TRIPTYCH AUGUST (LEFT PANEL), 1972

  • Image of the left panel (Triptych August 1972)
    Triptych August (left panel), 1972
    Lithograph, edition size of 180, 61cm x 49 cm 
    ©The Estate of Francis Bacon 
    Triptych, August 1972 (Left Panel) is a lithograph created by Francis Bacon in 1972, measuring 61 × 49 cm and signed by the artist. The work forms part of the series known as the Black Triptychs, produced in the aftermath of the death of Bacon’s partner, George Dyer. This left panel depicts Dyer’s figure emerging from a dark, undefined space, his body caught between solidity and dissolution.
     
    The composition carries the emotional weight of loss and remembrance, rendered through Bacon’s restrained use of tone and shadow. The image recalls both movement and stillness, a figure fading into the void yet refusing to disappear entirely. Through this work, Bacon transformed private grief into something universal, exploring how love, memory, and death remain permanently intertwined.
     
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  • I’m just trying to make images as accurately as possible off my nervous system as I can.

     

    Francis Bacon

    The death of George Dyer marked a profound turning point in Francis Bacon’s life and work. Dyer died by suicide in 1971, on the eve of Bacon’s major retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris, a cruel collision of personal tragedy and professional triumph. Bacon, ever composed in public, proceeded with the exhibition, but the impact of Dyer’s death lingered for the rest of his career. It became a private wound that found expression in his art rather than his words.