. [...]
[...] The two painters, by an approach and a method almost corollary (one by abstraction and subjectivity, the other by exaggeration and deformation), explore the composition and aesthetics differently, breaking each time with the movements and codes of their time and opening up to an unprecedented conception of the pictorial space. In the two painters, the color thus obtains a pictorial status at the same level as the form. It is no longer used to simply color or fill a space or a surface. [...]
[...] It occupies a place in its own right in the work of the two painters but in a different way. In Paul Sérusier, his main concern is the changing light that operates an influence on the way the painter looks at nature and things. With The Talisman, Paul Sérusier brings a new way to observe them but keeps from representing them in a realistic and faithful way. He prioritizes his artistic vision, that is to say perception rather than accuracy. In Francis Bacon, color describes human complexity, violence and drama. [...]
