HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF BIOPOWER IN FRENCIS BACON’S PAINTINGS AND POSTSTRUCTURALIST THEORY Cover Image

ИСТОРИЈСКИ КОНТЕКСТИ БИОМОЋИ У СЛИКАРСТВУ ФРЕНСИСА БЕЈКОНА И У ТЕОРИЈИ ПОСТСТРУКТУРАЛИСТА
HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF BIOPOWER IN FRENCIS BACON’S PAINTINGS AND POSTSTRUCTURALIST THEORY

Author(s): Aleksandar Zarić
Subject(s): Anthropology, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Special Branches of Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure , Philosophy of History, History of Art
Published by: Универзитет у Крагујевцу
Keywords: biopower;political economy;capitalism;biobody;fascism;neoliberalism;biomass;

Summary/Abstract: The art of Francis Bacon is positioned as a London school of figurative painiting of the second half of the twentieth century, and as such it is the most direct reflection of the post-war traumas of the Nazi regime that befall Europe and the world. It was exactly at the time, at the intersection of social, economic, scientific and technological and cultural practices, that a Western neoliberal order was formed. It is a sample or archeological/historical layer also studied by post-structuralists Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari. This text is an attempt of explication of cer- tain links in the opinion that connect the painting of Francis Bacon and the theory of post-structuralism, which are focused on the issues of development of biopower within certain historical sites. Namely, post-structuralists realise that archeological layers are volatile historical categories, and each of them is an independent social and cultural creation. Bacon authentically connects these historical layers through his visual language, referring to older painters such as Velasquez, Rembrandt, Ingres or Van Gogh. Thus Bacon re-examines the status of the subject (conceptualises life by the powers of death using human body) and its liberties both in liberal and in neoliberal societies.

  • Issue Year: XXI/2020
  • Issue No: 71
  • Page Range: 11-27
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Serbian