Psychological Aesthetics: Painting, Feeling and Making Sense PDF
Preview Psychological Aesthetics: Painting, Feeling and Making Sense
Psychological Aesthetics Psychological Aesthetics Painting, Feeling and Making Sense David Maclagan Jessica Kingsley Publishers London and Philadelphia Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproducedinanymaterialform (includingphotocopyingorstoringitinanymediumbyelectronicmeansandwhetheror nottransientlyorincidentallytosomeotheruseofthispublication)withoutthewritten permissionofthecopyrightownerexceptinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988orunderthetermsofalicenceissuedbythe CopyrightLicensingAgencyLtd,90TottenhamCourtRoad,London,EnglandW1T4LP. Applicationsforthecopyrightowner’swrittenpermissiontoreproduceanypartofthis publicationshouldbeaddressedtothepublisher. Warning:Thedoingofanunauthorisedactinrelationtoacopyrightworkmayresultin bothacivilclaimfordamagesandcriminalprosecution. TherightofDavidMaclagantobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeenassertedby himinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. FirstpublishedintheUnitedKingdomin2001by JessicaKingsleyPublishers 116PentonvilleRoad LondonN19JB,UK and 400MarketStreet,Suite400 Philadelphia,PA19106,USA www.jkp.com Copyright©2001DavidMaclagan LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData ACIPcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Maclagan,David Psychologicalaesthetics:painting,feelingandmakingsense 1.Aesthetics2.Arttherapy3.Psychoanalysisandart I.Title 616.8’91656 ISBN1853028347 ISBN-13:9781853028342 ISBN-10:1853028347 PrintedandBoundinGreatBritainby AthenaeumPress,Gateshead,TyneandWear Contents Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 ChapterOne: TheRiseandFallof theAesthetic 17 ChapterTwo: TheSplitbetweenInnerandOuter WorldsandtheImpoverishmentof PsychologicalLife 33 ChapterThree: FromIconographytoEmbodiment 47 ChapterFour: FromInarticulatetoAestheticForm 61 ChapterFive: Aesthetics,BeautyandSoul 71 ChapterSix: ArtTherapyandtheTherapyof Art 81 ChapterSeven: TowardsaNewPsychologicalAesthetics 99 ChapterEight: PuttingAestheticandPsychological QualitiesintoWords 111 Conclusion 129 References 145 SubjectIndex 151 NameIndex 155 Acknowledgements Insomewaysthisbookhasbeenwrittenfromapositionof isolation;notjustin termsofhavingtoredefinewhatmightbemeantby‘aesthetic’and‘psychological’ againstthegrainofcurrentpreconceptions,butalsointhesensethattheconstitu- encyIamappealingtoseemsasyetbarelyvisible.Icaughtglimpsesofitinthework oftheLondonConviviumforArchetypalStudies,begunbyNoelCobbandthelate Eva Loewe, with its passionate insistence on the links between art, beauty and soul-making;butsometimesthisfelttooelegant,toowellcomposed.IknewthatI was looking for something else; something inarticulate and anarchic that also refusedtheall-embracingedictsofpsychoanalysis.Thebenefitofthisisperhapsa degreeofindependencefromanyparticularschoolofthought;thedrawback,that someofmyownideasmayseemabittoospeculativeorunformed. However, a glance at the contents will show that certain writers have been sourcesofexcitementandchallengetome:AntonEhrenzweig,JamesHillman(in personaswellasonthepage),Jean-FrançoisLyotardandMauriceMerleau-Ponty.I wouldalsoliketosalutearecentlyrecognisedkindredspirit,JamesElkins. MuchofthematerialinthisbookderivesfromteachingtheMAinArtandPsy- chotherapyattheCentreforPsychotherapeuticStudies,UniversityofSheffield.Iam grateful to John Henzell, my collaborator on this course, and above all to the students who over half a dozen years encouraged me and helped me further my thinkingbeforethecoursewascloseddown.IalsooweadebttoLinneyWixandthe arttherapystudentsattheUniversityofNewMexico,whoinvitedmeovertotalk aboutpsychologicalaestheticsin1996.Ihavealsolearnedagreatdealfromthe patients I worked with earlier as an art therapist in Broomhills therapeutic community. Other friends and colleagues who have encouraged me or helped me in my thinking, sometimes without knowing it, include: Iain Biggs, Neil Bolton, Peter Byrne,RogerCardinal,ClaytonEshleman,AngelaHeskett,SeanHomer,Howard McGoneghy,MichaelEdwards,MichaelGinsborg,SimonLewty,StephenNewton, Michael Podro, Genviève Roulin, Rita Simon and Michel Thévoz. Clayton EshlemanandGregoryCorsoalsoneedtobethankedfortheirkindpermissionto reproducetheircopyrightmaterial. Last,butmostimportantofall,IwouldliketoacknowledgehowmuchIhave beenformedandnourishedbytheexperienceofpainting,bothasanartistinmy ownstudio,asaworkshopleaderandasavisitortoallkindsofmuseums,galleries, exhibitionsandstudios.Inaveryrealsensepaintinghaskeptmealive. The publishers acknowledge permission to quote from the following copyright source: ‘TheCircleofStyles’,byRitaSimon,reproducedonp.94,fromTheSymbolism ofStyle:ArtasTherapy(Routledge,1992).Reproducedbykindpermissionof theAuthorandRoutledge,London. 6 Introduction What does ‘psychological aesthetics’ mean? Although the term may be unfamiliar, it refers to the relation between the actual (aesthetic) qualities of painting,suchasline,colour,handling,compositionandsoonandtheinner (psychological)effectsthatthesehaveonthespectator.‘Aesthetic’inthissense isgroundedinthematerialpropertiesofpainting,ratherthanreferringtosome disembodiedrealmofjudgementsaboutbeautyortruth.‘Psychological’also refers to a somewhat different range of experience from the traditional psychologyofperception.Hereitsuggeststhecomplexandshiftingarrayof sensations, feelings, fantasies, thoughts and other less easily categorisable eventsofmentallifethataccompanyallourperceptions,whetherweareaware ofthemornot.Thisissomethingthatcouldbecalledthe‘psychologicallining of experience’. Suchreverberationsareinevidencewhereverartreproducessomelifeevent or situation of human interest, most obviously in the narratives of literature, dramaorfilm.Butitisalsopresenteveninpassagesofapparentlyinertdescrip- tion, and this is especially true for painting. Certain landscapes or still lives, even though they seem to have the same immediacy and transparency as language,stillofferasourceofpleasureinthevisualillusiontheyprovide.Even themostfactualorimpassiveofsuchrepresentationsstillcarriesapsycholog- ical lining: the scrupulous, glassy neutrality of a Saenredam interior or a Canalettoview,forexample,conveysacertaincooldetachmentand‘objectiv- ity’whichhasitsownpsychologicalnuances. Hence, no matter how realistic a painting is or how impressive its sub- ject-matter,itisneversimplyasouvenirorrecreationoftheoriginalmoments whenthispsychologicalliningofexperiencewasfelt:ittranslatesandintensi- fiestheminitsownparticularways.Thesedependcruciallyontheaesthetic qualitiesofpaintingmentionedabove.Forexample,VanGoghwroteinaletter abouttheskyofhis‘Sower’(1888)asfollows:‘Theskychromeyellow,almost asbrightasthesunitself,whichischromeyellow1withalittlewhite,while therestoftheskyischromeyellow1and2mixed.Thusveryyellow.’Inthe sameletterhegoesontosay:‘Therearemanytouchesof yellowinthesoil, 7 8 / PSYCHOLOGICALAESTHETICS neutraltonesproducedbymixingpurplewiththeyellow,butIcouldn’tcare lesswhatthecoloursareinreality’(quotedGayfordandWright1999,p.380). The psychological lining of experience is not only altered by its material translation into paint: the actual aesthetic features of a painting – such as its pressure of line, density of colour, coherence or incoherence of form – have theirownindependentpsychologicalcontributiontomake. Psychologicalaestheticsisthefieldinwhichwhatwestudyaretheinterac- tionsbetweenpaintingatthelevelof‘facture’(handling)andthe‘feeling’or makingsensethatitpromptsinus.However,thisinteractionisnotassimpleas itissometimesmadeouttobe:thetrafficbetweenapaintingandthespectator isnotone-way.Conventionalassumptionsaboutcommunicationorexpression inartassumethatapaintingtransmitsanalreadyestablishedmessagetousand thatweregisterthismoreorlesssuccessfully.Butperceptionalwaysinvolvesa complexinteractionbetweenviewersandwhatthey‘see’,andourexperience ofpaintingsenhancessuchreactions.Infactpaintingscanbesaidtofunction as‘condensers’of suchinteractions. A still-life by Bonnard, for example, can play them back to us in slow motionbyinviting(orsometimesforcing)ustotryandaccommodatethedis- crepanciesbetweenthefamiliarityofitssubjectandtheactualpassagesofpaint thatrefusetocorrespondinastraightforwardwaytoitsdetails.Thisillegibility may only appear on closer inspection, when we begin to notice all kinds of crazylocaladventuresinBonnard’suseoflineandcolour.Tosomeextentthese echo,orevoke,acorrespondinglydeliciousuncertaintyaboutourperception of equivalentscenesinreallife. Even in the case of more comfortably representational works, there is an alternation between ‘seeing through’ a painting, to what it represents, and making the painting itself the focus of our attention.1 Painting that draws attention to its ‘facture’ or material handling, dramatises its aesthetic effects, andcertainkindsofabstractpainting,suchasAbstractExpressionism,might be said to do this exclusively. These exchanges between spectators and the painting they are feeling their way into often take place at a largely uncon- scious level: we may register various effects without being aware of how we cametoexperiencethem.Thissubliminaldimensionofaestheticexperienceis somethinglargerandmorediffusethanwhatisusuallyunderstoodby‘uncon- scious’initspsychoanalyticsense(asweshallseeinChapterTwo).Totryto explorethisdomain,totuneintoitscomplexitiesandtograpplewiththediffi- culties of ‘making sense’, is to be engaged in what I shall call the ‘creative reception’ofpainting,asopposedtoamorepassiveassimilationorenjoyment ofit.2Itshouldbeclearbynowwhysuchcreativereceptionhastobeintimately involvedwithpsychologicalaesthetics. INTRODUCTION / 9 Mentionoftheword‘aesthetic’conjuresup,however,allsortsofprejudices andresistancesandtapsintoawidespreadsuspicionof theterm.Itisaword that has acquired notoriously abstract and sophisticated connotations; it is associated with philosophical or critical debates that often seem rarified or pedantic.Inthehistoryofaesthetics,fromPlatoonward,thevalueandpurpose ofartdependeduponitsrelationtobeautyandtotruth.Thisrelationwasoften problematic:theverysortsofaestheticqualitiesuponwhichIshallbeconcen- tratinginthisbookweresuspectpreciselyonaccountof theircloseinvolve- mentwithmatterandthesenses. Tomakemattersmoredifficult,beautyitselfhas,inthehistoryofartsince the Renaissance, been progressively re-visioned. There has been an increas- ingly contradictory relationship between conventional norms of beauty and worksofartthatseektochallengeorrefusethem.InMannerism,forexample, establishedstylesofrepresentationandexpressionweredeliberatelydistorted orexaggerated. By the mid-nineteenth century notions of beauty in art were effectively dividedbetweenacademicandsentimentalstereotypesandamoreoriginalor avant-gardeartinwhichadegreeofstrangenessorevenshockwasanecessary ingredientfortruebeauty.Thehistoryoftheword‘bizarre’isinstructivewith regardtothis.IntheearlyRenaissance‘bizarre’wasassociatedwithsenseless madness;lateritcametodenotetheeccentric,andeventuallyitbecameaquint- essential sign of creativity. By the 1850s it had acquired a crucial aesthetic status.Baudelaire,forexample,claimedthat: The beautiful is always bizarre.[…] Now how could this bizarreness – necessary, irreducible, infinitely varied, and determined by milieu, climate, custom,race,religionandtheartist’stemperament–everbecontrolledbythe Utopianrulesthatareconceivedinsomeordinarylittlescientifictempleon thisplanet,withoutmortaldangertoartitself?(quotedGilman1988,p.241) It is only a few steps from this cult of the bizarre to more extreme or even perverseformsof beautywhichareboundtohavepathologicalundertones. The‘aesthetic’effectsofarthaveineffectcometobeincreasinglyseparable fromanymoralpurposetheymightbesupposedtohave.Instead,theseeffects canbesaidtobelongtoarealmwhichisasmuchoneof‘feeling’,inbothits emotionalanditssensuousforms,asoftruthorpropriety.Thisnewterritoryof aestheticexperiencetouchesonstrangeandextremeformsofhumanpsycho- logicalexperience,oftenoutsidethenorm. Indeed,inthemoreprovocativeformsofso-called‘decadent’artitseemsas ifartistsaredeliberatelyfloutingtheconventionsthatlinkaestheticattraction and moral effect (a recent, equally deliberate, reversal of this can be seen in
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