Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon first adopted the triptych format in Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion of 1944, establishing a structure that would become fundamental to his practice. Although the format carried obvious associations with religious painting, Bacon repeatedly emphasized a different point of reference: the panoramic and sequential possibilities of cinema. Three separated canvases allowed images to shift, echo, contradict, and intensify one another without forming a conventional narrative. As Bacon explained in interviews with David Sylvester, one image could reflect upon another continuously, allowing several sensations or states to coexist rather than forcing them into a single definitive representation.

The 2006 Gagosian exhibition brought together major examples ranging from intimate portrait triptychs to monumental works such as Triptych—Studies from the Human Body (1970), In Memory of George Dyer (1971), Triptych August 1972, Triptych May–June 1973, and Triptych (1976). The exhibition demonstrated how Bacon used the three-panel structure across portraiture, self-portraiture, the nude, memory, grief, and the moving body. The format allowed him to preserve separation between images while simultaneously creating what Gilles Deleuze described as an intense relationship among distinct panels without relying on straightforward narrative continuity.