The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art

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The International Journal of Indian Psychology ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) Volume 4, Issue 4, DIP: 18.01.119/20170404 DOI: 10.25215/0404.119 http://www.ijip.in | July-September, 2017

Research Article

Psychology in Art: The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art

Nitansha Nema1* ABSTRACT “Surrealism”, which developed out of Freudian studies of the functions of the mind, was initially conceptualised in Paris with the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by poet and critic André Breton. Soon enough it culminated into an international intellectual and political movement. For artists, the undulating contours of the mind and human psychology as explained by Freud were nothing less than an afflatus that could be transformed into marvelous works of art. Today, we frequently encounter numerous works of Dali, Kahlo, Miro, Magritte and Oppenheim, without appreciating the man who, other than providing inspiration to these artists, was also fundamental in identifying that ‘inspiration’, which was till then considered a gift from the Holy Spirit, could actually be found embedded deep in our own unconscious. It was this ‘inspiration’ that Surrealist Artists sought to bring out in their works by applying processes like Automatism and the use of dream diaries. It marked a whole new era where art was being influenced by psychology. This paper aims at analysing Freudian influence on Surrealist Artwork and developing a multi-dimensional and more profound understanding of Freud’s seemingly bizarre ideas. This has been done by critically evaluating a total of six paintings, two each by Dali, Kahlo and Magritte that have been chosen on the sole ground that they all demonstrate different Psychoanalytic techniques devised by Freud. Further, a cross-cultural analysis has been done to provide a more intricate understanding of the latent concepts explained in the paintings. Upon examination of these works through this paper, it becomes clear how Rene Magritte employed metaphorical symbols in exploring the issues of visual perception and optical illusions, how Salvador Dali used Freudian symbols to embark upon a spectacular picturization of the world of human dreams and how Frida Kahlo found peace at last by channeling the bubbling cauldron of her traumatizing past found in her unconscious into her vibrant paintings. Through a thorough analysis of these works, this paper enables the reader to develop a more lucid understanding of Freudian ideas that inspired the avant-garde movement that marked the paintings of the early 20th century.

Keywords: Art and Psychology, Surrealism, Freud, Magritte, Dalí, Kahlo, Paintings and Psychology, Automatism, Dream Theory, Freudian Unconscious

1 Scholar, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow, India *Responding Author Received: August 7, 2017; Revision Received: September 16, 2017; Accepted: September 25, 2017 © 2017 Nema N; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Psychology in Art: The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art

The journey of a student of Psychology is impossible without frequent encounters with Dr. Sigmund Freud. Though in Robin William’s opinion of him in Good Will Hunting, “Freud did enough cocaine to kill a small horse,” one can cast no aspersions on his contribution to the field of Psychology. Remarkably enough, he is one of those few Psychologists who have been instrumental in shaping not only our notions of Psychology, but also those of History, Art, Literature, Culture, Psychiatric Medicine and unsurprisingly Greek Mythology.

Like Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin William’s character in Good Will Hunting), Freud is considered a man of ridiculous ideas by many of those involved in the practise and teaching of Psychology, though no course in Psychology across the word is devoid of the concepts like the id, ego and super ego, dream analysis, motivated unconscious and the like. Freud’s influence is so pervading that words and phrases introduced by him through his theories like libido, denial, repression, cathartic, neurotic and Freudian slip (Fisher & Greenberg, 1996) have augmented the average English speaker’s lexicon. A Neurologist by profession, Freud was deeply intrigued by the human mind and the various ways in which it functions. This compelled him to explore the human mind like no one before him had. He believed that human beings are great at deception, though they don’t always lie deliberately. According to him, we rationalize our deepest fears, sorrows and shortcomings and bury them in the deepest corners of our mind, which he named the ‘unconscious.’ He used the metaphor of an iceberg to depict the psyche, or personality, in order to emphasize that nine-tenths of it lies submerged in the realm of the unconsciousness. (Engler, 2014)

In 1923 “The Ego and the Id” was published by Freud. The book encompassed his final theory of a threefold structure of personality. Of this threefold structure, the superego was supposed to internalise the values, ideals and moral standards that our parents and teachers inculcate in us throughout our childhood. The ego represents oneself whereas, the id, which is the most important of them all according to Freud represents the core of our being. Freud described the id as a “chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations” The id includes our most primitive desires and urges; it works basis the pleasure principle seeking immediate tension reduction, taking no precaution and acting in an impulsive and irrational way. (Freud, Manifest Dream Content and Latent Dream Thought, 1922)

The Surrealist Era and how Freud inspired it Before talking about Surrealism, it is imperative that I briefly acquaint the reader with the various styles and forms of art that pre-dated it so as to make Freudian influence of Art more discernible.

In the early hundreds, when the world has just begun according to Christianity, the focal point of art was religion. Back in 290AD, Christianity was a newly found religion which was being persecuted greatly in Rome. It needed a medium to spread its message; a medium comprehensible by everyone, the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate. That medium was art. For centuries Christianity used art for a clear and understandable purpose: to make its message more resonant, emotionally attractive and popularly appealing. Art was like

a kind of advertising for its ideas. Christian art went on to produce extraordinary cathedrals, paintings, sculptures, celebrating and enhancing the prestige of its message. Both in the east as well as in the west, art’s function was evident: to support the truths set down by religions and to make ideas more easily digestible. (Gombrich, 1966)

Later in the 1800s the imperial class dominated art. Art began acting as propaganda for political causes. Kings like Louis the XIV and Napoleon did a lot of propagandising with art. In 1833 in Paris, the poet, novelist and critique Théophile Gautier published an essay about art arguing that art must free itself from the vile agendas of religions and government. The new generation of Romantic artists made his message, “L’art pour l’art”; “art for art’s sake” (Gautier, 1835) their motto. They believed that true art serves nothing at all; it is an end in itself and does not try to change or do or speak about anything. They prized intuition, passion, suffering, genius, the power of nature and individual heroics. The early 20th century was marked by new innovations and discoveries in every field. Great geniuses like Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Einstein were refuting existing principles and propounding new theories. (Gautier, 1835)

It was in these circumstances that Surrealism was born. The pioneer of this movement was André Breton. He was greatly inspired by the Freudian Theories of Automatism and Free Association and how the undulating contours of the mind, the seething cauldron of the unconscious and our most primitive urges and desires may be explored through these exercises. In his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, Breton defined Surrealism as “Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express…the actual functioning of thought…in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.” (Breton, 1969)

Surrealist Art sought to capture visual imagery from the subconscious mind to create art without the intention of any sort of logical comprehensibility. Surrealist works are known for being bizarre. They possess an element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequiturs. Surrealism propagated the idea that ordinary or depictive expressions are vital and this came directly from the fascination of artists with the Freudian analysis of the subconscious. The artists embraced these idiosyncrasies. The realm of the subconscious was where the truest reality resided and they tried to depict this on their canvasses. (Willette, Surrealism and Freudian Theory, 2011)

The rigour of socialisation (superego) represses the primal desires of human beings (id). However, through displacement and transference or substitution, the mind tries to bring these desires to surface. This is what the Surrealist poets and artists indulged in. Very little of value of Surrealist poetry survives today. However, works of Surrealist artists like Miro, Dali, Ernst, Kahlo, Magritte and Duchamp have attained the distinction of being called ‘masterpieces’ and have contributed significantly to popular culture. Their art inhabits a loftier, more abstract realm, staging a psychological retreat from reality, either past or present

seeking what the late poet Guillaume Apollinaire called “sur-reality”, or a realm outside and beyond perceived reality. (Willette, Comparison of Dada and Surrealism, 2011)

Before moving on to the works of three of these great artists, it is necessary to explain the exact meaning of automatism and free association.

Automatism has been defined as “behaviour executed without conscious awareness or control, as for example in sleepwalking and hypnosis.” (Colman) Automatism, in the context of Surrealism was a technique that was first used by Surrealist painters and poets to express the creative forces of the unconscious in art.

Free Association is “a technique of psychoanalysis in which the patient is encouraged to relate to the analyst all thoughts, feelings, wishes, sensations, memories and images that come to mind, however, embarrassing or trivial they might seem. It is designed to incapacitate the second censorship between the preconscious and the consciousness, thereby exposing the unconscious defences operating through the first censorship between the unconscious and the preconscious.” (Colman)

Dream Analysis has been defined as “a technique of psychoanalysis in which interpretation, aided by free association, is applied to the manifest content of dreams in an effort to reveal their latent content which, according to psychoanalytic theory, invariably consists of unconscious wish fulfillment that are potentially disturbing to the dreamer and would interrupt sleep if they were not distinguished through symbolism.” (Colman) Freud in his work, “The Interpretation of Dreams” (Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, 1900) propounded this theory. However, in his later book, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), he raised doubts about the assumption that dreams are wish fulfillments and suggested that they may serve a more primitive function. (Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 1920)

Réne Magritte (1898 – 1967) Susie Hodge, in her work The Great Artists and their Most Important Works, has described Magritte as “one of the most imitated artists and a leading exponent of Surrealism whose highly individual, witty and though provoking images challenge viewers’ preconceptions, making them reconsider the world around them.” (Hodge)

Born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, Belgium, Magritte started drawing at the age of 12. Influenced greatly by Chirico’s (1888 – 1978) metaphysical art, his unique style emerged with his paintings The Lost Jockey (1926) and The Menaced Assassin (1927). These paintings marked the inception of Magritte’s distinctive technique of creating works that are enigmatic, mysteriously provocative and rather silent. He was received rather poorly at his first solo exhibition in Brussels in 1927 which caused him to move to Paris to join the Surrealists.

Before undertaking a detailed examination of two of his most exquisite works, it is important to make a note of his general painting style. His strokes were thick and smooth and with clean

lines, his work looked extremely close to that of the Realists. However, Magritte was a master of illusion, and by employing certain very simple elements in his works he was able to make them look “Sur-real”. He often used ambiguous or metaphorical symbols such as mirrors, apples, curtains, veils, windows and pictures within pictures. (Hodge) Another significant aspect of his personality that makes him different from the other Surrealist Artists is that he always maintained that psychoanalysis can never provide the answers to all our questions about our own self. Magritte’s paintings, unlike Dali’s were not dream narratives. Rather they focussed on the mystery of existence and the development of human thoughts.

The Lovers II, 1928 (The Museum of Modern Art, New York) “My painting is visible images which conceal nothing... they evoke mystery and indeed when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question 'What does that mean'? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.” - Rene Magritte The room and the two lovers are the elements that comprise this work. It is important to note here that the room has been painted in an insignificant manner; neither is there any window to provide perspective nor is there any object in the room. This ensures that the lovers are the focal point. The manner in which the lovers are portrayed is also noteworthy. The man, dressed in black is in a dominant position, while the woman, dressed in red, with her head titled, leaning backwards is in a submissive position. Black is symbolic of death while red conveys to the viewer love and passion. The striking feature of this painting is the veils that enshroud the lovers’ faces. Sans the veil, this painting would have been quite realistic and normal depicting two lovers engaged in the intimate act of kissing. The veils are what make this painting convey to the viewer something beyond reality; they make the painting “surreal” (The Lovers II, 1928 by Rene Magritte). While observing the painting, one is compelled to ponder upon the reason behind Magritte including the veils to what would otherwise have been an extremely mundane painting. Perhaps Magritte did not possess the artistic skill that is required to paint human features! However, if we critically analyse this painting in terms of Freudian postulates, this appears to not be the case. Probing deeper into Magritte’s past, we see that his childhood was marked by the disturbing memory of his mother having committed suicide by drowning herself into a river. Magritte’s vision of his mother’s body floating on the river with her dress obscuring her face was a memory that was pushed into his unconscious, given its deeply troubling and tension-inducing nature. Although Magritte always denied this incident having affected any of his works, enshrouded faces were a common motif in his art. (Museum of Modern Art)

Several interpretations of this work have been attempted. The most common and probable amongst them are those that suggest isolation and frustration in relationships. The veils are white with a greyish tinge, which is symbolic of fading purity. This goes on to suggest that relationships have lost their purity. As Freud postulated, human beings are great at deception and tend to conceal their truest self which is marked by their deepest fears and passions from even their most intimate companions. (Engler, 2014) Even though Magritte denied all autobiographical references in his works, a deep observation of those morbid, enshrouded faces compels one to come to the same conclusion; that intimacy is a farce, (Budick, 2013) and perhaps Magritte’s mother couldn’t reveal to her own son her innermost trepidations that caused her to end her own life.

The Human Condition, 1933 (The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC) "In front of a window seen from inside a room, I placed a painting representing exactly that portion of the landscape covered by the painting. Thus, the tree in the picture hid the tree behind it, outside the room. For the spectator, it was both inside the room within the painting and outside in the real landscape." ~René Magritte in 1933

This is undoubtedly one of Magritte’s most popular paintings. To the ordinary viewer, it depicts a painting within a painting. The explanation provided by Magritte to this work is also quite simple. There appear to be no hidden meanings or surreal elements. The viewer would look at this painting as a depiction of the scene from the window on the canvas that has been placed in a fashion that it is matched perfectly with the “real” landscape outdoors. While, Magritte’s ability to paint human faces in the first painting can be doubted, one cannot cast any aspersions on his ability to perfectly recreate landscapes. One is compelled to marvel at his proficiency in making a perfect copy of the view outside the window. But two minutes into observing the painting, and then arrives that moment of slippage! We reprimand ourselves of falling into the artist’s trap.

As common sense dawns upon us, we realise that the “real” landscape outdoors is actually not real at all! It the first layer of representation that the artist has laid down with supreme economy. The painted canvas is the second layer of representation that has been painted with the sole purpose of deceiving us. All of a sudden, a delightful work of art has turned into something unsettling and thought provoking. (Magritte) The sheer genius of the artist is what urges us to ponder upon the degree of entrenchment that plagues all human beings. The “human condition” in this picture is this that we as human beings willingly believe what we are made to believe and seldom question the depths of what is being presented to us.

Psychoanalytically, it may be observed that paintings that partially cover up the subject of the same painting are a recurring theme in Magritte’s work. Again, like the veil in the previous painting, it is evident that Magritte’s exterior demeanour covered up a very different interior. Everything seems real in this painting. The canvas, and especially its positioning, however, is the surreal element. Being the superego, it tries to hide the id, the reality outside the real window. The ego is the painting itself composed of both the id and the superego trying to strike a balance between the two. Further, the focus on the window is interpreted as nostalgia for the scale of childhood experiences – an enormous room where small objects assume monumental physical and symbolic proportions. (Wargo)

Salvador Dali (1904 -1989) A technically skilled and relentless self-promoter, Salvador Dali was an avid reader of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. His life and art cannot be separated. He trained in the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, going on to become one of the most well- known Surrealists going on to affect more artists in society than almost any other artist of his time. (Hodge)

He completed his first set of Surrealist works in 1929 which depicted small collages of his dream images. To recreate his dreams on canvas, Dali invented the “paranoiac-critical method”, a mental exercise of accessing the subconscious by inducing the mind to enter into a state of fear, a modus operandi to deconstruct identity, thereby enabling the artist to find new and unique ways to view the world. His works were extremely personal portrayals of his life, with a great number of them depicting his wife and his muse Gala. He painted these in what is known as his “classic phase”, where science and religion are recurring themes. Dali’s works with their bizarre dream sequences and symbolic representations exhibit Freudian theories like none other and are best suited to develop a better understanding of Psychoanalytic postulates of dream diaries and the thoughts that dwell in the unconscious. (Salvador Dalí)

The Accommodation of Desire, 1929(The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) A surface level analysis of this work shows white lumpish pebbles which have been enlarged to accommodate certain bizarre depictions: lions’ heads, ants, a toupee and a figure with three people embracing. Dali was 25 years old when he completed this painting. He has expressed his sexual anxieties resulting from his love affair with Gala, his muse and companion till her death in 1982. Gala was older and married to Paul Eluard, a Surrealist poet making Dali excessively insecure about their relationship. (Dalí, The Accomodation of Desire)

Dali painted this picture after taking a long walk alone with Gala. However, even in this moment of intimacy, the terror of his uncertain future with Gala did not escape him. He has used lions to depict the terror he was experiencing, cutting out the lions’ heads from an illustrated children’s book to give them a more life-like effect further enhancing his agony. Ants, a recurring motif in his works are a symbol of decay. (Dalí, The Accomodation of Desire) Dali’s family told him that he is a reincarnation of their elder son who had died before Dali’s birth causing him to become deeply influenced by themes such as decay, death and rebirth right since his childhood. (Salvador Dalí) The toupee that he has painted on one of the pebbles is symbolic of old age when youth will perish and he will require it to cover his bald patch. In the upper-central portion of the painting, the lions still continue to haunt him even where he has painted himself and Gala in a loving embrace. This being “the most clearly autobiographical of Dali’s paintings”, the desert depicted in this painting is meant to be Figueres, his birthplace in Spain. (Harriman, 1939)

The dominant elements in the painting are the surreal components because Dali was probably one of the most fervent proponents of Surrealism. That is why Dali’s works appear so bizarre while Magritte’s appear real.

Through this painting Dali has contemplated upon the ephemeral nature of youth and relationships. Thus, this typical hyper-realistic painting depicts a bizarre display of various metaphorical symbols typically that convey the language spoken by our extremely vulnerable unconscious that is constantly bubbling with our deepest fears and anxieties.

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate, One Second Before Awakening, 1944 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid) This extremely bizarre painting represents how a typical dream sequence is manifested a second before the dreamer is awakened from her sleep. The “hand- painted dream photograph” is a rigorously psychoanalytical work created by Dali at a time when he had given in to the demands of American society pursuant to his migrating to the States during World War II. A physical analysis of this work reveals a naked Gala, Dali’s muse and wife sleeping in a floating position above a rock in a tranquil marine setting. The bizarre animate and inanimate objects that surround her demonstrate Freud’s influence on Dali’s work. An understanding of Freudian Dream Theory as explained by Freud in his book “The Interpretation of Dreams” reveals that sounds that enter the unconscious dreamer’s mind have a tremendous effect on events that are manifested in the dream. The miniscule bee in the foreground contemplating its landing on the pomegranate in reality is manifested in the realm of the sleeping Gala’s dream as a bayonet representing the bee’s sting. In the land of dreamscape, a huge fish bursts

© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 207 Psychology in Art: The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art out of a pomegranate, and the fish’s mouth in turn spews out two menacing tigers along with the bayonet which stings Gala in the arm. The tigers also represent the dream manifestation of the yellow and black striped bee. (Dalí, Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking)

Other than aiding in the perception of a relationship between reality and dreamscape, the pomegranate in the foreground is also of great symbolic relevance. This painting being a prime example of Dali’s Surrealist repertoire has combined with the Freudian Dream Theory, his ideas about the unconscious. Thus, the pomegranate has been chosen because it is the Christian symbol for fertility and rebirth. Further, the heart shaped shadow formed by the pomegranate on the rocks and the ultra-realistic water droplets surrounding it allude to Venus and the pearls that were symbolic of her in classical pieces like “The Birth of Venus” by Boticelli. (Leroy & Grosenick, 2004) Contrary to popular belief which suggests that Dali has paid tribute to the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini by including a depiction of the Elephant and the Obelisk in the background, this depiction has actually been used by Dali ingeniously to allude to “Poliphilo’s Strife of Love in a Dream” by Francesco Colonna in which the protagonist Poliphilo awakens in a dream world filled with ancient ruins, including Egyptian- inspired monuments such as the obelisk and elephant. (Darnell) In this mysterious allegory, Poliphilo pursues Polia, his beloved through a dreamlike landscape, eventually reuniting with her by the Fountain of Venus.

Salvador Dali, the great Surrealist master, has left us marvelling at his sheer genius in combining the unconscious, Freudian dream theory and historical allusions to the world of dreamscape in a single, spectacular, bedazzling work of art.

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) Frida Kahlo was born in a Mexico-city suburb to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a Mexican mestizo mother. Her works primarily emerge from and reflect her extremely traumatic life and her Mexican heritage. Kahlo contracted Polio at the age of six, leaving her right leg thinner than the left. She wore long, colourful skirts, as depicted in her paintings to disguise this defect. Since she has always aspired to become a doctor, she entered Medical School at the age of 15. However, 3 years later, a bus accident left her semi-invalid, forcing her out of Medical School. Her spine, collar bone, ribs and foot were fractured and her pelvis was completely crushed, causing her to abandon any ambitions of ever becoming a mother. As if this was not enough, she had to undergo more than 30 operations post this traumatic, life- changing incident, compelling her to retire into a life of constant pain and hardship.

This is when her lifelong sojourn with art began. To help alleviate her from the mental scars, Kahlo began to draw, using bright colours that were typical of the Mexican folkloric style. The subject matter of her paintings naturally became her own harrowing life experiences. One would think that finally her troubles were over; however, in 1922, she met Mexico’s most famous artist, Diego Rivera, to whom she took three of her paintings soliciting his

© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 208 Psychology in Art: The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art advice. They fell in love, and despite Rivera being 20 years older to her and already married twice, they married in 1929. (Hodge)

Needless to say, the marriage was far from happy. Rivera cheated on her multiple times, augmenting both her excruciating life experiences as well as the list of themes in her works. It is interesting to note that Kahlo, though associated with the Surrealists, rejected the label herself, “I really don’t know whether my paintings are ‘Surrealist’ or not, but I do know that they are the most honest expression of myself, taking no account of the opinions and prejudice of other.” (The Museum of Modern Art, Revised edition 2004) In reading these words spoken by her, one may easily conclude that there is hardly any distinction between Kahlo’s description of her works and Breton’s definition of Surrealism, wherein he has stated that the truest manifestation of Surrealism is in the creation of works that explain the functioning of one’s thoughts exempt from reason, aesthetic or moral concern. (Breton, 1969)

Thus the fact that Kahlo exposed her insecurities and feelings about her life and relationships so freely in her works are what makes her a cult figure and a prime example of the Surrealist era.

Frida and Diego Rivera, 1931 (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) "Here you see us, me Frida Kahlo, with my dearest husband Diego Rivera. I painted these pictures in the delightful city of San Francisco California for our companion Mr. Albert Bender, and it was in the month of April of the year 1931." The afore-mentioned text is engraved on the wooden plaque held in the beak of the pigeon forming the background of this painting. As can easily be deciphered from the text, Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera, the Mexican artist form the subject of this work. To the ordinary viewer, this painting does not contain any “surreal” elements. However, a Kahlo enthusiast would know that she never aimed at making any of her works conform to the Surrealist movement. Her work sought to portray “the most honest expression of herself”. (The Museum of Modern Art, Revised edition 2004) In this painting, which has been painted with obvious folkloric style, the tiny Kahlo clad in a green flowing dress and a traditional Mexican red Rebozo shawl standing next to the colossal and solidly planted Diego Rivera. Rivera is clutching a palette and brushed in one hand symbolic of his artistic mastery. He was at that time perhaps the most famous Mexican artist. Kahlo adored him and looked up to him for art related advice. However, the way she has displayed her holding his hand; with the slightest possible clasp, shows that even though she loved him, she knew that he wasn’t

hers completely. She had remarked, “Being the wife of Diego is the most marvelous thing in the world ... I let him play matrimony with other women. Diego is not anybody's husband and never will be, but he is a great comrade.” (Herrera, 2016) Kahlo completed this painting 2 years after her marriage. Rivera was having an affair with tennis champion Helen Wills even while she was painting this work. (Hiller, 1998) This fact is the “surreal” element in this work. Through her paintings, Kahlo let out whatever was in her subconscious mind, without subjecting it to the filters imposed by the conscious.

The Two Fridas, 1939 (Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City) “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” ~Frida Kahlo

On the left, sits the Frida, post her divorce with Rivera. This Frida has a bleeding and exposed heart with her bloused ripped open. A vein in the centre conjoins her to the second Frida on the right. Neither does this Frida bleed, nor is her heart exposed and broken. Rather, she holds a tiny portrait of Rivera in her hand, symbolizing her love and devotion for her cheating husband, Diego Rivera. The two Fridas hold hands in a tight clasp. Their bond is reverberated by the vein that connects them. Whereas the Frida on the right hold Diego’s picture, the one on the left clamps down on that tie with Rivera with a haemostat. (Herrera, 2016) As a former student of Medical sciences, Kahlo graphically portrayed human anatomy in her works. The solitude produced by frequent bed rest—stemming from polio, her near-fatal bus accident, and a lifetime of operations—was one of the cruel constants in Kahlo’s life. Photographs by artists within her milieu, like Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Imogen Cunningham, confirm that “Kahlo's self-portraits were largely accurate and that she avoided embellishing her features.” Indeed, numerous photographs feature Kahlo in bed, often painting despite restraints. Kahlo’s impetus for painting was her urge to cope with these intense periods of convalescence and recovery. Nevertheless, the isolation caused by her health problems was always present. (Bravo)

This painting is a wonderful example of an autobiographical work of art, wherein the artist’s own thought processes and traumatic memories have been fiercely exposed by employing certain symbols that convey to the viewer, the mostly undecipherable script of the unconscious.

A Cross-cultural Analysis Artists have a tendency to be influenced by the cultures and societies surrounding them and these influences are manifested in their works. (Toku, 2000) On analysing these works from a cross-cultural perspective, it is not very difficult to find certain spatial similarities and differences in the way they are drawn and painted. In order to describe a meaningful relationship between the nationality of these artists and their works, it is imperative that the concept of a “nation” be defined first. “Nations are identifiable as meaningful cultural units as a result of their internal cultural diversity, not as a result of an internal homogeneity.” (Macdonald, 2002) The common thread connecting Magritte, Dali and Kahlo is the existence of Surrealist elements in their works. Even though, all of these paintings are similarly bizarre, yet they are unique in their own ways. This uniqueness is attributed to the fact that each of these three artists hail from three different nations, therefore, dissimilarities between the colours, the facial features and clothes of the subjects and also the background of each of these paintings can all convey to us the cultural differences between their respective homelands.

The fact that Magritte hails from Belgium can be clearly witnessed in his works. The skies painted by Magritte as in Golconda (1953) and The Human Condition (1933) are a near perfect representation of the bland Belgian skies and his subjects with bowler hats and overcoats in Decalcomania (1966), Golconda (1953), The Son of Man (1964) accurately depict his affection of the suburban lifestyle of the French-speaking Belgian petit bourgeois. (Searle, 2011) Hercule Poirot, for instance, the greatest fictional detectives of all time was a French-speaking Belgian who dressed up exactly the same as Magritte’s faceless subjects. In fact, this speaks volumes about the situation in Belgium in the early 1900s where both fascists and anti-fascists existed. After World War II, Magritte himself joined the Belgium communist party.

Many of Dalí’s paintings such as The Persistence of Memory (1931), The Elephants (1948), The Temptation of St. Anthony (1946), Dream Casued by the Flight of a Bee (1944), Living Still Life (1956) and Girl at the Window (1925) reflect the beaches of Catalonia, his native place. In fact, young Dalí, along with his younger sister Ana Maria and his parents, often visited their summer home in the coastal village of Cadaques, where his parents built him an art studio even before he joined art school. (Biography.com Editors, 2017) It is significant to note that Catalan culture, over the years has developed its own distinct identity and given its healthy mix of European and Mediterranean cultures, Barcelona; its chief city has become a paradigm for modernity and design. In fact, not only Dalí, but also a number of other avant- garde artists like Miró, Picasso and Tápies hail from this region of north-eastern Spain that is so conducive to novel ideas in art and design. While the world was engulfed in the horrors of the Second World War, an egotistical Dalí, having been expelled from the Surrealist movement, was embraced by the United States of America. The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1959), perhaps glorifies this bond that Dalí shared with America, owing to the fact that in those days some historians claimed that Columbus was actually from Catalonia and not Italy.

The heavy influence of Mexican culture on Frida Kahlo’s works cannot be more evident that it already is. Bright colours, dramatic symbolism, an unapologetic rendering of harrowing content and the native Mexican costume with particular emphasis on her hair and make-up mark Kahlo’s works. The traditional Tehuana dress with Aztec symbols occurs in many of her major works including Remembrance of an Open Wound (1938), The Two Fridas (1939) and The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me and Senor Xolotl (1949). Born in 1907, the same year in which the Mexican revolution started, Frida Kahlo is the epitome of everything Mexican. As she sought her own roots, Frida Kahlo also voiced concern for her country as it struggled for an independent cultural identity. (Helland, 1991) The Bus (1929), is a critical appreciation of Mexico’s class divide and even her repetitive portrayal of symbols like skeletons, hearts, Coatlicue, birds, thorns, flowers and death, speak not only of her personal struggle for a healthy life, but of a nation’s struggle. A much acclaimed piece of art by Kahlo, Self-Portrait on the Border between Mexico and the United States (1932) is an intensely graphic work showing the stark contrast between the highly industrialized, robot-like United States and the agricultural, pre-industrial Mexico. It was this potent absorption in her homeland that culminated into her being revered as a cult figure by the Mexican people.

EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION For most of its history, Art has been guided by a mission, to either glorify religion or to speak well of the state. Surrealism though came as a breath of fresh air to artists who drew inspiration from their own personal life experiences.

After having undertaken a critical analysis of these works, understanding Freudian postulates and theories becomes a much more interesting and simple task.

René Magritte employed visual illusions and elements that probe one’s unconscious in his works. He relied on Automatism as his technique, producing works that beguile us into admitting the veracity of certain constructed realities that have been so entrenched in our minds and also works that are inclusive of elements that are idyllic and nerve-tingling at the same time. Thus, the painting of the two lovers indulging in an intimate act of kissing, spookily enshrouded by the veils is actually a portal into the artist’s tumultuous personality.

Dalí, the egotistical showman, brings to us though his works which he himself called “hand- painted dream photographs” the best pictorial representation of Freud’s theories. Pebbles on a beach become lithographs for communicating to the viewer the petrifying and turbulent abstractions of the unconscious and a canvas becomes Dalí’s medium to convey to the appreciator of Psychoanalysis, the ineffable world of Freudian Dream Theory.

Kahlo, on the other hand, decides not to put herself in the same box as Magritte and Dalí by not calling herself a Surrealist. However, for her, painting was a panacea that offered her a cure, for what would otherwise have been a dysfunctional life. Both Dalí and Kahlo successfully bring to the surface the insecurities that seethe in the Freudian unconscious

owing to their unforgiving limerence for Gala and Rivera respectively. While Dalí employed his unique paranoiac-critical method, Kahlo chose to rely on the simpler techniques of thought recollection matured by the solitude that accompanied her painful life.

Culture also plays an important role in shaping our personality. Since the ultimate manifestation of each artist’s creativity has led to the sharing of multiple facets of his own life, a sublimation of cultural and nationalistic elements into art is unavoidable. While Dalí’s works disclose a deep-rooted hiraeth for his bittersweet propinquity to Catalonia, Magritte and Kahlo’s works tell us of the socio-political situation in Belgium and Mexico in the early 20th century.

Thus, each of these six artworks possesses certain elements of Surrealism, which have been drawn from Freud. The paper has been successful in outlining the various overlaps between admissions from painters (and in the absence of such admissions the elements in their paintings) and Freudian postulates. Thus, the works of Surrealist artists, with their unparalleled eloquence, make us aware of sonder, enabling us to seek connections with people and attempting to unravel the mysteries of the mind, which we realise in hindsight, is the ultimate aim of Psychology.

Acknowledgments The author appreciates all those who participated in the study and helped to facilitate the research process.

Conflict of Interests: The author declared no conflict of interests.

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How to cite this article: Nema N (2017). Psychology in Art: The Influence of Freudian Theories on Surrealist Art. International Journal of Indian Psychology, Vol. 4, (4), DIP:18.01.119/20170404, DOI:10.25215/0404.119