Copyright, 1996 © Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.

Freud and the Arts

Chapter 33: Freudian Revolution

Humanities 103

Spring 2005

Instructor Beth Camp

Challenge questions:

The first part of this slide show summarizes ideas from Freud, Jung and Adler. As you view the paintings here, ask which

thinker seemed to have influenced each painting.

Some Options: Investigate any specific artist that appeals to you. Write a paper or journal entry exploring the psychological meaning of any painting.

Understanding Freud

Created concept of three-part mind: ID, EGO, and SUPEREGOWanted to help women with hysteriaBelieved repressed emotions led to

problemsDeveloped FREE ASSOCIATION to release

repressed emotion from UNCONSCIOUS mind

Followers (Jung, Adler) rejected Freud over two key concepts: infant sexuality, Oedipus complex

Three-part mind

ID = unconscious human instincts that seek instant gratification (pleasure principle)

EGO = mediator between needs of id and real world

Superego = conscience

Understanding Jung

Founder of analytic psychologyUnconscious has 2 dimensions:

PERSONAL (repressed mental and physical life)

COLLECTIVE (shared acts or thoughts either universally or within a culture)

Identified ARCHETYPES (images, patterns, symbols) seen in dreams, fantasies

Three-part mind

Individual confronts shadow (good and evil) and animus (male/female

archetype), carries collective unconscious (archetypes)

Self grows to individuation

Persona = social roles

Understanding Jung

Defined concepts: introvert and extrovert

Believed most important task any person could do was to create a balance between conscious and unconscious life Jung often painted mandalas as

a symbol of balance and the “ultimate unity of the personality” (also symbolized by the circle and the cross)

Understanding Adler

Founder, individual psychologyRejected Freud’s emphasis on sex and asserted that

personality difficulties come from feelings of inferiority (inferiority complex)

What was the Freudian Revolution...

When artists, writers, thinkers applied Freud’s ideas to culture

“Release the unconscious” became the key

Middle class continues to reject most of Freud’s ideas, but artists . . .

Reaction against strict conventions of Victorians (as hippie movement reaction against strict conventions of 1950s)

Metaphysical/Fantastic Art

Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) “The Nostalgia of the Infinite”

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) “I and the Village”

Marc Chagall

I and the Village, 1911

What elements of this painting suggest fantasy? Content? Technique? Theme?

New Psychology & Arts

Surrealism

Dadaism

Expressionism

Expressionism

Rejected traditional ways of showing realityExaggerated and distorted shapes to “express”

subjective moods and feelings, calling their landscapes and portraits “mindscapes”

Captured brooding melancholy of romanticsReflected prewar tensions (Germany)

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) Ernst Kirchner (1880-1938)

Edvard Munch

The Scream (1927)

Is the main figure an adult or a child? Who are the characters in the background? What do the colors add to the mood?

Freud might say this painting suggests the anxiety that can exist between parents and children

Edvard Munch on The Scream

I was walking along a path with two friends -- the sun was setting -- suddenly the sky turned blood red -- I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence -- there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city -- my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety -- and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."

--Edvard Munch 1892

Ernst Kirchner

Girl Under Japanese Parasol (1909)

What does the direct glance of the reclining woman, her nudity, and the wallpaper suggest?

What are the key symbols of this painting and how do they contribute to the painting’s meaning?

Ernst Kirchner

Self-portrait as soldier (1915)

Do the two figures in this painting suggest a “divided self”? Alienation between the artist (as natural man) and the soldier?

New Psychology & Arts

Surrealism

Dadaism

Expressionism

Dada Movement

Reaction to World War I (If the world has gone mad, shouldn’t art be mad?)

Followed “Gospel of irrationality” Noise concerts Improvisation and chance Poems from newspapers Random and bizarre events, even cruelty

“The acts of life have no beginning or end. Everything happens in a completely idiotic way. Simplicity is called dada . . . Like everything in life, dada is useless.”

----Tzara (1922)

Marcel Duchamp

Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Glass Wall) (1915-1923)

This panel is the top of a glass box that held notes on the meaning of this work. Duchamp said this work is a “wedding of mental and visual reactions” and “an accumulation of ideas.” What does this suggest about dada?

New Psychology & Arts

Surrealism

Dadism

Expressionism

Surrealism

Movement dedicated to connect conscious and subconscious experiences through art

Breton, “Surrealist Manifesto” (1924) says: The artist is free from reason and

conventional societyDoes Breton’s statement remind you of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment where the “hero” says that an exceptional person is above the law? Do you agree with Breton?

Visionary surrealism

Abstract surrealism

Dreams

Subconscious

Abstract Surrealists

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)Joan Miro (1893-1983)Paul Klee (1879-1940)

NOTE: Although we can talk about categories, many artists (especially artists with long, productive lives, like Picasso), can be considered in more than one category

Pablo Picasso

The Dream, 1932

Some see the right side of the dreamer as the “superego” with the left side of the figure showing the “id”. Do you agree?

What details suggest this dreamer may be a divided self?

Paul Klee

Insula Dulcamara, 1938

Critics say this painting shows a map of the mind, the territory of the unconscious.

Paul Klee

Death and Fire, 1940

Does this painting suggest images from the unconscious? From dreams? Perhaps a nightmare about the war?

Do you agree with the interpretation on the next page?

Paul Klee: Death and Fire (1940)

Source: WebMuseum Paris

Death and Fire (1940) . . . is one of Klee's last paintings. A white, gleaming skull occupies the center, with the German word for death, Tod, forming the features of its face. A minimal man walks towards death, his breast stripped of his heart, his face featureless, his body without substance. Death is his only reality, his facial features waiting there in the grave for him. But there is fire in this picture too: the sun, not yet set, rests on the earth's rim, which is also the hand of death. The upper air is luminous with fire, presenting not an alternative to death, but a deeper understanding of it. The man walks forward bravely, into the radiance, into the light. The cool, grey-green domain of death accepts the fire and offers wry comfort.

Visionary surrealism

Abstract surrealism

Dreams

Subconscious

Visionary Surrealists

Rene Magritte (1898-1967)Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Do these next paintings suggest imagery from dreams?

Rene Magritte

Clairvoyance (Self-Portrait) (1936)

Next: The Lovers I

The artist paints the “vision” of the egg, rather than its “real” shape. In the next painting, what mood is most apparent?

Rene Magritte

Salvador Dali

Crucifixion (Hypercubic Body) (1954)

Dali is well known for his personal symbols used in his paintings. Can you translate any of these symbols?

Women Surrealists

Frida Khalo (1907-1954)Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986)Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985)Hannah Hoch (1889-1978)

photomontage

Frida Kahlo

The Two Fridas (1939)

Kahlo here paints her “divided self” from her German father and Mexican mother, a mixing of European and indigenous traditions. What could the other images in this painting represent?

Frida Kahlo: The Little Deer, 1946

Frida Kahlo

The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, and Senor Xolotl (1949)What repeating shape holds this painting together? The “baby” is the famous Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, Kahlo’s husband. Does this painting have a dreamlike flavor?

Georgia O’Keefe

O’Keefe with pot (1970s)

Georgia O’Keefe

"When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this beautiful country anymore...unless the Indians are right and my spirit will walk here after I'm gone."

Georgia O’Keefe

Red Canna (1923)

What is suggested by the images of this flower? What would Freud say about this painting? What would Jung say?

What’s Next: War Years

Sources...

Mark Harden, The Artchive http://artchive.com Nicolas Pioch, Web Museum, Paris Art Quarter, Joe’s Art Journal The Beat Museum http://beatmuseum.org CGFA and Ellenspace California State University, Hayward Hampden-Turner, Charles. Maps of the Mind.

New York: Mitchell Beazley Publishers, 1986.