Author: Feraye
Professor Wheeler
MFA Visual Arts 2nd Semester
1 April, 2023
Looking at an abstract artwork, we consciously or subconsciously try to understand it. Humans are pattern seeking creatures (Castillo). We have an evolutionary imperative to understand what we are looking at, initially for survival, but also to make connections and meaning. Despite being a subject of confusion and ridicule from time to time, abstract art can stir up many ideas and feelings in viewers’ minds and hearts. We often cannot articulate why we love or hate an abstract art piece, but we know our thoughts and feelings are real.
As for the artist’s explanation of their art, it can only be assumptions until we hear from the artist themselves. However, even the artist might not be fully aware of their pattern creations, and why they use one color over the other, or why they make the marks that show up in their work, frequently by sheer compulsion. I can tell you from my own experience as an abstractionist artist that if I don’t add that final mark, or the color on a corner which the voice in my head tells me to do, I feel ill. As if, I am refusing to follow my own orders, or going against my own nature. We love art works where the artist’s angst, emotions and struggles are detectible, and honestly displayed. When the abstractionist artist tries to suppress what’s coming up to the surface for whatever reason, the art piece feels dishonest and wearisome. This is different than controlled imperfection. It is about artist restricting their own flow, either out of fear, self-distrust or commercial worries.
There are several theories on why an artist chooses one specific color or line, however one thing cannot be denied is the involvement of the subconscious. World renown Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung firmly believed that art was the gateway to the subconscious and was necessary to make the subconscious content more accessible (The Conscious Vibe.) Even if an artist makes an intellectual decision to use a color, based on their color theory education for example, their subconscious choices could appear in the shade or hue of that chosen color. There are many shades of red, and only one of them makes it to the canvas. Why did the artist choose that red? This is one of the major differences between human and computer art. A computer can create an abstract art based on learned information, also known as programed data, similar to our logical decisions.
However, especially in abstract art, we can clearly sense an artist’s subconscious at work, whether this is intended by the artist or not. How do we know that the art piece is not simply an embodiment of the artist’s recorded data from their conscious mind, meaning it was made through learned and deliberate decisions? Because the viewers who do not have the same data or information in their conscious or subconscious minds, connect to it in a way that some are willing to pay money to purchase the art piece. It is rumored that people cry at the sight of one of Rothko’s paintings.
The actual relationship between art and the subconscious expression wasn’t limited to the psychoanalytic ideas of Freud and Jung. Many psychologists through the ages, namely Edith Kramer, Judith Robin, Margaret Naumburg, and more, have come to the same conclusions with similar theories expanding upon the same idea. The critical correlation between art and the subconscious led to the creation of Art Therapy (The Conscious Vibe). So, essentially, one can cry in front of a Rothko piece, then go get art therapy to understand why they cried in front of that Rothko piece.
Jung also described another level of the consciousness by what he called ‘collective unconscious’. The difference between these two phenomena is that the collective unconscious is a shared experience, and everyone has access to it, however the subconscious is individual. Jung’s radical idea was that our unconscious mind was shared by the entire human species (McKay). This idea is strikingly similar to Advaita Vedanta (Non-duality) teachings of Indian philosophy which claims that we are all one, hence fundamentally we are part of the very same consciousness at the ground level of creation. However, Advaita Vedanta asserts that unconscious can be made conscious which Jung firmly rejected (Selvam). I believe art is the evidence that we all have the ability to dip into this collective unconscious, therefore we feel what the artist was feeling while making their art. Although collective unconscious is different than individual subconscious, as in the example of an art viewer detecting and experiencing the same feelings of the artist, our individual subconscious somehow is connected and interact with the collective unconscious. Adolph Gottlieb, one of the "first generation" of Abstract Expressionists, was a proponent of Jungian ideas of conscious, subconscious and unconscious. Pollock himself had undergone Jungian analysis (Braff).
Surrealists also believed subconscious was the only source of artistic creation (Zhang). Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dali openly utilized psychoanalytic theory to make art. He believed that an artist could bring subconscious into conscious level and express it in their art. In his painting titled Soft Construction with Boiled Beans, Dali masterfully depicts the self-inflicted bloodbath of the devastating Spanish Civil War through dreamlike images that induce fear and disgust. Although there is nothing directly war related in the painting, we all perceive the feeling of fear, hopelessness, violence and desperation as soon as we see the image. It was thought by the Surrealists that in the unconscious mind there lay the answer to creativity and society changing material (Hibbitt).
To summarize, it is evident that art cannot be detached from the artist’s subconscious, and it is in many ways a reflection and unfolding of the artist’s hidden inner experience. Abstract art is the language of this invisible realm where the words and the sounds are not enough to describe it effectively. Although, as humans we are limited by the visible color spectrum to make art to transcend our subconscious states, I believe art is one of the best devices for dissolving the veil between the conscious and the unconscious that can facilitate healing and understanding for us as individuals, and as a collective human family. In the same way, as we share a collective unconscious, we make sense of abstract art in an asomatous level. While we keep sampling from this collective unconscious and recognize our similarities and shared feelings, we are redesigning a new world that is kinder, more understanding and more aware. Aware of our oneness in the deepest sense. That is the magic of art.
Works Cited
Braff, Phyllis. “ART; Jung as Root of Abstract Expressionism.” The New York Times, 7 Dec. 1986.
Castillo, Ana K Solano. “Humans are pattern- seeking animals and we are adept at finding patterns whether they exist or not.” Academia.edu website. Accessed on 17 March, 2023.
Hibbitt, Fraser. “Surrealism: The Art Of The Unconscious Mind.” The Collector, Online Magazine. 23 August, 2020.
McKay, Michael. “The Artist Who Glimpsed Carl Jung’s ‘Collective Unconscious’, And What We Did to Her.” The Medium Online Newspaper, 10 July, 2019.
Selvam, Raja. “Advaita Vedanta and Jungian psychology: Explorations towards further reconciliation in East-West dialogues on the psyche.” Pacifica Graduate Institute ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2011. 3500725.
The Conscious Vibe. “Why Art Is A (Subconscious) Expression Of The Mind.” 19 July, 2022.
Zhang, Bo. “Discussion on the Subconscious and its Visual Expression.” Published by Atlantis Press, 2015. Accessed on 15 March, 2023.
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Further Readings
A Restless Spirit by Carrie Moyer. Art in America online. 12 October, 2023
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