Art and Psychology: What does an Artist Seek to Portray?

Throughout history, art has been a tool with which the happenings of life are documented, religious
teachings are communicated, and stories are told. Freedom has arisen from the practise of art,
whether it be the liberty of painting in the Renaissance or the social-political works of modern artist
Banksy – however, on the same lines, there are many who have been persecuted for their artistic
commentary on social, economic and political problems under censorship. Within art is a dangerous
potential to reveal, and this essay will explore just how much of ourselves can rise to the surface
when we choose to use this powerful tool of expression.

Famous psychologist Sigmund Freud described art as a powerful instrument for the psychoanalysis
of personality1. He developed the image of the mind that is widely accepted today: at first, in 1900-
1905, he suggested a topographical (representational) model for the mind which comprised of the
conscious and subconscious. Our conscious mind deals with directly present matters, such as our
audible thought processes and controlling thoughtful movements of the body. On the other hand,
our subconscious mind deals with the “processes that are the real cause of most behaviour. Like an
iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see.” 2 Upon further research,
however, Freud theorised that the brain is divided into three areas known as the id, the ego and
super ego: instinct, reality and mortality respectively3. These ideas combine as shown below:

As the founder of the practise of psychoanalysis, a method with which to diagnose and treat mental
illness, Freud built the foundation for various theories regarding the mind’s relationship with art. It is
suggested that the mind subconsciously recognises its own complex desires and experiences within
even vague shapes of art; the imagery used; and even the colours in place.

1
Kamali Nader and Javdan Moosa, The Relationship Between Art and Psychology, 2011, Scienceline Publication
2
Saul McLeod, Sigmund Freud, SimplyPsychology, 2013, https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-
Freud.html
3
Saul McLeod, Sigmund Freud
4
Saul McLeod, Sigmund Freud
TRAUMA: Art and Sublimation

Repression is described as: “the action or process of suppressing a thought or desire in oneself so
that it remains unconscious” 5; “an unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing
or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious”6 and “[the act of] placing uncomfortable
thoughts in relatively inaccessible areas of the subconscious mind” 7. When one is drawn to art, one
is able to become in tune with a distant version of the past experiences that have become repressed.
One may fixate on drawing certain poses or parts of the body to reclaim or recapture desires that no
longer feel available, or perhaps find resonation within certain words and their associations. Such as
spiders and snakes are linked with deception, we can transform the threats that trouble us into
warped concepts to avoid direct association with them. This is sublimation.

Sublimation is at the heart of this discussion. Art’s relationship with trauma can be the
transformation of it or the communication of it. For example, an artist may have begun the practise
as a way of using their hands creatively to avoid destructive tendencies; art therapy harnesses this to
analyse and control a person’s negative impulses8.

Kamali Navader and Jason Moosa describe this by saying art is one of the important methods for the
“establishment of inner innovative forces”, and “if reinforced appropriately many mental problems
of human beings could be resolved”. They then add, “The interceding relationship between
psychologies in art is in perception and [the] sense it gives to every day’s happenings and
phenomena” 9. In summary, art can uncover buries parts of a mind’s development and personality,
providing relief.

An area wherein different artistic approaches have emerged in response to trauma is the Holocaust.
Artists have sought to express the deep grief and abandonment felt in the concentration camps. One
such artist is George Mayer-Marton, who painted “Women With Boulders”, shown below.

5
Google definition of repression,
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=repression+definition&oq=repression+definition&aqs=chrome.0.0l6.2558
j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
6
Saul McLeod, Sigmund Freud
7
Repression, Changing Minds, Changing Works 2000-2016,
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/repression.htm
8
Sublimation, Changing Minds, Changing Works 2000-2016,
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/sublimation.htm
9
Kamali Nader and Javdan Moosa, The Relationship Between Art and Psychology, 2011, Scienceline
Publication, http://jlsb.science-line.com/attachments/article/16/JLSB-%202012-%20B26,%20129-133.pdf
This image, painted after the artist received news of his parents’ deaths in 1945, finds itself barely
reaching a full spectrum of colour. It, like the emotions surfacing at that point, stares out into a bleak
and desolate expanse of uncertainty: the faces of the women, with their hidden or dark and round
eyes, remain poised in grief. The boulders are explained to be reminiscent of the stones placed upon
Jewish graves to protect the bodies awaiting resurrection, meaning that this painting depicts a
graveyard. Used here is an expanse of grey and rough black – although there is a glimpse of blue in
the sky, it becomes obscured and advanced upon by smoky clouds, diminishing an idea of hope.
Instead, the ground is sickly green and yellow, perhaps because the brain associates those hues with
illness, and illness with the nauseous combination of grief, anxiety and despair. There is very little
here which allows the eye to distinguish between ground and sky, and one may speculate that this
accentuates the communication of the magnitude of grief and death felt by the artist.

Another work created in effort to cope with and remind the future of the Holocaust is The Death
Cart – Lodz Ghetto by Edith Birkin, 1980.

Birkin, to explain her own artwork, has stated: “How many people stop to think that the six million
dead were individual human beings with dreams of their own, each with a story to tell, each wanting
to live? This is why the people in my paintings are depicted in different colours.”

Similarly to the previous image, this artwork oozes a sense of cold and advancing darkness. The
shadows, etched in deeply, show the skulls beneath the skin of the people in the street – not only
does this connote the hunger and poverty experienced in the ghettos, but also that death was so
intimately close with these people. Their ghostly nature, with holes for eyes, captures a deep terror,
reflecting the artist’s memories of the situation. The blue hue that ices over the ground and walls
resonates a feeling of helplessness and desperation, creating a sense of isolation.
This final example, Benjamin by Shmuel Dresner frim 1982, uses lighter tones and a different
technique to represent the loss of its subject: a friend.

“While avoiding graphic description of the trauma and sadness of their situation”, writes Jessica
Talarico and Gemma Lawrence, “Dresner makes references to destruction and violence through the
torn and burnt papers from which he constructs the image.” The title and subject of this piece,
Benjamin, are representative of the loss of one of the artist’s fellow prisoners and a dear friend.
Dresner constructs a vaguely recognisable shape, the vagueness perhaps suggesting the
deterioration of memory over time, and burns the outline of him, representing the cruel destruction
of a beautiful and complex human being. One may consider why Dresner chose to include pages of
books as the basis for the collage: maybe it tells the viewer of a complex person, whose stories
burned with them - or perhaps it represents the documents of passage used for Benjamin, who was
taken from his train and shot. 10
These images are personal responses to the trauma of war and genocide, each telling their own
stories of the destruction faced. No one person responds to grief in the same way as another - our
minds cling to different images; are horrified most by varying things. Our experiences differ, and
transferring our emotional energy into art allows for unique versions of one story to be shown. The
many different sides to the Holocaust communicated to us, in all forms of art, in writing and in
speech, allow us to truly understand the unthinkable cruelty carried out, and the many ways it
affected its victims.

10
Jessica Talarico and Gemma Lawrence, Artists’ Response to the Holocaust, Imperial War Museum 2017
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/artists-responses-to-the-holocaust
“From a psychological perspective, trauma is the result of an overwhelming threat to our person that
ignites our fight/flight/freeze stress response.” 11 This quote from Chloë Chapman sums up trauma
fairly simply: the responses listed are core responses to trauma from our id (our instinctive
responses), and depending on how a person’s brain is wired, they may perform any one of those
actions in the face of danger. The article running on from the previous quote discusses art therapy as
a way of reopening the senses that have been closed off, or perhaps damaged, by traumatic
experiences: “the use of art materials such as clay and paint can reconnect them to physical
sensation”. The brain, through art, transforms the experience into something that the artist has
control over; “a patient can create what is referred to as a “safe place,” using art media to make a
visual image of what they perceive as a safe environment.” 12 This is an important part of recovery as
the id goes into overdrive, feeling threatened. If the victim can experience a sense of power, then it
helps them to withstand flashbacks and paralysis amongst other symptoms of extreme distress. 13
IDENTITY: the Self Portrait
"Goya forces the viewer to become an active participant in the image––the monsters of his dreams
even threaten us."14

11
Chloë Chapman, How Does Art Therapy Work With Trauma?, May 18 2017, Palmeira Practice,
https://www.thepalmeirapractice.org.uk/expertise/art-therapy-trauma
12
Sovereign Health of Arizona, 10 Ways Art Therapy Helps Heal the Affects of Trauma
13
Chloë Chapman, How Does Art Therapy Work With Trauma
14
Sarah C. Schaefer, Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Khan Academy 2017,
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/romanticism/romanticism-in-spain/a/goya-
the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters
Believed to possibly be a self-portrait, this image: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters by the
artist Francisco Goya in 1799 portrays a figure sleeping, and behind him, ghastly creatures are
released. They appear to be similar to the shapes of owls and bats - predatory, and of the night. In
Spanish folk tradition, they are associated with mystery and evil, which is common in many cultures
as a result of nightmares, the uncertainty of the night and more. Here, the self-portrait is used as a
proclamation of Enlightenment, and Goya’s own caption accompanies the image to add layers to its
meaning. “Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is
the mother of the arts and source of their wonders”. This message communicates ideas of pairing
logic with inspiration and creation. It presents to the viewer what Goya has actually carried out in
the painting itself: he has given the beauty of his art an explanation.15
The self-portrait can never be a completely isolated work of art. Even standard portraiture, which
seeks to present a person exactly how they appear before the human eye, is able to represent clues
about a person’s life. Wrinkles around the eyes not only suggest age but stress and a wealth of
memories behind the eyes. Hands rippled with veins suggest suffering, possibly addiction and a life
of hard work. A person’s hooded or red-ringed eyes can suggest sleepless nights, whether it be
insomnia or emotional disarray.

Another self-portrait artist whose work is incredibly pertinent to the idea of a soul seeping through
the cracks of a material work is Rembrandt.

16

In portraying ourselves, we can often find our deepest skill: clearly, we can often understand
ourselves the best. However, what is so striking about Rembrandt’s self-portraiture is that he has so
realistically carved in the rough and aged texture of his own skin, outlining himself with the creases
of wrinkles; this is the beauty of self-portraiture, which allows us to explore what time has done to

15
Sarah C. Schaefer, Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
16
Rembrandt, Self Portrait at the Age of 63, 1669
us. Differently to Goya, he focuses in on his features as opposed to his thoughts, using an incredibly
complex realism to mirror what he, himself, can see.

“This portrait shows Rembrandt at the height of his career, presenting himself in a self-assured pose
wearing an elaborate costume in the fashion of the 16th century. It seems as if Rembrandt refers
deliberately to his famous predecessors in this portrait, and thus places himself in the tradition of
great 'Old Masters'.” 17 This quote from the National Gallery puts this portrait to an interesting
contrast with its successor. Using oil on canvas, Rembrant depicts himself seemingly with hubris. The
Self-Portrait at the Age of 63, however, seems to take the form of a man who has reflected upon life
and is not merely physically, but psychologically and philosophically. The National Gallery writes:
“The viewer is confronted by his steady gaze. Rembrandt painted and etched self-portraits
throughout his life, but those executed in his final years, in which he presents himself in a reflective
mood, are among the most poignant and challenging.”18

Within the contrast between these two oil paintings, one can see multiple things: the development
of skill, the development of perspective. Most poignant, however, is the expression upon his face:
hooded eyes give him a growing darkness. As one of the last paintings in his life, perhaps Rembrandt
had finally begun to understand what his own place on Earth meant.

HUMANITY: Art and the State of Existence

Next to be explored, or perhaps to have its exploration presented, is Antony Gormley, studied as
part of my Art coursework. Antony Gormley works to examine the human condition and to
deconstruct how our minds process images of ourselves; how we identify what is human; how we
express our isolation in our complex human shells.

17
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rembrandt-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-34
18
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rembrandt-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-63
 19

In his 2017 exhibition, Co-Ordinate, Antony Gormley attempted to bring the audience through a
process of discovery of ourselves and our world. He says that his sculptures, drawn into being by
only horizontal and vertical lines, present a deconstructed version of our own humanity: "[The
sculptures] are not a perfect description of a particular body, but they are very evidently derived
from a human body" (03:39). To understand them, Gormley invites the audience to "project" upon
them with our own experiences, highlighting that this is the approach we use to understand
anything. Perhaps this suggests that an artist is directly communicating with the audience and their
past experiences in order to create a combined perspective of our world — the artist and audience
are not individuals who can never interact; through the art, there is an inevitable conversation.

This approach to humanity is very interesting, as it discusses what the brain recognises as human,
expanding the borders of this definition with each sculpture presented. By using basic geographical
shapes to construct his figures, at first as basic as a crosshair and at last as complex as inviting
people to work their way through a maze of vertical lines. Through this, he explores, indirectly, our
psychological threat response: it poses the question of, "How do I get from here to there, given that
there are things in my way?" (05:16). This brings to life ideas about how we as humans are, on a very
foundational level, supposed to continue to exist. The entire exhibition itself is about the state of
existence, and how we as humans occupy the spaces that we do. He says that this and many forms

19
Antony Gormley, Co-Ordinate, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy, 2017, filmed by Matteo Fritelli,
http://www.antonygormley.com/show/item-view/id/2531/type/solo#p24
of interaction are "essential" (05:34), going on to add that: "Art is made in experience and not in
representation" (07:33), challenging our individual approaches to art. 20

Another interactive project of Gormley's is BLIND LIGHT, 2007.

Although it may not have been directly intended to, this exhibition incorporates ideas about
translucency and the inability to identify other people; its various blurred windows make us question
the boundaries we put up between ourselves and others. The artist used fluorescent light, water,
ultrasonic humidifiers, toughened low iron glass and aluminium to construct a translucent blockade
between viewers not dissimilar from the spiritual distance between us and other people. Like we
may be unable to identify a person's emotions, intentions and experiences from simply knowing
them on a surface level, Gormley's exhibition blurs our only window into somebody else's visual
presence. He says that BLIND LIGHT is supposed to undermine architecture's usual sense of "location
of security", "certainty about where you are" and protection from "darkness, from uncertainty." This
identifies the human need to be safe and able to identify one's purpose - by taking it away, Gormley
explores fear.21

In conclusion, I have found that artists who explore psychology through their work not only interest
me but inspire me to explore perception and imagination. We as humans recognise parts of
ourselves in art, thus allowing us to form an understanding of what is in front of us. Perhaps a
successful piece of persuasive art will stimulate our personal desires — our ego — or will act as a
superego in suppressing it. The human condition is ever being expanded upon throughout all time as
we, from the very moment that we are born, will seek to understand our "peculiar position" in this
world. The pieces of art I have found attempt to reach others' hearts and minds and express their
own perceptions of humanity: this can involve the trauma-induced works following War and
personal grief, as well as Gormley's attempt to make us deconstruct ourselves in order to investigate
our personal, perhaps inhuman, position in a modern metropolis.

20
Antony Gormley, Co-Ordinate, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy, 2017, filmed by Matteo Fritelli,
http://www.antonygormley.com/show/item-view/id/2531/type/solo#p24
21
Antony Gormley, BLIND LIGHT, Hayward Gallery, 2007, http://www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-
view/id/241#p12
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kamali Nader and Javdan Moosa, The Relationship Between Art and Psychology, 2011,
Scienceline Publication
Saul McLeod, Sigmund Freud, SimplyPsychology, 2013,
https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
Google definition of repression,
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=repression+definition&oq=repression+definition&aqs=
chrome.0.0l6.2558j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Repression, Changing Minds, Changing Works 2000-2016,
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/repression.htm
Sublimation, Changing Minds, Changing Works 2000-2016,
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/sublimation.htm
Jessica Talarico and Gemma Lawrence, Artists’ Response to the Holocaust, Imperial War
Museum 2017 http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/artists-responses-to-the-holocaust
Chloë Chapman, How Does Art Therapy Work With Trauma?, May 18 2017, Palmeira
Practice, https://www.thepalmeirapractice.org.uk/expertise/art-therapy-trauma
Sovereign Health of Arizona, 10 Ways Art Therapy Helps Heal the Affects of Trauma
Sarah C. Schaefer, Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Khan Academy 2017,
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/romanticism/romanticism-
in-spain/a/goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters
Rembrandt, Self Portrait at the Age of 63, 1669
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rembrandt-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-34
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rembrandt-self-portrait-at-the-age-of-63
Antony Gormley, Co-Ordinate, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy, 2017, filmed by
Matteo Fritelli, http://www.antonygormley.com/show/item-view/id/2531/type/solo#p24
Antony Gormley, BLIND LIGHT, Hayward Gallery, 2007,
http://www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-view/id/241#p12