Narcissism and Hysteria

According to Jacque Lacan, a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, in his seminar text The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, paintings have the ability to speak specifically to the audience in the imaginary order, and so to the inner narcissistic ego. Thus for his own stated question "What is a picture?", he gives the response similar to Freud: it is a sublime composition of the unconscious into a socially acceptable and profitable stream. 'Broadly speaking, one can say that the work calms people, comforts them, by showing them that at least some of them can live from exploitation of their desire. [...] It elevates the mind, as one says, that is to say it encourages renunciation' (Lacan, 1973, p.111). So the artwork's function can be described as a space where the public can go to recognize itself, look for narratives and ideology to be reflected back at it. Referring to the above, the aim of painting, as Lacan states, is a 'certain dompte-regard, a taming of the gaze, that is to say, that he who looks is always led by the painting to lay down his gaze' (ibid, p.109). Paintings typically provide a form of pleasure by serving as mirrors to the ego, reflecting back at it an image of its own satisfied fullness and completion.

Although, Lacan straight after his statement suggests that there is an art movement that does not follow such theory at all. 'Expressionist painting, and this is its distinguishing feature, provides something by way of a certain satisfaction [...] of what is demanded by the gaze' (Lacan, 1973, p.101). Lacan in this suggestion opposes 'a taming of the gaze' (ibid, 109) to a 'quite direct appeal to the gaze' of the Expressionism (ibid, 109). In light of this, satisfying the gaze means eventually frustrating the human eye, and so the narcissism of the ego. For Lacan, painters of the Expressionism movement can easily frustrate our narcissism by representing their own point of view instead. They let their artistic hysteria hit the audience's gaze.

As it was mentioned earlier, hysteria was a term where several modernist movements in the beginning of 20th century could overlap. In the number of such movements where Expressionism and Surrealism that described hysteria as one of the key concepts. Both movements were interested in bringing to light the hidden world of unconscious desires, in focusing on instances of psychic and social failure, where law falter or break down. As an example of this can be Andre Breton's, the founder of Surrealist ideology, celebration of Nadja's madness, which eventually brought her to the asylum; it was exposed in Breton's "Nadja" (1928). It proves Surrealists interest in hysteria. In a two-page spread commemorating the "Fiftieth anniversary of hysteria"; in La Revolution Surrealiste in 1928, Breton and Aragon had written: 'Hysteria is by no means a pathological symptom and can in every way be considered a supreme form of expression' (no.11, p.20).

Edvard Munch and Separation

The late nineteenth-century Norwegian Post-Impressionist painter Edvard Munch emerged as an important source of inspiration for the Expressionists. His vibrant and emotionally charged works opened up new possibilities for introspective expression. In particular, Munch's frenetic canvases expressed the anxiety of the individual within the newly modernized European society. By 1905 Munch's work was well known within Germany and he was spending much of his time there as well, putting him in direct contact with the Expressionists. He is one of the handful of artists who have shaped our understanding of human experience and transformed the ways in which it might be visually expressed.

Fig.1 Separation, 1896

I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.”
- Edvard Munch

In Edvard Munch's pictures of 1890s the repetition of images, juggling them in various combinations in order to symbolize different human conditions and relations (A. Clarke, 2009). These include columns of light on the sea, blond young woman in a white dress on the beach, the lustful woman in red, the older woman in black, the image of the suffering man and others. Here he illustrates the man's sorrow at parting from his love - the end of the story begun in The Kiss (1897). As in other paintings, Separation(Fig.1, 1896) is a harmonized combination of two story lines, both represent characters that fulfill each other and help the viewer understand the narrative. The objective on the foreground is the protagonist that that can me both frontal and active, as here, or in profile and contemplative, and the subjective in the background, the image of the past in his or her mind's eye. The brokenhearted man seems to be leaving to the side, showing his pale face painted with green oil colour, and holding his hand to his chest where the heart is placed, painted with blood-red paint. These two colours are abundant in Munch's works and might be interpreted as colours of anxiety or depression and pain accordingly.

Second central figure in the painting is the silhouette of a woman in bright white dress seems to be a vision or even a thought of the man as the contours of her dress and hair are undefined and are floating through the canvas and might be either coming out of the male character's head, or, otherwise, caress him as a symbolization of a looped memory.

The man seem to be moving aside, to the future, but his path is blocked by the crimson plant, again possibly intended as a mandrake, with its love and death symbolism. He seems trapped in the present, in a heartbreaking memory.

It is not the only painting where Edvard Munch uses the characters with such appearance. As it was outlined earlier, he used to repeat the same pictures in different combinations and compositions to create a concept of the depth of human emotions and relations. Familiar characters to the ones in Separation can be found in his other well-known works as Young Woman in Three Stages (Fig.2, 1895) and Woman on the Beach (Fig.3, 1896).

Fig.2 Woman in Three Stages (1896)

The usage of green and red hues is also a repeating feature of a number of Munch's works. In both his masterpieces The Scream (Fig.4, 1895) and The Anxiety (Fig.5, 1894) he uses the same composition and the highlighted colours to enhance the dark repressing atmosphere of paintings. In The Anxiety Munch repeats closely many elements of The Scream. The same jetty that accommodated a single alienated personage appears again, as do the lake in the distance, the two boats, the church, and other structures that line the shore just a little less dimly than before. They are all quoted from the earlier work, as are the gloomy hues and the intense swirls of concentrically enlarging lines that define and ultimately embrace land, sea, and sky.

Fig.5 The Anxiety (1894)

From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.”
- Edvard Munch

Expressionism was a movement defined by freedom and self expression a way for artists to express their feelings not directly but through art. Expressionism was an important movement in the arts as it created and developed into many different art movements and has and still inspires many artists. Such artists as it was Edvard Munch left the priceless cultural heritage to the modern society.

Images

Figure 1. Separation (1896), oil on canvas, 96.5x127cm

Image from: http://www.edvardmunch.org/separation.jsp#

Figure 2: Woman in Three Stages(1895), oil on canvas, 164 x 250 cm

Figure 3: Young Woman on The Beach (1896), aquatint, 288 x 219 cm

Image from: http://www.edvardmunch.org/young-woman-on-the-beach.jsp

Figure 4: The Scream (1895), pastel, 91 cm x 74 cm

Image from: http://www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp

Figure 5: The Anxiety (1896), oil on canvas, 94.0x 74.0 cm

Image from: http://www.edvardmunch.org/anxiety.jsp

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