Bacchus #3

7:00 AM

Elaine de Kooning, Bacchus #3, 1978
By RUOLING "LINDA" XU

Bacchus #3 is a painting of Roman wine god Bacchus created by Elaine de Kooning. It is the third painting of de Kooning's Bacchus series. Elaine de Kooning, wife of Willem de Kooning, got inspiration from the sculpture of Bacchus and painted it in her later career.

Elaine de Kooning uses Abstract Expressionism to show energy in the drunk god. Bacchus, a god of wine, is also the god of grape harvest. In this painting, to show Bacchus is related to nature, de Kooning smears blue, green, and yellow in the background. In addition, Bacchus represents the indulgent side of human nature. As seen, there are multiple blue-grey human figures overlapping each other which conveys the sense of carnival, chaos and sex. De Kooning's use of black outlines depicts the body figures and makes it easier for audience to differ the characters. The faceless figures express that the drunk humans are plunged to their dreamland.

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