Cultural Analysis

A Comparison and Contrasting of

Three Studies for Figures at the
Base of a Crucixion by Francis
Bacon and The Green Manalishi
(With the Two Prong Crown) by
Peter Greens Fleetwood Mac
Mark Minors
16871
FDHE1012
Word Count: 3,355
Abstract
The immediate assumption is that both these artworks (Three Studies for Figures at the
Base of a Crucixion by Francis Bacon and The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong
Crown) by Peter Greens Fleetwood Mac) are depictions of artists in turmoil; tormented
souls whose inner demons they lay bare upon the canvas and the stave.
However, further reading suggests there is more at work in both. Bacons privileged
position and Greens distaste for the sheer wealth on offer to those who achieve rock
superstardom point to a deeper meaning behind both artworks which might not be
apparent on rst inspection, such is the menace prevalent in each.
i
Introduction 1
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucixion 2
A Background to the Work 2
An Analysis of the Work 4
The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) 8
A Background to the Work 8
An Analysis of the Work 11
A Comparison and Contrasting of the Works 15
Conclusion 16
References 17
Bibliography 18
ii
Introduction
In order to demonstrate an understanding of cultural context and analysis, the painting
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucixion by Francis Bacon, rst displayed in
April 1945, and the song The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown), written by
Peter Green, and recorded by Fleetwood Mac in April 1970, will be interpreted.
This essay will consider the background of the artists responsible for the creation of each
artwork, before exploring the artworks themselves from a cultural perspective; rstly
through psychoanalysis, utilising Carl Jungs theories of archetypes (primarily the shadow
archetype) and, secondly, from a Marxist perspective, taking into account the economic
circumstances under which the artworks were produced.
Over the years, each text has been quickly judged as the product of an artist in a state of
mental unrest and, whilst it may be true that the producers have experienced profound
instability, there lies behind these artworks more than mere turmoil and anger.
In conclusion, this essay will propose that the social and economic situations of the times
in which the artworks were produced had greater bearing on the resultant texts than simply
the mental states of the artists.
1
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucixion
A Background to the Work
Francis Bacon was born in Dublin in 1909, the son of a Captain and grandson of a
General. Supported by an allowance from his mother, he started making drawings and
watercolours following a three-month stay in Berlin and a subsequent visit to a Picasso
exhibition in Paris in 1927. Then, based in London, he spent the three years from 1929
designing modernist furniture which brought him some publicity and some noted clients,
including a wealthy gentleman named Eric Hall -- a justice of the peace, borough councillor
and chairman of a London symphony orchestra. Bacon and Hall enjoyed an amorous
relationship for a period of approximately fteen years.
In 1930, Bacon shared an exhibition with Roy de Maistre, an Australian post-Cubist painter
who had become a form of mentor to him. Following this exhibition, Bacon concentrated
less on decorative arts and more on painting. However, Bacon had something of a
penchant for gambling which generally overtook painting as his primary pastime, and
those periods when painting did occur with regularity often ended in the destruction of the
artworks.
Bacon was exempted from military service on medical grounds, but volunteered for the
Civil Defence during the Second World War, working for the ARP until his health prevented
him from doing even that. In 1942, he moved into a at in South Kensington where he set-
up a studio in the old billiards room, and it was here that Three Studies for Figures at the
Base of a Crucixion was produced (Sylvester, 2000, pp253-257).
Bacons Crucixion, a work of 1933 which survived his
tendency to destroy his creations, demonstrates the
existence of two permanent inuences upon his work.
Firstly, paint: Bacon wanted to use that uid and curious
medium in ways that moved him like the works of
Rembrandt and Velzquez, but with the taking of more
chances; with an overriding irrationality. His second
inuence was Picasso; generally, for demonstrating how
realism can draw on the unconscious and, more
specically, for providing forms he could make use of in his
2
Crucixion, 1933
Francis Bacon
own work. In this, Bacon shared a gift with Picasso: a talent for exploiting other peoples
creations (Sylvester, 2000, p13).
After Crucixion, 1933, Bacons next artwork to both endure and pointedly inuence his
future canon was Figure getting out of a Car, c1943. It features a realistic depiction of a
car; indeed, a very specic car: the Mercedes from which Hitler emerged at a Nuremberg
rally. Yet, in Bacons work, the gure getting out of a car is inspired by Picassos biomorphs
of the late 1920s and Roy de Maistres Figure by a Bath, 1937. This particular biomorph is
reminiscent of that in the centre panel of Bacons triptych Three Studies for Figures at the
Base of a Crucixion (hereon simply referred to as Three Studies) -- the painting that he
considered the true beginning of his painting career (Sylvester, 2000, pp17-18).
Thanks to Bacons personal friend and co-exhibitor, the artist Graham Sutherland, Three
Studies was rst shown at an exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in London during April 1945
-- one month before the cessation of hostilities.
3
An Analysis of the Work
I was seventeen. I remember it very, very clearly. I remember looking at a dog-shit on the
pavement and suddenly I realised, there it is -- this is what life is like. Strangely enough it
tormented me for months, till I came to, as it were, accept that here you are, existing for a
second, brushed off like ies on a wall...I think of life as meaningless; but we give meaning
during our own existence. We create certain attitudes which give it meaning while we exist,
though they in themselves are meaningless, really.
Francis Bacon
(Sylvester, 1997, p133)
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucixion, 1944
Francis Bacon
The three studies are based on photos of Hitler and other leading Nazis, as shown in
Figure Getting out of a Car, c1943 (see above). Their presentation, as a triptych, in April
1945, coincided with the release of the rst photos and lm footage showing diseased and
starving inmates of Nazi concentration camps. The celebrations of peace in Europe in May
1945 and extensive plans for the reconstruction of Britain were overshadowed by this
horric revelation of human depravity. Bacons triptych became synonymous with the
pessimistic world that the Holocaust and the advent of nuclear weapons seemed to usher
in, and his work with the inherent cruelty and vulnerability of humankind (Tate Britain,
2013).
4
This interpretation, given the context of the horric revelations at the end of the war, was
common following that initial exhibiting of the artwork. Approaching the triptych from a
psychoanalytical viewpoint, there is certainly scope to interpret something of the darker
unconscious here. The featureless, long-necked, feathered, bony, screaming creatures are
akin to something out of a nightmare. Jungian theory would posit that this was the shadow
archetype on full display, any positive aspects of the persona of the artist withdrawn and
unable to repress these cruel beings (Jung, 1948, p112). The public reaction to the artwork
was one of repulsion. Raymond Mortimer, in his review of the Lefevre exhibition wrote:
I have no doubt of Mr Bacons uncommon gifts, but these pictures expressing his sense of
the atrocious world into which we have survived seem to me symbols of outrage rather
than works of art. If Peace redresses him, he may delight as he now dismays.
(Brighton, 2001, p10)
The painting was viewed as a reection of the war itself, in particular the images of the
concentration camps, and yet it was completed in 1944, before photographs of the camps
were published. Robert Melville, in the December 1949 edition of Horizon: A Review of
Literature and Art which featured black and white reproductions of seven Bacon works,
including Three Studies, suggests they offer a glimpse of the res of despair and
frenzy (Brighton, 2001, p9). Indeed, when questioned in interview by David Sylvester,
Bacon himself offers some insight on the work:
Its concerned with my kind of psyche, its concerned with my kind of -- Im putting it in a
very pleasant way -- exhilarated despair.
Francis Bacon
(Sylvester, 1997, p83)
Considering this very honest self-examination, questions regarding Bacons Jungian
persona arise. Bacon is a man acutely aware of his mortality, as the quote which opens
this sub-chapter exemplies. What is known of his upbringing comes from stories Bacon
himself chose to make public -- a mixture of neglect, threat, violence and rejection. His
family life ended in 1926 when his father discovered him dressed in his mothers
underwear and sent him packing. Thereafter he lived off a not unreasonable allowance
from his mother; certainly enough to support a life in London, supplemented by trips
abroad (Brighton, 2001, p13).
5
Berlin of the late 1920s -- the period in which the seventeen-year-old Bacon visited -- was
a destination for homosexual excursion. Bacon claims that his chaperone (a friend of his
father) used to fuck absolutely anything, including Bacon himself, and so it is that this visit
to Berlin may have given Bacon the courage to involve in his paintings his own personal
sexuality (Brighton, 2001, p16). The boldness to do so, when England was not to legalise
such activities until 1968, suggests Bacon was a man quite at ease with himself, and with
little regard for the taboos of the time. In interview with David Sylvester, Bacon conrms
that his works are more than just thought-provoking:
Bacon: If I dont feel it physically, I know it just cant be working. With all the gures that
work, I feel that this is physically right, and this is a thing that I feel within my body.
Sylvester: As youre painting a gure you feel its gesture in your own body?
Bacon: Yes, I do.
(Sylvester, 2000, p232)
His shadow, the unconscious opposite of Bacons persona, then, may not be quite as
deviant as quick analysis of Three Studies might suggest. If his intention is to invoke a
physiological reaction in the viewer, then perhaps there is more to the painting than purely
a depiction resulting from a troubled psyche.
Let us consider the social and economic situation of Bacon at that time: Here was a man
who lived off an ample allowance and could afford lodgings in an afuent suburb of
London, as well as trips abroad. Though the countrys resources were dedicated to the war
effort, Bacon could afford to drink and gamble extensively and, though he had destroyed
many of the works, had spent the previous decade painting with little or no recognition. He
was, well and truly, a man without nancial want. Indeed, Bacon invited his friend Graham
Sutherland to a post-war dinner of spaghetti and garlic and walnuts, in a time when
rationing was still in full effect (Peppiatt, 2008, p25).
Three Studies contains a number of cultural references: Picasso, de Maistre, photographs
of Nazi leaders, and a nod to the infamous scream in Eisensteins Battleship Potemkin.
Bacon was, seemingly, able to indulge his passions to the extreme, and was, therefore,
under no pressure to provide through his work.
That he was invited to exhibit Three Studies at that particular show at the Lefevre gallery
at all was down to his association with the well-known Graham Sutherland. Therefore, it
6
could be argued, the initial success of the painting lies more with the fortunate situation of
its artist than in his ability to instill a particular reaction in those viewers of his work.
7
The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)
A Background to the Work
Peter Green (born Peter Greenbaum) was born in 1946 in Bethnal Green in East London,
and came to prominence when, in 1967, he replaced Eric Clapton as lead guitarist in the
much-lauded Bluesbreakers, a legendary British blues rock group of the 1960s, led by
John Mayall:
I think most people will realise what a tough time lay ahead in the way of comparison and
criticism for any guitarist...faced with replacing the acknowledged master of blues guitar,
Eric Clapton...
John Mayall
(Brackett, 2007, p19)
The position of lead guitarist in the Bluesbreakers was considered one of the most coveted
in British rock and pop, so Greens talent was not in question by Mayall. Also in the band at
that time were John McVie on bass and Mick Fleetwood on drums. The two were well
known for their excessive drunkenness. Indeed, Fleetwood was sacked from the band
after only a very short period of time because of this.
However, prior to Fleetwoods sacking, Mayall had bought Peter Green an unusual 21st
birthday present: studio time for himself and Fleetwood and McVie, so they could have a
go at making a single (BBC TV, 2009, 11:00). The result was an instrumental song which
Green titled Fleetwood Mac.
Soon after, Green approached Mike Vernon, the Bluesbreakers producer who had helped
produce the Fleetwood Mac record, saying he wanted to set-up his own band. Recruiting
Fleetwood and, soon after, McVie, and with the addition of Jeremy Spencer as a second
lead guitarist, the band were formed. A number of people questioned Greens choice of
band name, given its obvious deference to the rhythm section, but Green, ever seless,
insisted, and Fleetwood Mac was born.
In those early days Fleetwood Mac were prolic, spurred on by an expectant public, and
they produced three LPs in a little over a year:
> Peter Greens Fleetwood Mac (Blue Horizon Records, 1968)
8
> Mr. Wonderful (Blue Horizon Records, 1968)
> Then Play On (Warner Brothers/Reprise Records, 1969)
In that period at the end of the Sixties, they outsold both The Beatles and The Rolling
Stones, and had four Top 10 singles, the last of which was The Green Manalishi (Heatley,
1993, p72).
While on their rst tour to America, Greens notoriety amongst fellow musicians led to the
band meeting The Grateful Dead. It was The Grateful Deads sound man, The Bear, who
introduced Fleetwood Mac to LSD and convinced them of its power to unearth a deeper
creativity (BBC TV, 2009, 29:50). This chemical experimentation coincided with the
recruitment of a third guitarist to the band, Danny Kirwan. According to his bandmates,
Peter Green was the instigator of Kirwans appointment, as Kirwans rhythm guitar gave
Green himself more freedom to experiment musically (BBC TV, 2009, 00:34:00). The
results were tracks such as Oh Well part 1, a ery duel of guitars over a pounding rhythm
track, far removed from the British blues sound the band had started out with.
It was in the rst few months of 1970 that Greens time in Fleetwood Mac was coming to
an end. He had decided that he wanted to leave the band -- the fame and fortune too at
odds with his ideals to warrant continuing. Whilst accounts vary wildly between band
members and entourage (BBC TV, 2009, 1:00:00), it was after a show in Munich,
Germany, that Greens fate was sealed. He joined some fans at a party where he took
LSD and jammed for his hosts. Others report the scenes and music as awful (Heylin,
2012, p1974), though Green himself was enamoured with the results:
...it was then that I found out how much Ive changed...When the pressure is off, it all
comes out naturally.
Peter Green
(Heylin, 2012, p1975)
Greens nal release for Fleetwood Mac was The Green Manalishi, which they recorded
soon after the Munich incident. Green had already announced to the band his intention to
quit, but he was extremely pleased with the results of the session:
9
Making Green Manalishi was one of the best memories...I thought it would make number
one. Lots of drums. Bass guitars...Danny Kirwan and me playing those shrieking guitars
together.
Peter Green
(Heylin, 2012, p1975)
10
An Analysis of the Work
Now when the day goes to sleep
And the full moon looks
The night is so black
That the darkness cooks
You come creeping around
Making me do things I dont want to do
Cant believe that you need
My love so bad
Come sneaking around
Trying to drive me mad
Busting in on my dreams
Making me see things I dont want to see
Cos youre the Green Manalishi
With the Two Prong Crown
All my trying is up
All your bringing is down
Just take my love and slip away
Leaving me here just trying to keep from following you
The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown), 1970
Peter Green
[Please click this link to listen to the song now. Alternatively, please use the audio CD
provided with the hard copy of this essay.]
On analysis of the song, questions regarding the psyche immediately present themselves.
The brooding, tumultuous guitar work and the pounding, angry rhythm section suggest all
is not quite right. The lyrics speak of a darkness and allude to nightmares and unwelcome
thoughts and visions.
11
When considering the psyche of a generally positive individual, Jungian theorists would
explore the shadow archetype -- the unconscious opposite of the persona -- to understand
the personality (Jung, 1948, p112). In the case of Peter Green, at the time The Green
Manalishi was released, darker aspects of his personality (i.e. his shadow), were showing
clear signs of their inuence. Indeed, he had already told the band of his intention to quit.
...Greens increasing unease with fame which threatened to break up the group.
(Heatley, 1993, p72)
However, it wasnt just the situation in which the band found themselves that drove Green
to leave the band. He had long been aware of his melancholia:
When youre Jewish you can create a lot of feel of your own. I was always a sad person, I
dont know why, and I suppose I felt a deep sadness with my heritage.
Peter Green
(Brackett, 2007, p31)
As such, Greens persona could be thought of as possessing generally negative
characteristics as a matter of course, which, by turn, would suggest his shadow -- the
unconscious opposite of his persona -- would hold within it those characteristics generally
considered positive. Therefore, if The Green Manalishi is to be considered a work of a
troubled mind, then it follows that it results from the inuence of Greens troubled persona,
rather than his shadow, and other reasons should be sought to explain the malice inherent
in the song.
In 1969, Fleetwood Mac signed with Warner Brothers/Reprise Records. This partnership
proved to make them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, something that proved to be a
nightmare for Peter Green (Brackett, 2007, p33). He struggled with the nancial success of
the band. Their signing to Warner/Reprise heralded a marked increase in income, but this
new wealth didnt sit right with Green:
I was the last to agree to leave Blue Horizon. I was quite happy there, and I didnt like
leaving just for more money.
Peter Green
(Brackett, 2007, p34)
12
He had a conscience quite early on...about the huge amounts of money that appeared to
be able to be earnt by someone like himself.
Keith Altham, Journalist
(BBC TV, 2009, 00:51:50)
Peter Green had a passion for deep thought, which was complimented to some extent by
his drug use. After seeing a TV documentary covering the famine in Biafra, one particular
dream involved Green interacting with starving children:
In my vision...I asked a boy if he wanted a sandwich. He did. I seemed to cross a barrier,
and it was well worth doing.
Peter Green
(BBC TV, 2009, 00:53:00)
At the end of the Sixties, a lot of young people were idealistic and wanted to change the
status quo. However, when they got hugely successful, Fleetwood Mac became the very
people that they were warning against, and did not want to give anything up. Green did not
want to be a part of that material world he was rebelling against (BBC TV, 2009, 00:55:45)
and so tried to persuade the rest of the band to give away their earnings to charity. He very
nearly convinced bassist John McVie owing to the great strength of his beliefs. However, in
the cold light of day, Greens idealism wasnt shared by his bandmates, and the idea of
giving their money to starving children never came to fruition.
According to Peter Green, The Green Manalishi concerns the money he had failed to
convince his band mates to give away, as represented by the Devil. He wrote it after a
drug-induced dream in which he was visited by a dead green dog. He understood the dog
to represent money, and tried to look after it:
It scared me because I knew the dog had been dead a long time. It was a stray and I was
looking after it. But I was dead and I had to ght to get back into my body, which I
eventually did.
Peter Green
(Heylin, 2012, p1974)
13
Green goes on to dispel the commonly-held belief that the Green Manalishi represents
LSD:
[The song] wasnt about LSD, it was money, which can also send you somewhere thats
not good...In this dream I saw a...wad of pound notes, and there was this other message
saying, ...you think youre better than them. I had too much money...The Green Manalishi
is the wad of notes. The devil is green, and he was after me.
Peter Green
(Heylin, 2012, p1975)
14
A Comparison and Contrasting of the Works
Both artworks have been judged the output of troubled minds: Bacon with his admissions
of a deeply personal exhilarated despair; and Green, who crafted the Fleetwood Mac line-
up to maximise his ability to experiment, both musically and chemically. It is a straight-
forward job to assign both resulting works products of the Jungian archetype of the
shadow. A positive persona hides behind it a troubled, malevolent shadow, quite capable
of producing texts as menacing as Three Studies and The Green Manalishi.
Where Francis Bacon dictated (through the destruction of earlier pieces and the insistence
that it mark the starting point of his canon) Three Studies to be the commencement of his
career, Peter Green created The Green Manalishi as his farewell to Fleetwood Mac and,
as it proved, a farewell to his period of great success as a musician.
At the times the artworks were rst released, both artists were without want. However, their
individual circumstances differed wildly.
Francis Bacon was making the very most of his adequate allowance, gambling and
drinking and indulging his passions to the extreme. He found inuence in the art and
images of the times around him and searched for an almost indulgent physiological
reaction in himself in the works he created. Three Studies was the output of a man of
absolute leisure, gifted the opportunity of exhibiting the work through association with an
established artist. He created an imaginative work, crafted over years of experimentation
and appropriation, whilst at the same time having little need for income from the painting,
as his allowance permitted him to wine and dine as he pleased despite the strict rationing
in force around him.
By contrast, Peter Green was ashamed at the amounts of cash he earnt and was
determined to give it all away. Fleetwood Mac were the most successful band in Britain in
that period at the end of the Sixties, outselling both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
With the success came untold wealth, complimented by the signing to Warner Brothers/
Reprise Records. However, this fortune was at odds with Peter Greens world view. He
could never justify spending the money on himself when people in the world were dying of
starvation. The Green Manalishi was his farewell to Fleetwood Mac, and the evil of money
which he perceived within that band.
15
Conclusion
In conclusion, both Three Studies and The Green Manalishi are the works of individuals
whose Jungian personas contain inherently negative traits. The socio-economic
circumstances of the artists and, importantly, how they regarded their nancial situations,
have as much bearing on the resultant texts as their psychological proles. Francis Bacon
indulged fully, nding inuence in the art and images around him in amongst the wining
and dining and gambling, whereas Peter Greens composition was one nal cry out in
anguish at the position he felt his income from Fleetwood Mac had put him in.
To expand on the ndings in this essay, further research into the mind of the viewer, as
opposed to the artist, would be undertaken, for interpreting art is largely a subjective
pursuit. A rare book, Francis Bacon and the Loss of Self by Ernst van Alphen, was
identied which considers the psychoanalytical reaction of the viewer to the works of
Bacon, rather than attributing to Bacon the effect his artwork has on the psyche.
Unfortunately, attempts to obtain a copy via the Barbican Library proved fruitless in the
timescales afforded to this essay. A British Library membership beckons, therefore.
16
References
- Bacon, Francis -- Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucixion, 1944 (http://
www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/N/N06/N06171_10.jpg accessed 4th January 2014)
- Bacon, Francis -- Crucixion, 1933 (http://blogs.lexpress.fr/london-by-art/wp-content/
blogs.dir/899/les/2012/03/BACON-Crucixion-1933.jpg accessed 5th January 2014)
- BBC TV -- Man of the World - Peter Green (Bringins Multi Media, 2009)
- Brackett, Donald -- Fleetwood Mac - 40 Years of Creative Chaos (Praeger Publishers,
2007)
- Brighton, Andrew -- British Artists - Francis Bacon (Tate Gallery Publishing, 2001)
- Green, Peter -- The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) (Reprise, 1970)
- Heatley, Michael -- The Encyclopedia of Rock (Virgin Books, 1993)
- Heylin, Clinton -- All the Madmen: Barrett, Bowie, Drake, the Floyd, The Kinks, The Who
and the Journey to the Dark Side of English Rock (Constable, 2012)
- Jung, C.G. -- The Shadow, Collected Works Vol.9 (Bollingen, 1948)
- Peppiatt, Michael -- Francis Bacon - Studies for a Portrait (Yale University Press, 2009)
- Sylvester, David -- Looking Back at Francis Bacon (Thames and Hudson, 2000)
- Sylvester, David -- Interviews with Francis Bacon 1962-1979 (London, 1997)
- Tate Britain -- Plaque alongside Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a
Crucixion (Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG, viewed 24th November 2013)
17
Bibliography
- BBC TV -- Man of the World - Peter Green (Bringins Multi Media, 2009)
- Brackett, Donald -- Fleetwood Mac - 40 Years of Creative Chaos (Praeger Publishers,
2007)
- Brighton, Andrew -- British Artists - Francis Bacon (Tate Gallery Publishing, 2001)
- Brunning, Bob -- Fleetwood Mac: The First 30 Years (Omnibus Press, 1998)
- Celmins, Martin -- Peter Green, Founder of Fleetwood Mac: The Authorized
Biography (Sanctuary Publishing, 1998)
- Domino, Christophe -- Francis Bacon - Taking Reality by Surprise (Thames and
Hudson, 1997)
- Evans, Mike -- Fleetwood Mac - the Denitive History (Sterling, 2011)
- Hammer, Martin -- Francis Bacon and Nazi Propaganda (Tate Publishing, 2012)
- Heatley, Michael -- The Encyclopedia of Rock (Virgin Books, 1993)
- Heylin, Clinton -- All the Madmen: Barrett, Bowie, Drake, the Floyd, The Kinks, The Who
and the Journey to the Dark Side of English Rock (Constable, 2012)
- Jung, C.G. -- The Shadow, Collected Works Vol.9 (Bollingen, 1948)
- Peppiatt, Michael -- Francis Bacon - Studies for a Portrait (Yale University Press, 2009)
- Russell, John -- Francis Bacon (Thames and Hudson, 1971)
- Sylvester, David -- Looking Back at Francis Bacon (Thames and Hudson, 2000)
- Sylvester, David -- Interviews with Francis Bacon 1962-1979 (London, 1997)
- http://www.eetwoodmac.net/fwm/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=50 (accessed 4th January 2014)
18