Special Individual Circumstances 'Deleuze on Francis Bacon' is an accessible, critical introduction to the aesthetics and art theory of Giles Deleuze, a French philosopher whose influence has increased steadily since his death. In particular, it seeks to explain and test Deleuze's ideas by looking closely at the account and assessment he provides of the paintings of Francis Bacon. The work of Deleuze and his collaborator Felix Guattari is often linked to postmodernism and poststructuralism, hence a critical analysis of what they have to say about an important modern painter also has consequences for the general applicability of these ideas to areas like visual art and culture. This chapter explores the conflict between discursive theory and visual art practice, that is, between word and image, and in demonstrating the connections between recurring themes and images in Deleuze's thinking and Bacon's painterly poetics. However, it also questions whether in the last analysis the framework provided by Deleuze's fundamentally Nietzschean system of metaphysics enables him to preserve the life and value of works of art in the ways he would wish. This Companion to Art Theory is a major volume of international scholarship, with essays by Howard Caygill, David Summers, Michael Ann Holly, Richard Shiff, Margaret Iverson and others. RAE_import_type : Chapter in book RAE_uoa_type : LICA