- Psychology of art
The psychology of art is an interdisciplinary field that studies the
perception ,cognition and characteristics of art and its production. For the use ofart materials as a form ofpsychotherapy , seeart therapy . The psychology of art is related toarchitectural psychology andenvironmental psychology .Fact|date=September 2007The work of
Theodor Lipps , a Munich-based research psychologist, played an important role in the early development of the concept of "art psychology" in the early decade of the twentieth century. His most important contribution in this respect was his attempt to theorize the question of Einfuehlung or "empathy ," a term that was to become a key element in many subsequent theories of "art psychology".Fact|date=September 2007Scope
In the narrow sense, there is no discipline “the psychology of art,” for unlike other branches of psychology, with their numerous academies and research programs, there are few Psychology of Art programs in the universities. Nonetheless, the literature on the topic is extensive, given that the issues addressed by art psychology have attracted both professional psychologists as well as non-professionals; it has attracted those who write about the arts, including music and architecture, and those who produce it.Fact|date=September 2007
The general principles that guide most of the work in art psychology are
# that art is perceptual and that it can thus be studied by asking questions about ourperceptions .
# that art operates in a cultural continuum and that one can come to terms with the continuum through analysis of art.
# that the production of art is a meaningful enterprise and as such is an important avenue by which one comes to terms with humancreativity .Fact|date=September 2007Art psychology developed in opposition to 19th century philosophical
aesthetics which approached art by first asking aboutbeauty andmetaphysics . For most art psychologists, beauty is culturally or socially contingent. Art psychology was, however, also developed initially in opposition to Husserlianphenomenology which made no normative judgments about meaning. Most branches of art psychology emphasize the primacy ofconsciousness , but there are variants which engage the question of thesubconscious . Generally speaking, however, those interested in the psychology of art express an optimism about art and its meanings that moves them away from the concepts discussed byFreud .Fact|date=September 2007History
1880-1950
One of the earliest to integrate psychology with
art history wasHeinrich Wölfflin (1864 – 1945), a Swiss art critic and historian, whose dissertation "Prolegomena zu einer Psychologie der Architektur" (1886) attempted to show that architecture could be understood from a purely psychological (as opposed to a historical-progressivist) point of view. [Mark Jarzombek . "The Psychologizing of Modernity" (Cambridge University Press, 2000)]Another important figure in the development of art psychology was
Wilhelm Worringer , who provided some of the earliest theoretical justification for expressionist art.Richard Müller-Freienfels was another important early theorist.Fact|date=September 2007Numerous artists in the twentieth century began to be influenced by the psychological argument, including
Naum Gabo ,Paul Klee ,Vasily Kandinsky , and somewhatJosef Albers andGyorgy Kepes . The French adventurer and film theoristAndré Malraux was also interested in the topic and wrote the bookLa Psychologie de l'Art (1947-9).1950-present
Though the disciplinary foundations of art psychology were first developed in Germany, there were soon advocates, in psychology, the arts or in philosophy, pursuing their own variants in the USSR, England (
Clive Bell andHerbert Read ), France (André Malraux ,Jean-Paul Weber , for example), and the US.Fact|date=September 2007In the US, the philosophical premises of art psychology were strengthened - and given political valence - in the work of
John Dewey . [Alan Ryan, "John Dewey and the High Time of American Liberalism". W.W. Norton 1995. ] His "'Art as Experience" was published in 1934, and was the basis for significant revisions in teaching practices whether in the kingergarten or in the university. Manuel Barkan, head of the Arts Education School of Fine and Applied Arts at Ohio State University, and one of the many pedagoges infulenced by the writings of Dewey, explains, for example, in his book, "The Foundations of Art Education" (1955), that the aesthetic education of children prepares the child for a life in a complex democracy. Dewey himself played a seminal role in setting up the program of theBarnes Foundation in Philadelphia, which became famous for its attempt to integrate art into the classroom experience.Fact|date=September 2007The growth of art psychology between 1950 and 1970 also coincided with the expansion of art history and museum programs. The popularity of
Gestalt psychology in the 1950s added further weight to the discipline. The seminal work was "Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality" (1951), that was co-authored byFritz Perls , Paul Goodman, and Ralph Hefferline. The writings ofRudolf Arnheim (born 1904) were also particularly influential during this period. His "Toward a Psychology of Art" (Berkeley: University of California Press) was published in 1966.Art therapy drew on many of the lessons of art psychology and tried to implement them in the context of ego repair. [ see for example: Arthur Robbins and Linda Beth Sibley, Creative Art Therapy" . (Brunner/Mazel, 1976).]Marketing also began to draw on the lessons of art psychology in the layout of stores as well as in the placement and design of commercial goods. [See for example, " Creating images and the psychology of marketing communication", Edited by Lynn R. Kahle & Chung-Hyun Kim (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006).]Art psychology, generally speaking, was at odds with the principles of Freudian
psychoanalysis with many art psychologists critiquing, what they interpreted as, its reductivism. The writings ofCarl Jung , however, had a favorable reception among art psychologists given his optimistic portrayal of the role of art and his belief that the contents of the personal unconscious and, more particularly, the collective unconscious, could be accessed by art and other forms of cultural expression. cite book |title=Man and his Symbols |last=Jung |first=Carl |authorlink=Carl G. Jung |coauthors=Marie-Louise von Franz (ed.); Aniela Jaffé |year=1964 |publisher=Aldus Books Ltd. |location=London |isbn=0-385-05221-9 |pages=18-103; 230-271By the 1970s, the centrality of art psychology in academy began to wane. Artists became more interested in
psychoanalysis [Griselda Pollock (ed.), "Psychoanalysis and the Image". (Oxford: Blackwell. 2006).] andfeminism , [Catherine de Zegher (ed.), "Inside the Visible". (MIT Press, Boston, 1996)] and architects inphenomenology and the writings ofWittgenstein ,Lyotard andDerrida . As for art and architectural historians, they critiqued psychology for being anti-contextual and culturally naive.Erwin Panofsky , who had a tremendous impact on the shape of art history in the US, argued that historians should focus less on what is seen and more on what was thought. [Michael Podro "The Critical Historians of Art (Yale University Press, 1982).] [Dana Arnold and Margaret Iverson (eds.) "Art and Thought". Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2003.] Today, psychology still plays an important role in art discourse, though mainly in the field of art appreciation. [See:Mark Jarzombek , Ibid.]Because of the growing interest in personality theory—especially in connection with the work of Isabel Briggs Myers and Katherine Briggs (developers of the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ) [http://www.myersbriggs.org/] , contemporary theorists are investigating the relationship between personality type and art. Patricia Dinkelaker and John Fudjack have addressed the relationship between artists’ personality types and works of art; approaches to art as a reflection of functional preferences associated with personality type; and the function of art in society in light of personality theory. [http://tap3x.net/EMBTI/j7readintro.html]References
Bibliography
* Mark Jarzombek, "The Psychologizing of Modernity". Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN
* Alan Ryan, "John Dewey and the High Time of American Liberalism". W.W. Norton 1995, ISBN
* Michael Podro, "The Critical Historians of Art", Yale University Press, 1982. ISBN
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