Old Tropes

Otto Rank, the great psychologist and pupil of Freud, considered artists to be successful Neurotics, and neurosis to be failed art. In essence, Artists are people with problems who happen to use art as a coping strategy. Conversely, Neurotics are people with problems who have no coping strategy.

Which sounds grandiose and overly dramatic until one considers that Rank’s definition of neurosis encompasses most of life. Depression, personality disorders, anxiety; basically, everything in the DSM IV plus the full range of existential maladies.

To quote the man himself: neurosis is a manifestation of imagination and energy gone wrong. And that's where it gets interesting for Artists. It implies that the job of an Artist is to make the imaginary real, and in so doing, to heal. For me, I partake in another Artist’s healing process when I grapple with a piece of art. By grapple, I mean digging into it, trying to see below the surface, to make it my own. Sometimes, it’s difficult. Sometimes it’s easy. Rarely is it instantly overwhelming.

Here’s an example of instantly overwhelming:

William Turner, Death on a White Horse, 1830

Or how about this?

Maxim Vorobiev, Oak Fractured by a Lightning Bolt. Allegory on Wife's Death, 1842

Note the personal nature of that Vorobiev’s painting. And yet, when I see it, it’s my loss, my pain, my grief. To me, this is the power of art. Through it, we can understand each other. We can say “there but for the grace of god go I” and mean it.

The above is from a blog post filled with instantly-overwhelming art. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you’re willing to grapple with each one, I think it will be a worthwhile experience. Weimar: You might as well live.