Anguish in the meanders of art : the relationship between anguish and processes of artistic creativity.
Date
2014-01-07
Authors
Carvalho, Maria Celia Delgado de
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Abstract
This study investigates the link between anguish and artistic creativity. It became possible to
follow this link through the concept of anguish and its related aspects that were explored in the
works of Jacques Lacan. The concept of art that was adopted in this study is based on the
theories of Georges Dickie and Arthur Danto, which explain the role of the idea of institutional
art through the artworld.
The current study pursued its enquiries through the analysis of the texts of interviews with
selected South African artists namely Albert Munyai, Azwimpheleli Gerson Magoro and Norman
Catherine and through selected artworks by these three artists.
A mix of discourse analysis and iconography was employed to analyse the data. Anguish is an
affect that is not readily apparent or detectable but is more likely to be recognized as something
displaced, inverted or adrift. Therefore, anguish in the data was approached from diverse
angles.
Discourse analysis helped to find patterns in the language that linked to signs of anguish as
described through a psychoanalytical framework. For the analysis of the artworks, a combination
of iconography and the categories of the borromean knot was adopted. These methodologies
permitted the translation of aspects of artworks into texts.
Anguish as an affect related with the absence of an absolute meaning for existence may also be
present in the motivation to create something from nothingness. There is an indication that
through creating art one may be trying to symbolize the real that affects the subject.