Modernity and After The Surrealists drew from Freud's concept of the unconscious when making artworks. Critically discuss your understanding of the term ‘unconscious’, incorporating up to six images that deal with the way Surrealists were inspired by Paris as the capital of modernity.
by Irina Csapo
In the beginnings of the 1920's, the artistic community in Paris, the most fashionable capital of Europe, found itself in what constituted the realms of a new type of modern fantasy, enthusiastically called Surrealism. The newly emerged expression of this particular modern art form became by all means a heterogeneous movement, fnding its favour amongst various arts of the century (Briony, 1993). Surrealism, in its ultimate expression, was a movement that sought intellectual mobility and “active commitment to ideals”(Cardinal, 1970, p. 32). Above all, it questioned life and its borders of reality, and it brought in new methods of thinking and behaviours deeply rooted in the notions of the unconsciousness. These new ideas and methods were seen as a righteous attempt to free man from societal bondages and unleash the free and raw powers of creativity to grasp life in a refreshing manner. This is to say that liberty, the most sought after quality of the surrealist concept, could be achieved by acknowledging desire (Cardinal, 1970). My focus in this essay will be cast on some of the most important mechanisms and notions that comprise surrealism, and which will be further illustrated in the criticism of six images. Their selection is rather subjective and they have been chosen for their relevance and beauty of example. “Man, that inveterate dreamer” (Breton, 1969, p. 3) with whatsoever lucidity he has left, must travel back in his childhood, in the times were no boundaries and the “greatest degree of freedom of thought”(p. 4) dwelled harmoniously in his soul. This argument serves to defne the notion of desire, “the expression of man's most personal self” (Cardinal, 1970, p. 35), a central generic term within Surrealism, that explains the forces within man which inhibitions and social-context prevent from being unleashed (Cardinal, 1970). The purest intentions of Surrealism, were, in fact, to celebrate the resurrection of man's desires within his unconscious state to consciousness, in an attempt to rehabilitate man as an integral being, as it was before the Modern Ages, when the logic of emotion was preferred to the logic of idea (p. 36). In their endeavours to give the expression of truth to their art, the surrealists found their inspiration in many of Freud's motifs, more specifcally, the concept of dream and the unconscious (Briony, 1993). Dreams, as a starting point in their art, are what Freud calls “a peculiar state of mental activity and a “liberation of the spirit from the power of external nature and freeing of the 1
soul from the bonds of the senses”(Strachey, 1980, p. 6). Dreaming, as well as other linked phenomena such as day-dreams, slips of the tongue or memory lapses, become the state in which the unconscious is unlocked, a situation not easily attained in waking life (Briony, 1993). “The mind of the man that dreams is fully satisfed by what happens to him”said Breton (1969, p. 13) in the frst Surrealist Manifesto, further positioning dream and reality in contradiction which leads to the concept of an absolute reality, a “surreality”(Breton, 1969, p. 14), perfect to nurture the realms of imagination. Moreover, I strongly approve of what Andre Breton, the leader of the surrealist movement, himself said in his manifesto:“The mind that functions in neutral gear will give the best results”(Cardinal, 1970, p. 122), refers to the raw essences of human creativity, the unconscious unleashed, deciphered and valued for its prized function of liberating man and placing him on a higher evolutionary level. Moreover, to understand the notion of unconscious more clearly, it is important to turn to some of Freud's psycho-analytical theories. The concept of unconscious derives from the idea that powerful mental processes and thoughts within the human psyche are brought to conscious state. The latter is the “surface of the mental apparatus” as Freud himself called it (Strachey, 1960, p. 11). However, the state in which ideas existed before being made conscious is called 'repression' and it is perceived as a resistance to critical analysis (Strachey, 1960). In this sense, I believe, that the unconscious is rather the result of what social and personal limitation are trying to hide, preventing its fourishing into the open state of a freely, unattached human integrity. To illustrate this, I shall speak further on the idea of unconscious, through a personal example: the pure essence of the human psyche, containing all of its thoughts, passions, desires and true habits of manifestation are secluded in a 'cupboard' (a kind of complex structure), with countless drawers, each containing different masks that go with every social situation. The drawers play a symphony of openings according to the rules and guidelines of society, in which the very same masks limit actions and prevent the human psyche to unleash its raw creative essence. This can only lead to the violation of the individual's natural liberties. Certainly, my illustrated example of what unconscious might be, may well be inspired by the surrealists themselves. I believe in this sense that what surrealism truly tried to accomplish is to promote revolt against society's longtime errors of quieting freedom, correcting these and changing the universal man through new modes of thought and behaviour. Furthermore, it is important to mention that surrealism has established its own aesthetics, by putting beauty at the core of its newly emerged philosophy of freedom, through which beauty translates as a 'purely affective' response to phenomena. It is not a quality to be savoured in intellectual isolation, but it becomes a kind of 'psychic disorientation', in short, Breton refers to 'convulsive beauty' that comes as a response to the provocation of the marvellous, the perverse, the erotic and the enigmatic (Cardinal, 1970). Lautreamont's defnition of beauty - “ Beauty as the unexpected meeting, on a dissection table, of a sewing machine and of an umbrella ”(Waldberg, 1965 p. 24-25), comes to serve the surrealists' conclusion, especially Breton's concept of 'le merveilleux' (1969 p. 14), that which both provokes and satisfes. This argument comes as an extension of the 'hasard objectif' (an objective chance), that comes in response to an open state of mind, where the 2
unconscious of desire resonates. The validity of the 'hasard objectif' is gratifed by Love, the privilege of Chance, which from this point on, surrealism puts forward the cult of feminine beauty, inseparable from the erotic, one of the most 'convulsive' surrealist themes (Cardinal, 1970). Certainly, this is the case of Breton's book Nadja, where he speaks about the very objective chance when he meets the woman of his dreams. Nadja represents the promise of love, brought forward by the notion of desire emerging from Breton's fantasy. He meets Love while walking aimlessly on the streets of Paris, an activity often characteristic to the “faneurs” of that time, bohemians turned observers on the streets of Paris. The very defnition of what 'faneur' constitutes resumes another central philosophical theme preferred by the surrealists, surrendering to the danger of the endless possibilities (Briony, 183). This is the act of observing and walking submissively amidst the cityscape reality of Paris, as an inspirational reality vortex where the faneur is waiting for something to happen, an outer shock, triggered by chance, that in its echo will ultimately release the unconscious barriers. Another interesting aspect of the surrealism movement that captivated my interest was the common belief of the century, that women were an icon for hysteria, as it was claimed that they had a weak neurological system and were more prone to emotional outbursts (Montagu, 2002). This elevated the feminine symbol in surrealism, as women were closer to a state of madness and to the unconscious. Following the path of woman-madness-chance-unconscious, it is also worth mentioning that the art of the lunatics, “victims of their own imagination”(Breton, 1969, p. 5) was very much preferred by surrealists in a similar manner, as they believed that these were more closely situated at the state of liberated unconscious. A fragment from Novalis magnifcently illustrates the aforementioned: “There exist great resemblances between madness and enchantment. The enchanter is the artist of madness” (Waldberg, 1965, p. 27). Next, my endeavours will turn to illustrating the above mentioned ideas of the unconscious through the critical analysis of six images, with the ultimate goal to carry the reader into the depths of surrealism and its fascinating riddles.
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The frst image to focus upon is that of Andre Masson's Gradiva. Painted in 1939, it is one of the artists works that follows the theme of metamorphosis (Briony, 1993). At a frst glance, the image represented in a fractured, cubist manner, portrays the body of a female fgure, a morbid combination between half-fesh and half-statue. It becomes the contradiction between material and spirit, the very struggle between reality and dream, a theme so dear to surrealists. It represents the confict between conscious and unconscious, where the divided female strives to fnd its way out, to the very thought of liberation and elevation of spirit. The inside of what has to be her body, is positioned at the centre of the painting, as to where the viewer's eyes should lay their attention upon. The torso is turned toward the viewer, in an attempt to subtract him from his own reality, replacing it with a shocking new one, in an attempt to seduce him with the convulsiveness of this peculiar beauty. The painting does indeed animate the concept of convulsive beauty, as the body seems to ache and to convulse in a mentally ill reality. The powerful red paint that Masson used, suggests the very level of unconscious in which passions and desires evolve, all combined with the orange splashes in the centre of the image, that seem to resemble an ardent fame of confict and tension. The poppy fowers and closed eyes of the female body come to bring the notion of meditation and dream, so characteristic of surrealist movement. La spectre du gardenia by the poet and artist Marcel Jean, is the second image I have chosen to discuss. The sculpture,'the object of desire' is a cast of Houdon's bust of Madame du Barry covered with fakes of black wool powder where its eyes are replaced with zips. As the artist himself stated, the French term for zip, 'fermeture eclair', reminded him of the expression 'des yeux qui lancent des eclair', meaning 'fashing eyes', certainly a feature emphasized by the fact that the circular holes in the zips resemble the pupils (Wood, 2007). When moved around, the zips create an expression on the face and once unlocked two miniature photographs of a star and a face are revealed. This comes as to say, that vision, carries the man's unquenched thirst for spectacle and beauty.“The eyes exist in a savage state�Breton says (Krauss, 1985, p. 20), as the lenses of the human's consciousness is an outward projection tool toward the inner hidden unconsciousness. The flm wrapped around the neck was intended to suggest old-fashioned celluloid collars. Initially, Jean's fgure was named 'La secret du gardenia', however, a misprint in the exhibition catalogue transformed 'secret' into 'spectre', adding the element of chance to the object, a quality so highly-prised by the surrealists. 4
The third image that comes to my attention, is Raoul Ubac's The Battle of Amazons. The work represents a complex and ambitious photomontage, in which the artist is assaulting the body, thus trying to animate it, raising it from the depths of the human unconscious. The image represents the result of solarization, a technique frequently used by the artist, and which generates an optical reorganization of the contours of objects (Krauss, 1985, p. 70). Moreover, solarization in this case, results in portraying a certain type of tension, which is spread around on the surface of the image, building confictual relationships between light and shadows. Indeed, this suggests the symbols of conscious and unconscious, which gradually reverse themselves into a neurotic game of hide and seek. Shadows that decapitate bodies and lights that burn limbs, submerse themselves into a claustrophobic space, where the individiual seeks to escape. The feshy cluster of bodies, gives a certain spatial ether, that awaits to consume the matter, in a representation of the over-turning and shifting reality, stressed out by surrealist psychic states: reverie, dream, unconscious. It seems that in this image, the whole repressed madness of the human mind, comes to explode as an emotional bomb, and its severed human parts will hit the viewer's reality, in a most desperate effort to affect his soul. The fourth image that I would like to emphasize upon is one of Man Ray's most known photograph, a portrait of Marquise Casati, a prominent celebrity of Paris, the capital of modernity. It shows her face in double exposure and tripled eyes, and then again doubled both in negative and positive prints. The portrait is set to operate to three transparent levels: it is a casually fashionable portrait, which is 'subtly depersonalized' and abstracted. Lastly, it is a technically manipulated and distorted image of a woman's face (Livingstone, 1985). The levels harmoniously combine with each other into what Man Ray himself has stated of the photograph: “It might have passed for a surrealist version of 5
Medusa�(Livingstone, 1985, p. 135). Truly, the portrait, which impresses in its mythological element, does transcend over to the viewer, in an attempt of hypnotize him. This is what in fact, the image portrays: a multi-layered human mind, doubled, tippled, or perhaps, multiplied by infnity in its unconscious state of dream. Indeed, through the technique of hypnosis, may the unconscious reveal itself, in a hallucinatory reality, freed from society's impurities and limitations. Reality is almost nonexistent in this picture, as everything suggests, it is a meta-reality, passed from the conscious level to that of the dream state, which gathers the ongoing quality of lunacy in its imagination. My interpretation is also enforced by this Man Ray quote: “For me there's no difference between dream and reality. I never know if what I'm doing is done when I'm dreaming or when I'm awake� ( Heiting, 2008, p. 137). Celebes, 1921, by Max Ernst is a personal favourite image of mine and through the present discourse I fnd the perfect opportunity to talk about it. It represents two of the most beloved themes of the surrealists, dream and night, dominated by a large monstrous presence, halfelephant and half-machine. Just like in the previous pictures, this too, portrays a tension between the real and imaginary, and in which the presence of reality is translated within the machine part of the dreamscape. The large form, round and deemed bloated, might suggest the very unconscious, rich in creative juices and essences that the female statuesque body awaits to grab from the long horned head. Still, the cold blue of the monstruous form, exudes a threatening atmosphere, that perhaps come from Ernst own dramatic experiences at the German frontline, in the First World War (Montagu, 2002). Fuming trails emerge from the clouded sky, which suggest the shattered dreams through the crashing planes. At the top of the monster's body, there hides an eye, like a periscope, observing perhaps the inner sight of the unconscious mind. Also, the transition between day and night, within twilight, is another central surrealist theme, which marks the transition from the waking world to dream when ordinary objects begin to transform into the unconscious mind. In the same way, the female headless statue, allures the monster further into the realms of fantasy.
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Finally, one of Hans Bellmer's Doll, the last image of the series to be analysed, comes as a catharsis, as a purifcation of the conscious mind, by returning to the concept of childhood, as stated in the beginnings of the essay. Hans Bellmer's somewhat perverted childhood by his cousin Ursula (Schiffman, 1985) has made him create photographs which are an absolute celebration of the never-ending childhood, to which the artist constantly returns. However, at a deeper glance, one may very well notice that this is not a joyful childhood, but rather a representation of it, as a desperate effort to revive it and thus, call upon the unconscious state to take over. Naturally, the childhood, in its most purest sensations, remains dead and silent, as a horrifc dream. The disfgured torso of the macabre mannequin, remains in fxed position, like it has died just a few minutes ago in exhaustion of climbing the stairs. This points out at the human unconscious that tries to elevate and liberate itself from within the human spirit. Still, the shadows and harsh lights of the stairs, a parallel perhaps to societal contexts and limitations, prevent it from emerging to the surface, at the top of all the individual liberties. The sleeping fgure also designates the state of dream in which unconscious takes its toll upon the mundane norms of reality. All in all, the surrealism imagery acts on the mind to a very subtle level just as much as drugs do, and as Andre Breton has said in his Manifesto, it can push man to certain 'frightful revolts' (1969, p. 36). Moreover, the surrealist images are much the same as opium: the man does not need to evoke them, but they appear to him spontaneously, in the most convulsive way, as surrealist beauty does, in an effort to change his sensibilities. Still, what Michel Beajour calls“ the passionate quest for the virtual powers of humanity”(Cardinal, 1970, p. 151) the original ambition of surrealism, that of 'changing life' and society altogether through its revolt against the conscious mechanisms of the mundane reality, still await to be fulflled. Nonetheless, surrealism has brought enough quantifable evidence within its quest for man's creative powers, the potential to remodel the world after its desires and to free man's spirit over its limitations. Although, the power to impose itself is mellowed out in contrast to its evidence, Breton's legacy continues even to this day:“ Surrealism is that which will be”(Cardinal, 1970, p. 152).
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Bibliography: • • • • • • • • • •
Fer, Briony et al., (1993). Surrealism, Myth and Psychoanalysis in Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism. London: Yale/The Open University, pp. 170-247. Breton, Andre, (1969). Manifestoes of Surrealism. United States of America: University of Michigan Press. Montagu, Jemima, (2002). The Surrealists: Revolutionaries in Art & Writing 1919-35. London: Tate Trustees. Krauss R., Livingstone J. and Schiffman W., (1985). L'Amour fou: Photography and Surrealism. New York: Cross River Press, Ltd. Wood, Ghislain, (2007). Surreal Things. South Kensington: V&A Publications. Cardinal, Roger, (1970). Surrealism: Permanent revelation. London: Studio Vista. Waldberg, Patrick, (1965). Surrealism. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd. Heiting, Manfred, (2008). Man Ray. Paris: Taschen. Strachey, James, (1960). Sigmund Freud: The Ego and the Id. New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Strachey, James, (1980). Sigmund Freud: On Dreams. New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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