The Black Triptychs
Bacon admitted that they were created as an exorcism of his sense of loss following the suicide of his former lover and principal model, George Dyer.
[1] On the evening of 24 October 1971, two days before the opening of Bacon's career-making retrospective at the Grand Palais, Dyer, then 37, alcoholic, deeply insecure and suffering severe and long-term depression, committed suicide through an overdose of drink and barbiturates in a room at the Paris hotel Bacon had allowed him to share during a brief period of reconciliation following years of bitter recrimination.
In most, Dyer is followed by black horizontal fleshy winged creatures, raw and red/pink blobs of dying flesh, or by painterly arrows.
These devices act both as pointers to the depravity and tragedy of the scene and as manifestations of Bacon's guilt at the death of an emotionally dependent friend.
Bacon met Dyer—in an often repeated but likely fictitious story—when he caught the younger man breaking in through the roof of his flat in a failed burglary.
Dyer was then in his early 30s, tall and athletic, and largely uneducated and from an impoverished East London background—all of which appealed to Bacon's taste for rough trade.
[4] He barely understood or liked the older man's portraits, even though they were the sole reason he was tolerated and allowed to drink with Bacon's Soho circle of friends.
"[5] When the relationship finally lost its spark and faded out, Dyer found himself adrift and alone, and descended into full-blown alcoholism, supplemented by anti-depressants and occasional amphetamine abuse.
Though dry at the time, Dyer was overwhelmed by the occasion and took refuge in quantities of drink and pills with which his body was no longer able to cope.
[7] Throughout his career, Bacon consciously and carefully avoided giving any meaning or reason to his paintings, and pointedly stated that it was not his intention to convey any sort of narrative in his work.
[10] The motif of an expensive watch was at a time when homosexuality was illegal and kept underground in Britain, a common indicator to rough trade.
Bacon's own account of Triptych, May–June 1973 was recalled by Hugh Davies from conversations they had at the time of its composition:[12]Dyer overdosed from pills and alcohol and, from the evidence in the bathroom, he vomited in the sink.
He was very influenced by film as we know, and using the triptych format was a way of capturing time, but he wanted to avoid the obvious linear narrative, which is why he changed the order of events in the picture so you can’t read it from left to right.
"[10] The three works, In Memory of George Dyer, Triptych–August 1972 and Triptych, May–June 1973, are grouped by critics because they share title, date, format, subject matter and a stark black background intended as emblematic of death and mourning.
[17] In many, Dyer is stalked by a broad shadow which takes the form of pools of blood or flesh in some panels, or the wings of the angel of death in others.
[18] These shadows were interpreted by the art critic David Sylvester as silhouettes of "avenging prey", or in Baconian language "evocations of Aeschylean Furey".
