Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
not creative. He said that each poem was like the grail question which, when
asked, broke the evil spell of his “you-are-not-creative” complex. Without this
creative expression he had always felt frustrated and off-center. He had to suffer
his rage at his lost years of creativity.
Creativity is a form of play. As he learned to play in poetry Bjorn became
more playful with his friends, joking and making them laugh. In painting the
problem of pictorial space gives unlimited scope for creative play (see Creating
pictorial space; The play of movement).
Individuation is passionate |65|. Bjorn learned to relate more passionately
to his analyst and to his friends. Fry described how Cézanne's paintings integrate
passion within a formal structure (see Dionysus and Apollo).
Individuation leads to a more conscious integration of psyche and soma
|66|. A person is less likely to somatize, less likely to express psychological
problems as arthritis or high blood pressure or ulcers. He or she is more able to
take pleasure in sex and exercise without using these as a substitute for
psychological life. As a child, Bjorn (the poet) had denied his anger, fear and
longing, stored them in his body, then split off his body from his conscious sense
of self. In adult life his body expressed these feelings as ulcers and back pain.
These symptoms also expressed his split-off creativity. As he became more
conscious of his feelings Bjorn began to exercise more vigorously and to write.
The subjective experience of being “in the body”, cannot be conveyed in words. I
sense it when I watch a deer running in the wild. In painting, pictorial space
(“psyche”) is integrated within the physical reality of the flat canvas (“soma”).
(See Embodiment)
The images in this paper are strictly for educational use and are protected by United States copyright laws. 71
Unauthorized use will result in criminal and civil penalties.