Dreams, Psychology and Landscapes

Hi Tom, You asked about artists or photographers who have combined landscape and psychology, or dreams and psychology... This is a little more tricky than with the portraits below, but there are a few. You say you have looked at Jerry Uelsmann - he's certainly a good starting point. For those who don't know his work, here's an example:

Jerry Uelsmann

To a certain extent, Uelsmann draws on the work of Rene Magritte, who played around with truth/reality and illusion under the influence of Surrealism. Some work better than others.

De Chirico, who I mentioned in the last post, used landscape to great effect to create a mood of brooding loneliness, at the end of the day in late summer. The shadows also suggest mysteries known but not seen, such as you sense in dreams.

 

 Dali created similar moods. There are the obvious paintings such as The Persistance of Memory or The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, and others such as his interpretation of Millais' The Gleaners with the two figures towering over small humans on a beach. Dali's landscapes often feel sad, harking back to his childhood at Cadaques.

Andrew Wyeth: Christina's World

Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World is often used with articles on teenage female angst, because it has that feeling of being lost, as you might feel in a dream. Munch's Summer Night's Dream shows a teenage girl at the point of stepping into adulthood. Giving herself as she leans forward, and yet holding back in the way she holds her arms. It shows the fear of innocent girls in the late nineteenth century, as they faced the challenge of sexual encounters. There are some disconcerting paintings from late nineteenth century Scandinavian painters who show the psychological disturbance caused through the long summer nights. We like to think of an extended day as being desirable, but when it's too long, people become unhinged.

Munch: Summer Night's Dream

Finally, you might look at artists that use the landscape to create projected psychological installations, such as Tony Oursler, and his Influence Machine. I have mentioned him in other posts, as he's a bit of a favourite of mine! He's useful too, as I know you have to explore the moving image on photography courses now, and he has some interesting ideas.

Tony Oursler: The Influence Machine

 

Tony Oursler: The Station



For textual research, you could look at this Masters thesis, 'Towards a Psychology of Landscape Aesthetics' on http://philosopha.net/?page_id=121 It's very academic, but you could pull out a few ideas on landscape and psychology, particularly towards the end of the dissertation, that might prompt further ideas for your work or research. Make sure you reference everything though.

 

Dreams and Art



Grunewald: The Temptation of St Anthony

Dreams are a popular research topic for artists in all disciplines. Early explorations of the subject in visual form relate to Jacob's Ladder, and also the Temptation of St Anthony. The latter can be seen in the work of Grunewald right through to more recent artists such as Dali. These might be seen as more illustrational and less personal than say, Goya, with his 'The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters' in 1799, expressing the irrational nature of dreams as a contrast to the rational, at a time when scientists and philosophers were trying to constrain the irrational in the pursuit of reason. Goya was also battling his own demons, and particularly a physical illness that affected his hearing, and perhaps led to pressure in his head, and thus more dramatic dreams.

Goya: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Yinka Shonibare: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Some early psychologists explored the optical element within dreams. In the 19th century, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denis, (one of the first dream scientists), for example, created 'hypnagogic images' or coloured wheels of light and bubbles. The artists Miro, just into the 20th century, would press the flat bones around the base of his thumb into his eyes to create flashes, or spidery patterns of colour and light which then populated his paintings.

The most interesting, however, are the nineteenth century graphic artists who were well ahead of the scientists of their ages. Grandville demonstrated the visual transformations within dreams, and Klinger who eloquently showed the narrative quality and buried, or surpressed sexual symbolism within them. Redon captured the brooding atmosphere of dreams, and the sense of a separation of consciousness enmeshed with developments in science that were current at the time.


Grandville



Grandville



Klinger: The Glove Cycle

Other artists who have used dreams include Gustave Courbet, who wanted to capture a face/his face at a moment of absolute terror. He engineered it so that he had a nightmare, and then woke up to see his terrified reflection in a mirror placed at the foot of his bed.

Courbet:The Desperate Man 1844

You might also look at any of the surrealists who built their entire movement on the importance of dreams and their meaning based on their reading of Freud's theory of development and psychoanalysis. Dali, de Chirico, and Max Ernst are good ones.

Dali: The Temptation of St Anthony

Finally, you might be interested in looking at Erin Quinn's photographs of dreams, or Joshua Hoffine's photos of childhood nightmares.
 

Erin Quinn



Joshua Hoffine