Monday, December 26, 2011

Art as Psychology

By John Lewis


On the necessity to differentiate between the structural and practical aspects of the psychology of art...

The psychology of art is a fancy matter and this description serves only as an introduction to a 'growing' discipline of study. Psychology types the idea of many features of life and art or expression of art in any form and especially through sculpture and painting is also primarily based on psychological theories and understanding. The relation between psychology and art is almost inevitable; there will be no art with out psychology and vice versa. The artist begins with a blank canvas on which he/ she initiatives his or her personal psychological being and art stays because the medium of such projection. Thus art can finest be defined as a medium through which an artist or creative individual initiatives his or her emotions and frustrations and deeper psychological necessities. This way art is intricately linked to psychology. But the psychology of art as a formal self-discipline has not found intensive recognition and has only very lately gained recognition in western universities.

The psychology of art is nonetheless an enchanting discipline of research as it analyzes the core of creativity and offers explanation for the psychological processes of the artist in particular and the creative individual in general. But apparently, psychology of art is not just limited to understanding the psychological processes of the artist but in addition the psychological processes involved in perceiving the art. Thus a psychology of art offers explanation and understanding of the phenomena of creativity, the psychological processes of the artist, as well as the thought processes of the perceiver. It is complete in its strategy not only due to its range of explanation but in addition as a result of art psychology involves explanations from completely different branches of psychology resembling Gestalt psychology of perception, psychology of form and performance/order and complexity, Jungian psychoanalysis, the psychology of attention and Experimental psychology as well as Freudian symbolism.

The psychology of art is interdisciplinary, successfully integrating art, structure, philosophy (metaphysics and phenomenology), aesthetics, research of consciousness, visual perception, and psychoanalysis. From philosopher John Dewey to psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, intellectuals of the 20th century influenced the emergence of a psychology of art that seemed to have moved past the thoughts processes of the artist to incorporate the method of creation and in addition its perception examining art from organic, social, psychological and philosophical perspectives. Dewey and Jung both influenced the research of art within social and cultural contexts and are largely liable for the understanding of art in its current form.

Art is obviously a creative course of and is thus a deep psychological course of as well. Art could well be explained with the speculation of perception and as a cognitive process. The Gestalt concept of visual perception would provide one of the foremost explanations on art creation and perception. The Gestalt theorists have been the 20th century psychologists who systematically studied perceptual processes in people and a number of the well-known Gestaltists have been Wolfgang Khler, Kurt Koffka, Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Lewin. The rules of perception as given in Gestalt psychology centered on proximity or contiguity, similarity, continuity, closure, area/symmetry and figure and ground.

Thus Gestalists described perception as a process that involved not simply the object but also the context as perception of objects is affected by what surrounds these objects so to Gestaltists, things are all the time 'greater than the sum of their parts'. As art can also be primarily about perception, our perception of any art object would depend upon these Gestalt ideas as effectively and we are inclined to see continuity or closure or even perceive movement in static objects. Gestalt psychology has been used extensively to explain and perceive 'visual illusions'. For example, objects which are located closer to each other might be perceived as forming a group. In the event you've seen some of these pictures that designate the ideas of Gestalt, you will shortly perceive that there is extra to art than simple brush strokes; art is as a lot a technique of perception (including phantasm) as it's a technique of creation. If an artist efficiently creates a visual phantasm, he's nearly like a magician. Yet art has a number of dimensions in its study and clarification and from Gestalt understanding of type and construction that gives a 'structural' clarification of the organizational ideas of art, we now have to know the 'practical' features of art as well. This in turn is offered by psychoanalysis and symbolism.

Within the early 20th century Sigmund Freud pioneered the study of artwork in its psychoanalytic kind by considering the artist as essentially a neurotic who deals along with his psychic pressures and conflicts through his inventive impulses. Freud was interested within the 'content material' or subject material of artwork that mirrored the inner conflicts and repressed wishes of the artist and artwork to Freud as to any psychoanalyst at present is considered as essentially a projection of the artist's mind and thought process. Freud believed that unconscious needs and fantasies of the artist makes way from the interior and manifests as the exterior on canvas through art. Thus if an artist fantasizes about beautiful virtuous women, he paints angels in heaven as a kind of 'sublimation' of his deeper wish. Thus any artwork work is immediately related to the artist's inner world and his unconscious areas of the mind.

One college of art that was straight influenced by the Freudian concept and straight manifests the unconscious is Surrealism which began within the early 20th century, initially as an offshoot of a cultural movement, Dadaism. Surrealism emphasizes on the combination of art and life and with psychoanalytic influences focuses on the unconscious desires. From the psychology of Jacques Lacan to the philosophy of Hegel, Surrealism was largely shaped by philosophy, psychology and cultural changes and has been probably the most revolutionary movements within the historical past of art.

A few of its well-known proponents have been Andr Breton and more lately Salvador Dali. In reality Dali's work could possibly be seen as almost a visual illustration of Freud's emphasis on dream analysis, unconscious wishes as well as hallucinations and free association. Sexual symbolism, an necessary part of Freudian analysis has been extensively used by surrealists. Freud and surrealism highlighted a closer link between madness, sexuality and art but this kind of portrayal met with some opposition as well. Alternatively, Carl Jung's psychoanalysis and emphasis on art as a form of cultural expression was more acceptable to some artists and Jung stays as essentially the most influential psychoanalyst in art historical past along with his optimistic and constructive portrayal of art. In response to Jung, art and different types of creative endeavor could entry the 'collective unconscious' and supply considerable insights on not just the method of creativity but in addition the cultural components within the thoughts that are carried across generations. In Jungian psychology art as a psychological course of can be an assimilation of the cultural experiences of the artist so it's accessible to an wider community.

Thus the psychology of artwork as it develops to a significant self-discipline and area of study may very well be thought-about as having two distinct branches -

o Structural Psychology of Art - that which emphasizes on the 'structural' features of perceiving art through form, group as understood with Gestalt rules and basic emphasis on construction, also with the rules of physiology and visual perception

o Functional Psychology of Art - that which emphasizes on art as a artistic process representing the 'practical' aspects or mental dynamics of the artist, the content reasonably than the form and could be understood with the insights of psychoanalysis and phenomenology.

The structural department relates mainly to the perceiver and the method of perception of art and the practical department pertains to the artist and the method of creation of art. Each these dimensions can be equally necessary and complement each other in a complete conceptual psychology of art.




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