ABSTRACT
This chapter takes up the unsteady relationship between public and private in Two Figures and its reception as a means of reading Francis Bacon’s paintings as representations of queer homes in post-war Britain. Bacon’s art posits post-war queer home between the domestic and spaces of queer intimacy, and this definition of home is one forged in terms of emerging homosexual subjectivity. This chapter places Bacon’s reflections on home in the context of queer historical scholarship, arguing that his unhomely vision of home can be considered as a response to post-war queer experience. It explores Bacon’s Man in Blue series as representations of queer public intimacy and its processes, built on moments of recognition and contact. The chapter argues that this public intimacy is crucial to understanding Bacon’s representations of queer home, built around his personal conception of ‘drift’ and its implications of homelessness.
