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Anaïs Nin and the Synthesis of the Arts

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Anaïs Nin and the Synthesis of the Arts View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UCL Discovery “The Multimedia of Our Unconscious Life”: Anaïs Nin and the Synthesis of the Arts Sandra Rehme University College London PhD History of Art 1 I, Sandra Rehme, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract This thesis explores Anaïs Nin’s idea of a synthesis of the arts in writing and its extension to different media through an analysis of her interdisciplinary collaborations with artists and composers in the United States of the 1950s and 1960s. I discuss these collaborations within the context of Nin’s unconventional understanding of the unconscious as multidimensional space and her interest in the sensory effects of different art forms, which are at the centre of Nin’s art theory. I look at the sources she drew on to formulate her ideas in Paris of the 1930s, including Symbolism, D.H. Lawrence’s writing, French Surrealism and various psychoanalytical models, and discuss how they relate to cultural and socio-political developments in America at mid-century. This includes a strong focus on Nin’s ambiguous negotiation of female identity and female creativity in her writing and the frictions it causes when it is translated into other media by her male collaborators. While Nin’s interest in different art forms and her attempt at imitating their sensuous effects in writing has been explored from a literary perspective, Nin’s extra-literary collaborations remain largely unexplored. Similarly, the work of most of the artists Nin collaborated with has not been analysed critically in a scholarly context. Unlike previous studies of Nin’s work, then, the approach of this thesis is an interdisciplinary analysis of her collaborations, which focuses equally on Nin’s writing and on the work and input of the artists she worked with. Each of the four chapters focuses on a different collaboration and art form including photomontage, film, music and collage. This thesis argues that Nin’s artistic encounters and her engagement with different art forms in America of the 1950s and 60s open up interesting new discourses around interdisciplinarity and gender, the legacy of surrealism in America and counterculture art production in the 1960s. 3 Contents Acknowledgements 5 List of Illustrations 6 Introduction 9 Chapter One 45 “Spiritual X-Rays”: Val Telberg’s Photomontages for Anaïs Nin’s House of Incest (1958) Chapter Two 107 Between Trance Film and Psychedelic Cinema: Ian Hugo’s Bells of Atlantis (1952) Chapter Three 166 ‘Screams, Noises and Sonorous Tornadoes’: Edgard Varèse’s Nocturnal I (1961) Chapter Four 237 Reassembling the Fragments – Anaïs Nin’s Collages (1964) and California Assemblage Conclusion 295 Bibliography 306 Images 329 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the AHRC for the funding I received from 2009-2012. This also enabled me to make an invaluable visit to archives in California, and to complete the research for this project. For responding to all my questions and providing invaluable information, I am indebted to Betsy Stroman, Jim Richard Wilson of the Opalka Gallery, and Sharon and Richard Seymour. I am most grateful for all the support and encouragement I received over the years from my family and Glenn Collins. I would like to express a great debt of gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Tamar Garb and Professor Briony Fer, for their intellectual guidance and encouragement. 5 List of Illustrations 1.1 Val Telberg, cover design for Anaïs Nin, House of Incest (Athens: The Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1958). 1.2 Val Telberg, My First Vision of Earth, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.3 Val Telberg, The Night Surrounded Me, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.4 Val Telberg, I Am Floating Again, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.5 Val Telberg, Dilated Eyes … Isolina All in Fur, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.6 Val Telberg, She Led Me Into the House of Incest, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.7 Val Telberg, And there Sat Lot …, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.8 Val Telberg, Isolina Opened All the Doors, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.9 Val Telberg, I Walked Into My Own Book, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.10 Val Telberg, Dancing Towards Daylight, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.11 Val Telberg, Untitled, c. 1954, silver gelatine print (Image source: http://courses.washington.edu/hypertxt/cgi-bin/book/pmontage/ kindsofpm3.html.) 1.12 Val Telberg, cover design for Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat, transl. Louise Varèse (New York: CT New Directions, 1945). 1.13 Inscriptions on the back of Val Telberg, Untitled Study, c. 1957. Anaïs Nin: “I love this one – All of them beautiful”. Val Telberg: “Unique montage (1957) from negatives taken where Anaïs Nin lived with Ian Hugo on 9th street.” Opalka Gallery, Albany, N.Y.. 1.14 Louise Bourgeois, Femme Maison, 1947, ink on paper. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. 1.15 André Masson, Mannequin, mixed media, 1937. Photograph: Raoul Ubac, Masson Mannequin, Galerie Beaux-Arts, 1938 (Image source: Collection Getty Research Institute). 6 1.16 Anaïs Nin at the ‘Come as Your Madness Party’, 1953 (Image source: http://anaisninblog.skybluepress.com/2010/07/the-characters-of-anais- nin%E2%80%99s-collages-renate-druks). 1.17 Film still from Kenneth Anger, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, 1954, 38 min, colour. 1.18 Gustave Doré, The Creation of Light, 1866, wood engraving, from Gustave Doré’s illustrated Bible, Universal History Archive (Image source: The Bridgeman Art Library). 1.19 René Magritte, The Elusive Woman (La femme introuvable), 1928, oil on canvas, Private Collection (Image source: The Bridgeman Art Library). 1.20 Raoul Ubac, Group 1, 1938, 26.5 x 39.6 cm, gelatine print. Centre Pompidou, Paris. 1.21 Val Telberg, study for There Sat Lot …, c.1957, silver gelatine print. Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, N.Y.. 1.22 Frederick Kiesler, Endless House, 1958-59, mixed media (Image source: Jane Alison, The Surreal House (New Haven and London: Barbican Art Gallery and Yale University Press, 2010, p.214)). 1.23 Marcel Duchamp, Etant donnés: 1˚ La chute d’eau, 2˚ Le gaz d’éclairage …, 1946-1966, mixed media assemblage, 242.6 x 177.8 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art (Image source: Alison 2010, p.45). 2.1 Ian Hugo, film still, Bells of Atlantis, 1952, 9:13 min. 2.2 Ian Hugo, film still, Bells of Atlantis, 1952, 9:13 min. 2.3 Ian Hugo, film still, Bells of Atlantis, 1952, 9:13 min. 2.4 Len Lye, film still, A Colour Box, 1935, 35 mm, colour, 4 min. 2.5 Louis and Bebe Barron in their Greenwich Village studio, c.1955 (Image source: http://barronsoundportraits.com/about-the-barrons/). (no illustrations in chapter three) 4.1 Jean Varda, Women Reconstructing the World, early 1940s, mixed media on canvas. The Anaïs Nin Trust. 4.2 Jean Varda, cover design for Anaïs Nin, Collages (Los Angeles: Swallow Press, 1964). 4.3 Jean Varda, Untitled, undated, mixed-media. Private collection (Image source: http://www.varda.to/Collages.htm). 4.4 Jean Varda, close-up of untitled fabric collage, undated, mixed media. Private collection (Image source: http://www.varda.to/Collages.htm). 7 4.5 Jean Varda, Fish, undated, mixed media on canvas. Private collection (Image source: http://www.varda.to/Collages.htm). 4.6 Jean Varda, Matriarch Madness, c.1950s, mixed media on canvas. Private collection (Image source: http://www.varda.to/Collages.htm). 4.7 Jean Varda, mosaic, undated, mixed media. Sausalito Square (Image source: http://www.varda.to/Collages.htm). 4.8 Jean Varda, Women Living Through Geometry, c.1950s, mixed media. Private collection (Image source: http://www.varda.to/Collages.htm). 4.9 Gilles Ehrmann, Le Facteur Ferdinand Cheval à Hauterives, 1962, silver gelatine print, 50.1 x 37.9 cm. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (Image source: Alison, p.327). 4.10 Simon Rodia, The Watts Towers, Los Angeles, 1921-1954 (Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Watts-towers.jpg). 4.11 Jean Varda’s Vallejo, Sausalito Bay, photograph undated (Image source: http://anaisninblog.skybluepress.com/2010/06/the-characters-of-anais- nin%E2%80%99s-collages-jean-varda/). 4.12 Jean Varda’s Vallejo, interior view, photograph undated (Image source: Ben Dennis and Betsy Case, Houseboat: Reflections of North American Floating Homes … History, Architecture, Lifestyle, 1977). 4.13 Jean Varda, film still from Agnès Varda, Uncle Yanco, 1967, 18 min. 4.14 Jean Varda and his hippie entourage, c.1960s (Image source: http://www.aliciab4.com/updates/diary/3june/june09.htm). 4.15 Jean Varda in his home in Monterey. Imogen Cunningham, 1948. 4.16 Jean Tinguely, Homage to New York (Machine That Destroys Itself), 1960, mixed media (Image source: Laurence Sillars ed., Joyous Machines: Michael Landy and Jean Tinguely (London: Tate Liverpool 2009)). 8 Introduction Anaïs Nin may seem like an unlikely subject for academic research in the field of interdisciplinary art practice. Since her death in 1977, the controversial writer of esoteric novels, erotica and a multi-volume diary that spans more than five decades has come to stand for many, often contradictory things – from hedonistic socialite, proto-feminist and anti-feminist, narcissistic nymphomaniac, pornographer, pathological liar to cult figure – but art practitioner? Even ‘serious writer’ remains a contested job description.
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