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The Enigma of the Hour 100 Years of Psychoanalytic Thought

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The Enigma of the Hour 100 Years of Psychoanalytic Thought The Enigma of the Hour 100 Years of Psychoanalytic Thought An exhibition to mark the centenary of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis curated by Simon Moretti with Goshka Macuga and Dana Birksted-Breen Freud Museum London Exhibition Guide On the occasion of the centenary of a return to disintegration of the death drive Linder, Goshka Macuga, Simon The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, the of Thanatos. In dialogue with the curators, exhibition The Enigma of the Hour: 100 Years the group of researchers and psychoanalysts of Psychoanalytic Thought presents archival explored in collaboration various aspects of the Moretti, Daniel Silver, Paloma material around specific themes, which touch history of the International Journal, the fruit of on the origins and life of The International which is exhibited in the Display Case in the Journal, alongside contemporary artworks. Exhibition Room and elaborated on in the Varga Weisz with additional Originally conceived by the Journal’s editor- Compendium to it. in-chief Dana Birksted-Breen and curated works by Duncan Grant, by artists Simon Moretti and Goshka Macuga The exhibition includes new commissions with Dana Birksted-Breen, the exhibition by Simon Moretti and Goshka Macuga, brings together themes central to both psycho- made in response to the themes and archives Barbara Ker-Seymer & John analysis and art: translation, transformation, chosen, as well as especially selected works temporality, the unconscious, metaphor and by their invited artists, Linder, Daniel Silver dreams. The theme of Oedipus, which was so and Paloma Varga Weisz, and loans from the Banting, Rodrigo Moynihan critical to Freud’s theorizing, with Oedipus British Psychoanalytic Society, and the Tate and the Sphinx from a painting by Ingres Gallery, including works by Duncan Grant, chosen as logo of the Journal, also appears Barbara Ker-Seymer with John Banting and as a leitmotif in the exhibition. The artworks Rodrigo Moynihan, along with items from in the exhibition address these ideas, creating The Collection of the Freud Museum. a conversation that reverberates throughout the evocative rooms of the Freud Museum. The Freud Museum, a natural home for an Drawing also on the work of an international exhibition relating to the centenary of the group of psychoanalysts and researchers Journal which was established by Ernest Jones invited and led by Dana Birksted-Breen, the under the direction of Sigmund Freud in order archival presentation explores the prehistory to diffuse his ideas to the English speaking world, of the journal, its beginnings and connections became itself an important component of the with the Bloomsbury Group, the hidden role exhibition. It was Freud’s home at the end of women in its early years, the influence of of his life after he fled from Nazi persecution classical art and culture on Freud’s ideas and in Vienna thanks to the help of Ernest Jones. the visual identity of the International Journal. The Enigma of the Hour, the title of the The Journal itself embodies the development of exhibition takes its inspiration from a psychoanalytic thought over one hundred years painting by Giorgio de Chirico. De Chirico, since it was established in 1920. The exhibition a contemporary of Freud, evokes with his takes a dual approach: a historical investigation paintings some of the disturbing states of ‘Like the artist, the analyst tries to take possession into archival material with a specific focus on mind that we encounter in the ‘analytic hour’ of the word again by freeing it from the suffocation the early vicissitudes of the establishment and of the consulting room, those states in which of everyday use…’ — Jorge Canestri, 1994 development of the Journal on the one hand, devastation and ensuing emptiness and anomy and a response by the artists to overarching take over, empty of others, distorted, timeless. ‘Fix on Oedipus your eyes, Who resolved the themes in psychoanalysis and the work of the The enigma in the analytic hour, an ‘hour’ both Texts by dark enigma, noblest champion and most wise. International Journal on the other. Freud was timeless and strictly bound by time, the search Dana Birksted-Breen Like a star his envied fortune mounted beaming preoccupied with transformation, movement for an answer, which can never be fully found. Lucy La Farge far and wide: Now he sinks in seas of anguish, from unconscious to conscious, movements Simon Moretti whelmed beneath a raging tide…’ — Oedipus of progression and regression, the forward Dana Birksted-Breen Adele Tutter Rex by Sophocles quoted by Sigmund Freud in promoting life force of Eros, in perpetual Simon Moretti Carina Weiss The Interpretation of Dreams, 1900 struggle with the compulsion to repeat and Goshka Macuga 2 3 Hall The one Egyptian and three Etruscan mirrors presented here are what remain of Freud’s previously large collection; we do not know the disposition of the others. The first 1 Linking classical and contemporary representations of the mirror, depicting a mythological scene (Museum number Daniel Silver human body, two works from the recent series After Bath 3082), was a gift to Anna Freud: a suitable gift for a woman, After Bath Mannequins 1, 2018 Mannequins reference both Roman busts of antiquity, and its ancient purpose deemed “essential for a woman’s Marble and Yellow Onix, plinth a modern derivative thereof, the mannequin commonly adornment in life,” as Lucilla Burn writes. They were also 46 × 34 × 20 cm used in window displays. Further elaborating the tension “especially crucial for the survival of her soul after death” Courtesy Frith Street Gallery between past and present, the marble and onyx material (Gamwell and Walles 1989, p.107). Indeed, most of these formed over many millennia contrasts with the turning types of mirrors were found in graves, which brings to of the head, suggesting a sudden gesture that recalls the mind Freud’s impressive dream of descending into an old fossilized Pompeian citizens forever trapped in time. These Etruscan grave; he felt reconciled with his own death out expressive heads are further manipulated through direct of a sense of having been blessed by the satisfaction of his carving, as if defaced by acts of violence or gradual erosion. archaeological interests (Freud 1900a, p.454; Freud 1927c, Silver’s interest in the iconic mannequin form also has a pp.16–17; Weiss and Weiss 1984, p.205). CW personal aspect, as the artist is related to Adel Rootstein, founder of Rootstein Display Mannequins, which remains the world’s leading mannequin manufacturer. SM Freud’s Study and Library 2 Referencing Freud’s concept of the archaeology of the 4 As if an intermediary between person and object, this life Simon Moretti mind, this screen print engages with themes of temporality, Paloma Varga Weisz sized articulated figure carved from wood brings to mind for Stuart Morgan, 2015–19 metaphysical time, and the unconscious by juxtaposing Man, bent, 2019 the jointed wooden anatomical model, capable of assuming Screen print images of tactile objects that evoke sound and sight. Limewood, carpet various positions and roles, in service to the artist with 100 × 76 cm Recalling Freud’s collection of antiquities, they include 200 × 70 × 70 cm which it is associated. Elaborating the complex identity Courtesy the artist a bronze Minoan figure that had once held a mirror to its Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ of the artist as observer, performer, and subject, this Commissioned by The International beholder; a lustrous mother-of-pearl shell; and a sixteenth indeterminate figure also references the artist’s rigorous Journal of Psychoanalysis century figure of a Jack, which in early automaton clocks training as a traditional woodcarver in Bavaria, as well struck the bell on the hour, symbolising the town crier that as her layered personal iconography, which draws on in times past called out the hours. for Stuart Morgan honors ancient and folkloric mythology. SM the friendship and influence of the critic Stuart Morgan. SM 5 The uncanny merging of a shell with the back of a head 3 If we can trust the memory of Robert Lustig, one of Linder bearing a stylised 1930s hairstyle, Inflora portrays a site Mirror, Bronze, Etruscan, 350–250BC Sigmund Freud’s antique dealers between 1927 and Inflora, 2013 of excavation: an exploration of the artist’s concerns, both Mirror, Bronze, Prenestine, late 4th 1938; Freud’s personal antique collection contained Photomontage formal and personal. It is presented here in dialogue with century to first half of 3rd century BC a large series of Etruscan mirrors. Lustig describes how 19.1 × 16.5 cm the heads and death masks from Freud’s collection that Mirror, Egyptian, copper alloy, on one occasion, Freud chose five from a drawer filled Courtesy Modern Art inhabit his study. SM 1550–1069BC with thirty to forty examples. This was in exchange for Mirror, Bronze, Etruscan, 350–250BC. another item, which Freud urgently wanted to buy, but ‘This photomontage was made shortly after my father Prestine late 4th century to first half without spending too much money (Ransohoff 1977, died, and acts as a memoriam. It includes a page from of 3rd century BC, perhaps with a pp.145–46; Weiss and Weiss 1984, p.204; Weiss and The Art and Craft of Hairdressing, which was published in replica or reinforced image Weiss 1989, p.63; personal letter from Robert Lustig 1931, the same year that Barbara Hepworth pierced the All collection of the to Carina Weiss dated 10 March 1986). form for the first time. The shell motif is both homage Freud Museum London and cipher.’ — Linder 4 5 6 On surface appearing something in between a geological International Institute of Intellectual bearing representations of two women psychoanalysts, Joan Daniel Silver specimen and a prehistorical figure, Moon Face was para- Co-operation, Strachey, 2019 Riviere and Alix Strachey, whose work of translation for Moon Face, 2018 doxically created rather swiftly, modeled in clay, a response Rubber, resin the International Journal was insufficiently recognised and Glazed fired clay to the artist’s impressions of a dancer in his studio.
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