MOWRIS-DISSERTATION.Pdf

Copyright by Peter Michael Mowris 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Peter Michael Mowris certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Nerve Languages: The Critical Response to the Physiological Psychology of Wilhelm Wundt by Dada and Surrealism Committee: __________________________________ Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Supervisor __________________________________ Richard Shiff __________________________________ John R. Clarke __________________________________ Michael Charlesworth __________________________________ Katherine Arens Nerve Languages: The Critical Response to the Physiological Psychology of Wilhelm Wundt by Dada and Surrealism By Peter Michael Mowris, B.F.A; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2010 For Jamie Lee, who made it possible. Researching and writing a dissertation would be impossible and ultimately soul- destroying if it were not for the assistance and support that a young historian receives during the overall duration of the process. Presenting new research on the interrelationships of art and science is a tricky business that requires a certain type of dialogue between not only these two divergent fields, but also between ideas and data points that are better known and material with which the reader may be entirely unfamiliar. The readability and critical framing of the first three chapters is entirely the result of long conversations with Dr. Katherine Arens, which I will treasure in memory for the rest of my life. Having researched this material from a standpoint in the history of sciences—that is, outside the concerns of art history—Dr. Arens was able to convince me that steering into these foreign waters was beneficial and that a study of this kind would interest readers other than myself and my committee. She was also essential in encouraging me to consider modes of research, analysis, and writing that fell outside conventional art historical methods and assumptions which, I believe, created the foundations for everything new and fresh in the forthcoming pages. Her encouragement of starting from scratch and not relying on previous analyses, other than as comparative data points, was a major source of inspiration for both this project and other work since then, including my first major scholarly publication. I could never have written this dissertation without her generous contributions. Nor could this project have come off without the guidance of Dr. Linda Dalrymple Henderson, my dissertation adviser. Dr. Henderson stepped into the role of the suspicious reader with respect to this new material and challenged me to make it both reader-friendly and connected to earlier, mostly divergent studies of the context and the v artists in question. She knew I was onto something, but made me work to prove it to an outside reader, which made the thrust of the project what it is. The most difficult thing about writing a lengthy work that is the product of a lot of research is stepping outside one’s own mind in a manner that lets the reader into the story that the author is telling. My original inspiration to consider the contacts between art and science was, like many other historians from my generation and earlier, inspired by Henderson’s groundbreaking work on modern artists who were interested in science. There was no better critical reader of this material and my method than her. As for the rest of my committee members, their contributions, like those of the above two scholars, came over the time I have been in graduate school. Dr. Richard Shiff taught me that looking and thinking should be on equal terms. Scrutiny in both cases was particularly beneficial in the chapter on Max Ernst. Dr. John Clarke taught me to continually question my own assumptions and to remain tenacious in the craft of writing. I wrote this entire dissertation with him in mind, so I could avoid allowing myself the fallacious luxury of assuming my reader knew what I meant. Dr. Michael Charlesworth taught me to have patience with my own thoughts, meaning that I should give myself the time to think as hard as I could about what certain texts can mean for the context and for my own work as reader; not only what a text means but what it allows. That and he introduced me to Michel de Certeau, whose shade pervades this entire dissertation. Outside of UT, many scholars offered different kinds of support that was always welcome. In particular, Dr. Gavin Parkinson and Dr. Stephanie Taylor threw me a crucial lifeline in giving me the chance to research and present on a topic that was unrelated to the dissertation, which I would recommend to any ABD reading this. It was entirely vi outside this project, and it allowed me to think about something else for a while, which was extremely helpful. That, and I got a publication out of it that is unrelated to the dissertation, which made me very happy and convinced of my abilities. Dr. Michael Taylor has been one of the best friends I could hope to have in the field of art history. He encouraged not only this project but other endeavors, and graciously participated on a panel I organized—again, unrelated to the dissertation—for a conference that took place when I was wrapping up the writing of this project. Another person who has been gracious is Dr. Fae Brauer, who participated on this conference with Michael and who opened her home to me and my fiancé while I was studying in Paris. Her work on this time period was a massive inspiration to me and my thinking about the different contexts and science that I was interrogating. Another person I had the pleasure of meeting and befriending during this project is Dr. William Camfield, who was also very nice in opening his home to me while I was in Paris. Bill is the model of the scholar I want to be someday, a true scholar gentleman in every sense of the term. His warmth, encouragement, and unfailing curiosity to know more about and have fresh perspectives on artists he has studied provided me with so much encouragement at a crucial stage in my project. That and he showed me the ropes when it came to getting into the Doucet archive, which was not easy! I would formally like to thank the entire staff at the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet for their patience with yet another clueless American. In particular, Monsieur Yves Gaonac’h was extremely generous and very kind at every step of the way. His suggestion that I examine the press clippings collected by Tzara and Picabia altered my sense of Dada entirely and essentially redirected my entire trajectory of inquiry. Merci. vii My chapter on Max Ernst and other work on him I have done would not have been possible without the generosity of the staff at the Menil Collection in Houston. In particular, curators Dr. Kristina Van Dyke, Claire Elliot, and Michelle White welcomed me into their institution and made my stay a true delight. Geri Aramanda made my research possible, as did Phil Heagy (retired). Ellen Hanspach was an instant friend, and I will treasure always the memory of us poring over the surfaces of Max Ernst’s paintings, trying to figure out how he did it. I would also like to thank M.E. Warlick, Samantha Kavkey, Elliott King, David Raskin, James Elkins, Simon Anderson, the late Robert Loescher, Kathryn Hixson, Lynn Boland, Maureen Howell, Amanda Butterfield, Brad Schauer, Matthew Schauer, Eirik Agustsson, Craig Stapleton-Corcoran, Shawn Rice, Rebecca Downing, Dr. Ann Reynolds, Dr. Steve Bourget, and Dr. Glen Peers. My family has been more supportive of me than I could have imagined, particularly with respect to my undertaking this kind of project in this kind of job market. I truly could not have remained in graduate school were it not for the financial and emotional support of my father Richard and mother Mary. My two sisters Anna and Vanessa, despite teasing me about having too many books and writing papers for fun, could not be sweeter and more wonderful. My grandparents, Walter and Gen Stoklosa, have been a constant presence in my life for as long as I can remember, and their weekly letters to me during my entire time in college was a constant source of support. Their work ethic is somewhere in my DNA, which really made the day-to-day slogging possible. They lived through the Depression; I had to write a dissertation. Clearly, I had more than enough genetic fuel to make it through. viii I met my fiancé Jamie Lee Rice right at the beginning of this undertaking and became engaged to her toward the very end of it. She has weathered the entirety of the process with me, from bouts of anxiety and doubt to dealing with the cryptozoological monstrosity that is me without sleep, to living in a phone booth size Paris apartment. The life partners of people writing their dissertations are the unsung heroes of the entire process. She was closer to the daily grind of the work than anyone else. Her patience, humor, and compassion were the most essential contributing factors of my time with this project. ix Nerve Languages: The Critical Response to the Physiological Psychology of Wilhelm Wundt by Dada and Surrealism Peter Michael Mowris, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Supervisor: Linda Dalrymple Henderson Scholarship on Dada and Surrealism has established that psychology was a major intellectual source for artists in both groups. However, a burgeoning amount of recent work in both the history of art and of science indicates that types of psychology other than psychoanalysis permeated the historical context of the avant-garde.

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