The Art of Deformity

"Art is significant deformity"- Stanley Fry, English art critic 1866-1934.

Many people see deformity as something that destroys beauty, a type of ugliness which takes away from the character of a person, however deformity to artists creates a complex journey of the human body and what it endures. The irregularity of the shape and features on the human face, allows artists to explore different techniques to convey these journeys that people endure in life. My chosen artists, Francis Bacon, Frida Kahlo and Diane Arbus all throughout their work represent deformity, whether it is on humans or simply on objects. By exploring this notion of distortion of the human body it will allow me to understand how artists interpret what they think deformity is, and how art can be created out of something which affects a person both physically and mentally.



Francis Bacon was an artist mostly known for his audacious, rigorous and aggressive compositions, usually set in a contained space against flat, characterless background, went through various stages until his art was fully developed. These stages can reflect his personal life and emotions which when analysing them can be disturbing. Throughout 1949, Bacon created a series of six paintings Head I to Head IV these involved the study from The Human Body and Study for Portrait (1949). However each head has been created differently but with the same purpose. Head I differs from Head II; the first is painted on hardboard whilst the rest are painted on the reverse of a primed canvas. These heads can be interpreted in many ways, however when looking at them a distortion of the shape and features are present, an unnatural form has been created out of thickly painted oil and dark uneven colours.

Head I (1948) is made up of earthy oils and dark tones whilst Head IV (1948) uses earthy however rich colours which juxtaposes the main initiative of the painting, the idea of entrapment and nightmare expressions which leads to the viewer feeling uncomfortable with its unsettling presence.
The emotions created from these paintings can also be felt in the work of The Crucifixion in which Francis Bacon took inspiration from Peter Paul Ruben (1612-1614) triptych “The Descent from the Cross”.

The Crucifixion questions bodily harm which critic John Russell notices and wrote that The Crucifixion throughout Bacons work is,

“Generic name for an environment in which bodily harm is done to one of more persons and one or more other persons gather to watch"

From Witnessing a scene in which harm to the human body is present, Bacon admitted that he saw the seen as,

“A magnificent armature on which you can hang all types of feelings and sensation”

He also believed that the image allowed him to examine, “Certain areas of human behaviour”, in a unique way which contains deep meaning and thought, as Bacon being an atheist he saw The Crucifixion a distressing act of human violence which he then subverted to create a piece art which meets the human eye.

Another artist who` s paintings corresponds to her evolving persona is Frida Kahlo (July 6, 1907- July 13, 1954), in which we witness her as a healthy artist until the deformation of her body. Frida Kahlo was a Mexican Painter. Her compositions are formed by using energetic colours which were influenced by native cultures of Mexico and European influences including Realism, Surrealism and mostly Symbolism. Frida Kahlo ` s works are self-portraits that symbolically articulate her own pain and sexuality. However early on in her life she endures a major accident which left her incapable of

any bodily movements, the accident left her in extreme pain and she recovered in a full-body cast. Nevertheless Kahlo did not only draw on how the accident left her but also she became inspired by her marriage, her miscarriages and the numerous amounts of operations she endured, throughout that period she incorporated symbolic portrayals of her physical and psychological wounds.

“I never painted dreams, painted my own reality"

Apart from Frida Kahlo` s main influences being her physical pain and the appearance of her demolished body, she was also influenced by indigenous Mexican culture and dramatic symbolism. One of her strongest paintings which reflected her physical and mental pain was The Broken Column (1944) which was a ruthless testimony of the suffering that accompanied Kahlo all her life, she illustrated herself with her nude torso surrounded by a brutal body cast, inside she has allowed us to observe a stone column broken which symbolically is replacing her demolished spinal cord.

By Kahlo creating this reconstruction only emphasises the pain in which she went through, however also the inspiration she got from the accident. This in my opinion is inspirational by the way in which a period of her life which did change the way she could and act, played a major role throughout her art and when viewing it we can feel the suffering and pain she went through. However the amount of emotions that are involved in The Broken Column is also seen throughout other works by her, Without Hope (Sin Esperanza 1945) which is oil on canvas mounted on Masonite and The Abortion which conveys the many miscarriages and abortions she had to endure throughout her life.

Deformity can affect the human body in many ways, whilst Franics Bacon` s Series of Heads can be seen as an unnatural image due to the way in which he has created his paintings; Frida Kahlo instead presents her irregularity of shape and form in self –portraits which is powerful and compelling. However their portrayal of deformity differs to photographer Diane Arbus who was an original and influential photographer American photographer of the 20th century.

Throughout 2003 Diane Arbus played a major role in an exhibition, “Diane Arbus Revelations” which was organized by the San Francisco museum of Modern Art. In 1941 she married her childhood sweetheart Allan Arbus and in 1945 her first daughter was born following her second in 1954, Amy Arbus. After both her daughter were born Diane taught photography at the Parsons School of Design and the Copper Union in New York City. Arbus ` s photographs portray a great deal of passion to reality and what it endures, which is also seen throughout the works of Jenny Saville which both conveys the dark side of realism.

“I do hope I play out the contradictions that I feel, all the anxieties and dilemmas. If they`re there in the work, then that` s brilliant”

The questioning on what is deformity can be seen throughout my three gallery sheets in which I focus on the portraying of the human body in different ways. Diane Arbus was my main focus by the way in which she conveys a young child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park (1962). The photograph consists of a scrawny boy with the left strap of his jumper hanging awkwardly of his shoulder whilst holding his long thin arms by his side. Clenching a toy hand grenade in his right and holding his left hand in a claw like gesture.

The way in which Diane represents the young boy and his facial expressions can have interpretations of human deformity, which makes the photograph more powerful and compelling. When viewing it, the eye meets the imperfection of his hand, the use of the grenade and distortion of the hand creates this bold union which enraptures the viewer. Arbu`s photographs does emphasise the way in which she subverts the traditional notions of people’s expectations of life making her photographs compelling and different. Another photographer who alters the way in which people see photographs is Karl Blossfeldt (June 13, 1865- December 9, 1932) who was a German photographer and sculptor and became famous through close up photographs of plants, he was inspired by nature and the way in which plants grew, whilst Arbu` s photographs are more figurative, Blossfeldt` s images are more natural.

Karl Blossfeldt photographed natural forms primarily for the use of his sculptors or as a teaching aid, but he is remembered as a photographer. His works is misleadingly straightforward at first glance. Plain, black and white photographs of botanicals taken head- on would seem to leave room for no interpretations. However it does reveal the complexity of nature and art when brought together, the geometry of design and the inspiration for artistic styles.

When analysing this photograph, it clearly represents a zoomed up image of a plant, however the way in which he has photographed it in alternative angels allows us to interpret something other then what we see which then distorts our opinion on the natural form and allows us to treasure its complexity. Personally when looking at it, it contains traits of deformation, a distortion of an object. In creating this image we are forced to question whether Blossfeldt wants us to see an image that carries qualities of deformation or whether he wants us to see the changes in which nature can have to the human eye. The use of different shades emphasises the bizarre shape whilst having light shades juxtaposes the idea of the plant being in that position. However many other of his works carries the same trait of this bizarre natural idea.
This is different to the photographer Eddie Adams, (June 12, 1933- September 19, 2004) who became inspired by warfare and the sadness and corruption that comes out of human fighting, when seeing his photographs they create an emotional and deep perspective of reality when fighting. One of his strongest photographs which convey the deformation of warfare reality is of Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing Nguyễn Văn Lém on (February 1, 1968), after taking this picture he then commented The general killed the Viet Cong,

“I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. ... What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?”

The main reason for me including this photographer is because many people nowadays see deformity as being on a person or an object, however Eddie Adams intentions in these photographs may not be to initially portray the deformation of the human body through fighting but instead the insanity in which people will go to win their rights, this in my opinion is a different type of deformity, instead an unnaturalness of human nature.

“As long as the human body is considered a sentimental or expressive value in painting, no evolution in picture of people will be possible. Its development has been hindered by the domination of the subject over the ages”- Fernand Leger

By researching into the way in which the human body is expressed through artists, I have gained a clear understanding that the human body is painted to express feelings and emotions. The human body can be expressed through many ways either it be through photography or painters, it will still convey a strong and passionate feeling which is essential when viewing a piece of art. The artists that I have researched into all depict different ways in which the human body can be expressed, various of them become inspired through events that they have experienced or only see actions through people that happen in day to day life.