Reconstruction And Performance

As an eternal theme of art, the manifestation of vitality has not only helped to create the immortality of artistic works but also helped to accomplish splendid artistic lives of artists. Since Renaissance has brought art down from the altar of religion, artists have started focusing more on human beings and their emotions. In the following centuries, as long as there were maestros who could win a place in the art history, all without exception have shown strong vigor of life. Among all these artists, Francis Bacon and Freud, independently minded and never influenced by the trend, distinguished from others. They have expressed their own comprehension of life and truth in the path deviating from the mainstream in their own and unique way.This article on the topic of reconstitution and manifestation compares the artistic concepts of Bacon's with Freud's. Through an overall analysis on the artistic creation process of both of them and the interpretation of their works, the article tries to explore how these two different artistic style show the same connotation and features.The article is mainly divided into three chapters in the structure. The first chapter mainly introduces the time background around the time when Bacon and Freud lived, i.e., from the end of 1800s to the early 1900s when modernism trend of thought controlled the western artistic field. The article makes a comparison on the different artistic concepts and style characteristics of these two masters'.The second chapter mainly grasps the overall outlook of the artistic career of Bacon and Freud from aspects of their growth experience and living environment. Bacon was born in 1909. Bad relationship with his father and his personal issue on sexual preference has had profound impact on him. In addition, he has suffered from the shadow and trauma from the world war. These experiences have not only helped Bacon's understanding of life and art but also have been infused into his own works. He has been looking for and expressing the reality in his heart from the early-stage horror and violence to the later loneliness and darkness. Freud was born in 1922, thirteen years younger than Bacon. He emigrated from Germany to settle down in London because of being a Jewish. He was influenced by Angle in the early phase and the painting technique was delicate and complicated. He strived to present details which normal people could hardly observe. Later he was impacted by Bacon so that the style changed greatly to bold and strong with extreme expressive force. He gradually built up fixed personal painting languages.The third chapter is the core of the article to compare Bacon's artistic concept with Freud's from three aspects. Firstly it starts from the observation style and material source of two artists. Bacon has collected materials from various images, photos and existing printings and then remodeled these materials through his internal imagination within strict range of self-discipline. Freud has insisted on sketching in his whole life and persisted in the observation on people and objects in the real life and he has deepened the observation into a long-term, consistent and all-round inspection. Secondly, the article analyzes different artistic techniques of expression of two masters. Their styles of writing are at opposite poles like addition and subtraction. Bacon painted very fast, simplified the picture and used impromptu technique to construct fictional characters. But Freud usually spent months or years to perfect a piece of work and stimulated images observed into the paintings with massive pigment. At the very last, the article analyzes the commonalities on the artistic nature between them, i.e. two masters' pursuit and manifestation of reality, and their comprehension and accomplishment of the essence of life.