Case Study One: Frida Kahlo 2000
The purpose of this thesis is to specify links between psychoanalytic theories and all right art. In this chapter the creative person ‘s Frida Kahlo and Tracey Emin are discussed and compared to see how psychoanalytic attacks differ when employed with modern-day and traditional art.
Frida Kahlo ‘s work is associated with Surrealism, an art motion foremost written about by Andre Breton ; it was founded in 1924 developing from Dadaism and was inspired by the psychoanalytic plants of Freud. In the surrealist pronunciamento Breton identifies the motion as a agency by which the subconscious could be expressed, verbally, written or painted. The surrealists believed that our witting head interferes with the subconscious portion, which is to a great extent based on Freud ‘s theory of the self-importance and the Idaho. The surrealists believed that this is why we have dreams ; when we are asleep the concluding head can non command the subconscious. Surrealism used a method called free association, originally Freud ‘s theory, whereby Freud ‘s patient would automatically state what they are believing, in the instance of an creative person they would paint without believing. Consequently, it seems surrealism is non needfully a manner but a method of painting. By looking at the both Kahlo and Emin, the two can be compared to separate the ways in which depth psychology differs in the opposing manners of work, one of traditional motion and the other a modern-day manner.
Kahlo ‘s work trades with a diverse scope of topics, from her ain individuality and hurting to political relations, the Mexican creative persons ‘ work has been deliberated over by many critics and art historiographers as her oeuvre screens many facets of art. It is difficult to put every bit surrealist as it mixes a universe phantasy with surrealism while besides covering with gender, race and gender. However, it is contended that Kahlo ‘s work does back up psychoanalytical theories as there are many connexions between her work and Freud ‘s work which is a factor that the surrealist motion was to a great extent based upon.
In contrast the work of Tracey Emin does non utilize symbols for her audience to think at, alternatively her work has a really clear and concise in significance, through her extremely personal work she leaves her audience unquestioning with no ambiguity environing it. However, it would be interesting to look at the psychological effects that the production of this type of work may hold on the creative person and to look into how the procedure making art work of such personal nature has any psychological impact. This will enable apprehension of the purposes behind such personal art work ; she articulates inside informations about herself that a bulk of people would instead maintain to themselves. In a similar manner to Kahlo, both creative persons draw on their ain experiences to bring forth art work.
In Kahlo ‘s picture, Tree of Hope ( see figure one ) , she presents the audience with a definite divide between dark and twenty-four hours. This usage of this strongly connote a province of dream, to research R.D Laing ‘s theory of the discorporate ego where the “ single experiences him self as being more or less divorced organize his organic structure ” ( Laing1965:69 ) this applied to Kahlos work suggests that the terrible act of cutting the image into two halves defines the feeling of separation from her witting organic structure. The witness is cognizant of the false ego being portrayed within the image. Harmonizing to Laing such separation denies the discorporate ego of any existent interaction with mundane life. The theory suggests the discorporate ego becomes a witness of the life in which the existent organic structure lives, so hence does non link with any experience the physical organic structure brushs. This psychoanalytical procedure occurs due to emphasize within 1s life that the self-importance can non cover with, the disassociation is the ids manner of protecting the self-importance.
In Kahlo ‘s piece “ Tree of hope ” the picture is “ non clothed in the matter-of-fact linguistic communication normally employed by our ideas… represented symbolically by agencies of similes and metaphors ” ( Freud, 1953:633 ) The image renders narrative, through the twenty-four hours rough world is awakened ; Kahlo collides with a profuseness of hurting, while at dark she is set free from her anguish by her dreams, the subconscious head allows her to get away. The usage of colorss and pick of composing has allowed her to present her innermost anxiousnesss and frights to the audience. These anxiousnesss, harmonizing to Freud, are unpleasant interior province that people seek to avoid, it can move as a signal to the self-importance that things are non traveling right, as worlds we suffer from neurotic, world and moral anxiousnesss, in order to cover with these Freud provinces that we therefore travel into defense mechanism mechanisms that protect the self-importance from struggles caused by the Idaho, the Idaho being the unconscious portion of your encephalon, the self-importance is the witting rational head.
The emphasis caused by day-to-day lives is relevant to Freudian theory of sublimation. In Freud ‘s book “ The self-importance and the Idaho ” ( 1923 ) he established the theory of sublimation through superior acknowledgment and puts frontward that the “ superego is an internal moral bureau of the parents ” ( Wright: 1995 ) . He assumed that there are two separate sets of thrusts, both contained within the head. The inherent aptitudes consist of self-preservation, which is associated with the self-importance ; the 2nd is sexual inherent aptitudes which are associated to the libido or Idaho. These inherent aptitudes direct all human behavior until he generated the being of self-love. These theories differ over the assorted Hagiographas due to the subject and their association to each other. To further this, if Freud ‘s theory about anxiousness is applied to Tracey Emin ‘s work it can be suggested that she goes through the procedure of sublimation ; her work is a healthy redirection of an emotion which is chiefly found through art, it is the procedure of transforming the libido into accomplishments that are accepted by society. Emin ‘s work is similar to Kahlo ‘s in the manner that her ain personal narratives of her organic structure reiterate narratives in the media. Emin expresses in writing descriptions of her most intimate feelings as her work is based entirely on her life experiences.
For illustration, in Emin ‘s work “ The last thing I said to you was do n’t go forth me here ” the audience is confronted with a exposure of a vulnerable miss, who is tucked in a corner of some little hovel, proposing she has been some kind of victim of maltreatment. Lacan ‘s theory of the regard is a theory that can be tested on this exposure, as the set up of composing makes the audience feel as if they are standing behind this bare, vulnerable individual, so the spectator is made to experience as if they are staring upon her, the witnesss take on the function of the Peeping Tom. Emin poses the inquiry, is she the “ object of desire? ” There is a certain sum of sarcasm within the exposure as a bulk of viewing audiences are hardened to the image of bare adult females due to media ; mediated imagination is normally of really confident, provocative adult females, this vexing position unsteadies the spectator due to the uneasy atmosphere. This is because picture taking can in a actual sense turn the pictured individual into an object, which will distance both the spectator and the viewed. With her dorsum to us she incognizant of who is looking, which creates a sense of naivete within the work, so hence the spectator becomes uncomfortable with the function of the Peeping Tom. This work has elusive deductions that are more implicative compared to a bulk of Emin ‘s work which has a great sense of immediateness and provocative substance ; she makes strong statements that judge the regard of society that is put upon adult females.
In contrast Kahlos works show the audience how she gazes upon herself, in theory Kahlo ‘s pictures are able to speak to the spectator as they express something about the creative person ‘s emotions which people can associate to on many degrees, through their personal properties. This supports Derrida ‘s theory of deconstruction, where by deconstruction of a organic structure of text is non merely one, it can hold several different significances, and this theory can be applied to artwork because artwork itself can hold more so one reading. In the essay Derrida two pictures in pigment: a note on art, discourse and the hint, Jeff Collins argues that Derrida “ indicates a certain failure of discourse in the face of graphicss ” ( Holdridge, 2006:213 ) . Collins contends that Derrida ‘s theory suggests art is a confrontational method which challenges anything that refuses to accept or excel it ; the writer denotes artwork that does non hold a duologue to cover with this theory.
Kahlo ‘s work can be contradictory in intending for each spectator ; which can be associated with the impression of decease of the writer ; harmonizing to Barthes, the viewing audiences own beliefs can alter the writers original connotations, the layering of significance can merely be derived from the spectator ‘s point of position, as they will see the work and construe it harmonizing to their ain context, beliefs experiences or personal properties. The spectator needs to be able to put apart the creative person from the work to let go of the reading from any prejudgement. Barthes believe that this is dependent on the witness ‘s experience of Kahlo ‘s work, being a celebrated creative person many people will be familiar with her histories and will deduce an reading from that in itself. However, many audiences are non familiar with the work will read it in an wholly different visible radiation.
Kahlo besides uses messages and paradoxes within her work. In “ The small wounded cervid ” ( see figure four ) she portrays herself as this wounded animate being, which has been shot at by legion huntsmans. The pointers are metaphors for the hurting she feels, in my sentiment this could typify her hurts from her accident or it could stand for enduring from legion letdowns in her life. She appears unagitated, placid and relaxed while she is watched by, what we assume is a huntsman and dripping with blood.
Kahlo was Mexican and they believed that a newborn homo has an carnal opposite number and that individual ‘s destiny was tied to that of the animate being that represents the calendar mark of the twenty-four hours of their birth. So she could be proposing that her carnal opposite number is deceasing and hence metaphorically she is traveling to be rid of the animate being that matches her and through her metempsychosis she will derive a new one. This painting it therefore a representation of her ideas, which is her subconscious, by utilizing dream logic schemes of supplanting and condensation, Kahlo sets out to make a legendary individuality for herself ; the self-portrait accordingly becomes a format for a lampoon of her ain individualism. In my sentiment, surrealism and stand foring the head is hard because it is the unknown, oppugning it and giving possible replies through picture.
Through her art Kahlo is achieving control of herself, she portrays her emotions which attain psychological alleviation. Emin besides has a demand to achieve control would, in Freudian footings this would be classified as a signifier of craze. Hysteria in current psychological footings is described as two classs, one being somatoform whereby mental jobs such as emphasis can do encephalon to experience physical hurting. The 2nd is dissociative which occurrs when a individuals mind can non manage a peculiarly traumatic event. However, in Freudian footings this craze created by the subconsious portion of the head, which was protecting the self-importance from the Idaho. This is besides relevent when looking at Kahlo ‘s work, the subconsious creates this signifier of unreality which is apparent in the pictures. The consecutive lines and defined border to objects of natural enities creates an order, an component of control over something which is non governable.
This can be tested with Deleuze ‘s theory of percept. Harmonizing to Deleuze, art requires “ simple transitions ” whereby the creative person is consciously intelligent and doing determinations about the development of the piece of graphics ; percepts are a psychological imprint of something, for illustration, the manner an single creative person sees one thing will be varied from another. Percepts represent more than determination, they symbolize how the creative person is experiencing about that piece of art at the minute in clip, or the topic which it is based on. Harmonizing to Deleuze the devising of the determination is non every bit of import as transitions, M & A ; uuml ; nter has put boundaries around the manmade objects, the “ transitions… reveal the forces ‘that populate the universe, that affect us, that make us go ‘ ” ( Sutton, 2008:75 ) Kahlo keeps her images separate, in “ Tree of hope ” ( see figure one ) she has a definite divide between dark and twenty-four hours, by making this she accentuates definite boundaries that the colors entirely would non accomplish, this establishes a harsh boarded image with limitations. It shows a definite division between the human and the natural, while turn toing this we may besides see that the creative person may experience the two can non be combined. These percepts besides occur in the plants of Kahlo, “ What Water Gave Me ” ( 1938 ) is a picture of Kahlo ‘s that is peculiarly relevant to Derrida ‘s theory, other so her many self-portraits, within this picture, Kahlo has painted her legs from the bath ‘s point of view, her legs are partly obscured by the bath H2O, and her toes lodge out at the terminal, the picture has an eldritch facet to it, we have all see this point of view so there is a acquaintance to the work. Kahlo is leting her audience to see things from her position. Through the composing we are able to see her ideas swimming about as she contemplates everything that has occurred in her life. The transitions in this piece are life and decease, something that is unmanageable yet is inevitable. “ Everything moves harmonizing to one law-life… Anguish and hurting, pleasance and decease are nil but a procedure in order to be. ” ( Kahlo ) Her written positions are contrasting to that expressed in her pictures. This picture is affectional because it invites the spectator into the work ; in affect the witness completes it. Through this image Kahlo displays herself bare for every one to see ; which adds a certain sarcasm to the picture, as it is about a bare portrayal. In add-on, this painting fits the categorization of Surrealism because she utilizes imagination, which combines dream imagination with world.
In this chapter, the treatment of Kahlos and Emin ‘s work hold given insight into the manner in which psychoanalytical theories can be used in concurrence with graphicss. It defines how the usage of these theories can bring on more deepness into a picture which may non hold had much substance to get down with. This in itself comfirms Deleuzes theory of percept demoing how the creative persons head is both in the existent wold in which the organic structure exists and in the universe of the ego, this theory will be challenged further in correlativity with Cindy Shermans work in the following chapter.
