Existentialism in European Art - Essay Example

Existentialism in Post-World War II European Art And Its Relevance in the Present I. Introduction World War II saw the destruction of various parts of Europe. The aftermath of the post-war era was a cold, hard reality that many people had to face. During this trying time, people began to question the nature of their existence and selfhood. As a result, existentialist philosophy cropped up through the works of Sartre. Existentialism reared its head in the writings of Giacometti and were found in the work of Francis Bacon. Albert Camus's writings were touchstones of existentialism. Not only that, but also one author-Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze (commonly referred to as "Wols")-also wrote essential pieces regarding existentialism. Throughout all of these writings, it will be made obvious that existentialism had a great impact on post-World War II European art. This art is still relevant today for all practical purposes and will be demonstrated as such. Europe had been left ravaged by Hitler and the Nazis. There was a great deal of despair in the region over the fact that for six years (1939-1945), basically Europe had been Hitler's stomping grounds. In 1938, Austria fell; in 1939, Germany invaded Czechoslovakia; also in 1939, Poland fell; Belgium, France, and the Netherlands surrendered in 1940; and Luxembourg fell in 1940 and was annexed to Germany.1 Then, also in 1940, Denmark and Norway were invaded, and Romania surrendered to Germany; Germany entered the Soviet Union in 1941 and lost; and then Yugoslavia, Greece, and Estonia all surrendered to Germany in 1941.2 In the aftermath of World War II, people were devastated. Cities were destroyed and in shambles. There was not much hope that matters would improve, at least for a very long time. The reconstruction process was oftentimes slow and difficult. Several people were left refugees. Not only this, but there was a financial crisis in Europe. Europe's entire economy was left in ruins. The manufacturing sector was all but in arrears. By the end of the war, the U.S.S.R. (the United Soviet Socialist Republic) controlled a majority of Europe. In most countries, the U.S.S.R. put communist factions in control. Also, a few Baltic nations were annexed to the U.S.S.R. Germany was perhaps affected in the worst way in some senses of the word. There was an economic depression of sorts, and the country had to be entirely rid of Nazi policy and symbolism. Several German and Polish people were banished from their countries of origin due to the way Europe was divided based on post-war treaties. Germany was required to make reparations to several countries, notwithstanding. Much of these accoutrements had to be made in order to pacify the Allies' thirst for power in a declining German economy. In many ways, this was payback for the Nazism that had ravaged Europe. Germany was reduced to being in a bad situation financially, about where it had been before the start of World War II economically. At the end of World War II, people were seeking answers about existence and selfhood. After having lived through the concentration camps and the occupations, Europe was ready for a paradigm shift in the way people connected to one another (themselves) as well as other people. People were seeking more out of life. They wanted to know answers to the questions "Who am I" and "Why am I here" Post-World War II, many people were left wondering what to do with themselves. Now that they were free, people had the time on their hands to finally navel-gaze and be disaffected observers. For now, they were not the ones being interrogated. It was their turn to interrogate others and ask of life all of the questions that filled their souls with longing. People were struggling not to be bored (when they weren't in dire need of worrying about surviving, of course). And, surviving was an entirely different topic altogether that needed to be addressed. Many survivors of World War II were left with survivor guilt, asking questions such as, "Why did I make it but he or she didn't" "What makes me special" As people were laden with guilt and concern over these topics, a new form of thinking began to emerge within the context of post-World War II European writing. Suddenly, people had reasons to transcend all of their problems-desire, angst, despair, depression, loneliness-and so on and so forth. What came through in the writing eventually became manifested in European art. People were struggling to express themselves in this time of doubt and uncertainty in order to try to make sense of a confusing environment. Thus, people turned to the philosophy of existentialism and existentialist art in order to calm their worries. Existentialism seemed like a rational solution that would help circumvent the quandary into which post-World War II Europe had placed many desperate and struggling people looking for answers of any kind to hold onto in a therapeutic way. Gabriel Marcel first coined the term "existentialism," and, as an atheist, was thought have offered a "bridge between the atheistic existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre and the theism of Sren Kierkegaard.3 Existentialism was, for all practical purposes, is "a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibilitysearching to find out who and what they are throughout life[choosing] their experiences, beliefs, and outlookwithoutan objective form of truth...be[ing] responsible without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions."4 Existentialist philosophy requires that the thinker be divorced from moralistic notions that come from a rulebook. In other words, existentialism is a very free-flowing, stream-of-consciousness-embracing theory. The journey into the depths of existentialism is one that should be welcomed. Primarily, existentialism focuses on being, on the essence of living. It is this essence which connotes all the important elements of life-including: 1) existence and selfhood; 2) anguish, the existence of man, and despair; and 3) absurdity and rebellion. As is reflected in art that lends to existentialist philosophy, there are worlds of meaning that have been developed as such. These elements are still important today as they are manifest as cultural icons. II. Sartre In Jean-Paul Sartre's Notebooks for an Ethics, he says, "Happiness has to be installed in each person as a state of affairs completely cut off from the process that brought it about and, in particular, from the real situationContradiction: if one does take care to give him happiness, it is because he is a free creature--but in order to give it to him, one turns him into an object."5 Jean-Paul Sartre was an atheist who saw the world from the perspective of humans being responsible for their own destinies. He theorized that existence and selfhood were twin concepts that engendered much speculation within the realm of Existentialism. Existence, to Sartre, encompassed all the wonderful as well as the bittersweet moments in life. He thought that in order to live a full life, one had to experience the full range of human emotion. Since Sartre did not believe in God or a god per se, his rationalism guided and informed his existential philosophy. This is in great contrast to one of his other contemporaries, Paul Tillich. Paul Tillich was a theologian who spent many years teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York after having been classically trained at universities in Germany. Tillich's faith in God informed his existentialist philosophy, and God played a large role in human decisions. Although this is a somewhat different view than Sartre's, the shared element that Tillich's philosophy had with Sartre's view was an overarching theme of loneliness and/or despair. Oftentimes, this "despair" one speaks of deals mainly with a sinner. The sinner is then reconciled to the Savior through the revelation of his or her relationship with God. Indeed, according to Paul Tillich, "There are existentialist elements in early Christian theology -- very outspoken elements for instance in Augustine and his doctrine of man's estrangements from his true essence, from his union with God as his creative ground. There are existentialist elements in classical theology, in the Middle Ages, and in Protestantism."6 This estrangement from God was not really a novel concept completely, as in Christian theology great emphasis is placed on their being a separation between God and man due to sin. Fortunately, God exists in order to save man. That was the standard thinking. In fact, one must then naturally come to the questions, "Why does God exist, why does man exist, and what is, indeed, selfhood Luckily, existentialism was a type of philosophy that could be molded and shaped to adapt the situation at hand. For Sartre, a godless existence made sense. However, Tillich would have argued for the existence of God, which then gave man a reason to exist. The idea behind this was that man was created for God, and not the other way around. Meanwhile, Sartre would have seen God as a being created for the purpose of humans needing to fulfill a need to have the feeling like they were cared for, to be succinct. Tillich, however, was of the mind that God did indeed exist. Man's existence, therefore, was God's wish. God willed man into being. According to Tillich, man existed for God, as well as for other humans-with the idea that humans are relational beings. The notion of selfhood is an entirely different topic altogether. Selfhood is supposed to indicate how a person's personality is. After World War II, people had time to finally think about themselves for once instead of worrying about everyone else. Tillich was, therefore, a theistic existentialist who firmly believed in selfhood as well as the existence of God and the existence of man for God. He said, "Existentialism has become the style of our period in all realms of life. Even the analytic philosophers pay tribute to it by withdrawing into formal problems and leaving the field of material problems to the existentialists in art and literature."7 "The movement of modern existentialism in visual art starts with Czanne in FranceOr, consider another artist, Van Gogh, and, for instance, his Starry NightThe Norwegian Munch could be added hereOne of Picasso's most important pictures bears the title, Guernica"8 Other existentialist artists, according to Tillich, included "BraqueChagallChirico[and] Goya", which will not be discussed as much as the previous four artists.9 How can anyone forget Paul Czanne's depiction of sunflowers The sunflowers represented the essence of being of plants-and the way the artwork is presented, it reveals shades of Impressionist musings, but retains a distinctly Existentialist tone. Van Gogh's Starry Night is an Impressionist painting but it also shows signs of being Existential in nature. One is not focusing on a painting about just a valley alone, but about the essence of a dark valley on a starry night. Starry Night has such broad appeal because it is somewhat surreal in nature, and lends to the feeling of hope that such a landscape offers. This is the intended effect that Van Gogh would have hoped to have had. Edvard Munch's painting Scream is very much an Existentialist painting, for example. In fact, Scream is about a man with his mouth open screaming, demonstrating the pure essence of fear. This is another element of life that existentialists would have had to deal with in their search for a transcendental approach. Such an approach was not only welcome fodder for existentialism, but was also realistic with respect to what happened in peoples' lives on an everyday basis. Picasso's work Guernica was an existentialist leitmotif of the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Guernica is an emotionally moving piece, generally because it shows the suffering of war. Similarly, another piece of art which demonstrates Picasso's existentialist tendencies was Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which was painted in a perspective which is existential-phenomenological. "Picasso's paintingwhose title refers to prostitutes in Barcelona, worked on from 1906-1907 proved to be the painting that launched Cubism into 20th Century Art. It also marked the climax of primitivism in the 19th Century."10 Sren Kierkegaard-who is considered the father of Existentialism-"was a Lutheran, and it is easy to detect the presence of Martin Luther in his religious reflections. Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine,Descartes, and Immanuel Kant also left deep impresses on Kierkegaard's thinking."11 In a letter to Peter Wilhelm Lund dated August 31, 1835, Sren Kierkegaard was quoted to have said that "the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die."12 Every man or woman, in essence, must understand his or her own selfhood enough to realize what cause to which he or she is willing to dedicate one's life. This blossoming of the person as an independently functioning human being is part of what the notion of selfhood means. It is this purpose that makes the absurdities of life more bearable. Kierkegaard also wrote a piece which was called Either/Or, which highlighted some important notions in his philosophy. Besides the concept that there is dualism in the world, Either/Or suggests that there is simultaneously a possibility to have a Both/And option with regard to dualism. Truly, Buddhism dealt more with the here and now. Kierkegaard also focused on the future from a theologically Christian point of view. These are both touchstones of Buddhist philosophy, which lends much to existentialism in the way of its teachings. "The Buddhadefined his teaching as eschewing answers to philosophical questions and dealing only with the existential fact that 'there is birth...ageing... dying...grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation, and despair' and their 'suppression... here and now.'"13 Buddhist practice is mainly about learning how to deal with the suffering of life, by basically admitting that all life is suffering. Friedrich Nietzsche-the famous philosopher and existentialist-said, "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."14 This connotes a deeper spiritual meaning, realizing that our actions have consequences. Nietzsche was the philosopher who declared "God is dead." His father was a pastor and he mistrusted religion and God deeply, which led to his more altruistic beliefs with regard to firmly not believing in God. According to Karl Jaspers-yet another great existentialist philosopher-"the differences between Kierkegaard and Nietzsche seem much less important than that which they have in common. What mattered most to them, does not matter[Jaspers would] dismiss Kierkegaard's 'forced Christianity' no less than Nietzsche's 'forced anti-Christianity' as relatively unimportant; he discounts Nietzsche's ideas as absurdities, and he does not heed Kierkegaard's central opposition to philosophy."15 Karl Barth, another Christian theologian with existentialist tendencies, said, "Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life."16 Barth thought that indeed, men had to have a notion that part of having selfhood was being aware of one's surroundings and real-life experiences to inform their theological viewpoints. To contrast, Martin Buber, a Jewish writer and philosopher with existentialist leanings, said, "The atheist staring from his attic window is often nearer to God than the believer caught up in his own false image of God."17 Perhaps Buber felt this way because the average person may not have lofty theological underpinnings. Rather, to Buber the average person struggling with life's issues actually may understand God more than someone who studies religion and theology for a living. "According to [Martin] Heidegger's writings, human being-as opposed to human beings-is comprised of four components: concern, being-toward-death, existence, and moods. Dasein18 is the act of "being there" in essence. Without being something, there is no existence."19 Thus, this goes back to the notion of existence being a key concept in existentialism. Russian philosopher Lev Shestov said, "This type of philosophy presupposes, that the mystery of being is comprehendible only within the human existential condition."20 Another Russian philosopher said something similar, that defined the bounds of reality being truth, which exemplified existentialism. Nikolai Berdyaev said, "There is a tragic clash between Truth and the world. Pure undistorted truth burns up the world."21 "For [Christian theologian Rudolf] Bultmann, the theologian of the demythologization of Christianity, inauthentic existence is tied to the past, to fact, to the world, while authentic existence is open to the future, to the nonfact, to the nonworld; i.e., to the end of the world and to God."22 Thus, for Bultmann-whose theories majorly revolutionized the way Christians approached Christianity-he believed real-life experiences were how one experienced God. The notion of selfhood and existence, thusly, were subjects that mattered much to existentialists. III. Giacometti & Francis Bacon "In the mid-1930s, influenced by the terrible social and political changes that were taking place across Europe, [Alberto] Giacometti began to develop heads and nudes in a signature styleGiacomettipours out his doubts, his suffering and his creative hopes as very few artists have been capable of doing before or since."23 Anguish characterized Giacometti's artwork. As was mentioned, suffering was a key emotion that was conveyed through his work. "Perhaps no artist of the 20th century expressed in painting the tragedy of existence more realistically than Francis Bacon. This does not mean the dramatic force of an abstract condition of human lifebut the inner and unrepresentable sense of individual and intimate existencerenderinga violently tragic expression."24 Francis Bacon obviously, through the dark colors he used and the tone he conveyed through his paintings, epitomized despair and the condition of man. "Francis Bacon discusse[d] the link between fact and sensation in his interviews with David Sylvester."25 When Sylvester interviewed Bacon, Bacon describes the brutality of fact, 'where painting is returning fact onto the nervous system in a more violent way.'26 Thus, as one can see, a key theme in existentialist paintings that were done conveyed this notion of despair, all too common as topics for these existential philosophers. Anguish and despair are two key factors evident in these artists' works. IV. Albert Camus & Wols Existential phenomenology is a philosophy based on Heidegger's philosophy. Existential phenomenology was developed originally by mathematician and theorist Edmund Husserl. It was Kierkegaard who used phenomenology to relate to almost any subject well. Then, existentialism relied on the factors of absurdity and rebellion to stay alive. Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French existential phenomenologist. Maurice Merleau-Ponty "developed his existential philosophy by drawing heavily upon the works of Edmund Husserl. Merleau-Ponty has been categorized as both an phenomenologist and an existentialist, indicating the difficulty of separating the two schools."27 However, the existential attitude is one which can be more easily defined. David Edward Cooper, in his book Existentialism: A Reconstruction, says that, "There is something else these writers sharewhich serves to motivate and guide the whole existentialist enterprise. This is the sense that the most serious question [deals with] alienation in its various formsfrom the worldone's fellows[and] oneself."28 This is part of the absurdity of life. The concept of the "Other" is a major idea in existentialist philosophy. In fact, "The problem of "other-person-ness" is one of the great conquests of Existentialism. Classical philosophy used to leave it strangely alone. If you enumerate the problems dealt with by Classical philosophy, you have knowledgethe problem created by association with other people never assumesthe same importance as the other problems."29 This concept of people being made into Others is one of the absurdities-but inevitabilities-of life. "The existential attitude begins with a disoriented individual facing a confused world he cannot accept" (ix). However, the individual eventually accepts and even embraces the absurdity of lifea form of revolt against the absurdity [very much like Albert Camus]. [Franz] Kafka's characters, too, accept their fates and embrace [an absurd universe]."30 Thus, the absurdity of life is part of the entertaining part about existentialism. For all his existentialist leanings, Albert Camus was a philosopher who lived in the real world. "Camus [did mundane things like taking] care of practical home matters, such as writing checks for household billsCamus enjoyed his role as father and kept an eye on [his] children."31 "The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution. For Albert Camus, the urge to revolt is one of the 'essential dimensions' of human natureAnd yet, with an eye toward the French Revolution and its regicides and deicides, he shows how inevitably the course of revolution leads to tyranny."32 This is what is meant by the concept of rebellion in existentialism-that ultimately rebellion falls in on itself and causes chaos. "The 'Blue Phantom', a painting by Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, aka Wols, who lived in France at the same time as Sartre, and was his example of a true 'existentialist' painterExistentialism was influen[ced by] Ingmar Bergman and the paintings of Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock [who] understoodexistentialism."33 This "rebellion" of sorts showed up in art, as painters like Jackson Pollock went wild on the canvas-throwing paint all over with little or no regard (perhaps) for where the paint fell. This type of art exemplified the meaninglessness of life at times, the despair, the frustration, and the anguish that were results of living. Pollock's work especially smacks of existentialism due to his ribaldly extemporaneous and spontaneous stylings on the canvas, creating a visual smorgasbord. Truly, the work of existentialist painters such as Wols and Pollock exemplify the absurdities of life and the rebellion which with one consequentially feels compelled to react. Works like those of Pollock at least seem to exemplify absurdity, at any rate, due to the quick guerilla-style paintings in which he randomly takes different shades of paint and spills them onto the canvas. This unformed chaos on canvas has transforming power. Although it is absolute absurdity-especially to try to make out what is being depicted with buckets of paint thrown all over the canvas-it is obvious that this is a rebellion of sorts. These painters have rebelled against what is normal painting. These painters have exemplified the absurd by having wildly outrageous paintings which are not based on reality, but rather an alternate reality. This is why existentialism is such a fitting philosophy for these painters' works. They represent both the absurdity of life and the rebellion the artists feel against such absurdity. V. Conclusion "Existentialism [itself] can be thought of as the twentieth-century analogue of nineteenth-century romanticismexpress[ing] a form of resistance to reductionist analyses of life and its meaning for human beingsExistentialism is typically focused on individual human lives and the poignant inevitability of suffering and choice for each individual"34 This notion of individual choice and the idea that everyone is special is a concept that is catching on rapidly. One's destiny is formed by oneself, and therefore one must strive to overcome the challenges in life and face the real world with some modicum of grace towards them. Whether one is talking about existence and selfhood, anguish, the existence of man, and despair, or absurdity and rebellion-all of these factors are key touchstones of existentialist philosophy. These are issues that must be dealt with in life, and that firsthand experience is valuable in weathering the storms of life, because one's very essence is at stake. Margaret Garlake, a well-known art critic, has said that "art has its own identity, a point at which it is not entirely accountable to reason."35 This is where existential philosophy gains the upper hand, because in art-as in life-it is evident that this philosophy of knowing oneself well lends to the radical expressionism that one sees in existential art. It is the lifeblood of true creative power. Post-World War II existentialism in art came to be motivational for many artists, and will continue to do so in the future. REFERENCES All About Philosophy Web Site. Existentialism: A Philosophy. http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/existentialism.htm. Retrieved 16 October 2009. Berdyaev, N. A. The Fundamental Idea of the Philosophy of Lev Shestov. www.berdyaev.com/berdiaev/berd_lib/1938_439.html. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Betterton, Rosemary. Unframed: Practices and Politics of Women's Contemporary Painting. USA: I.B. Tauris, 2004. Camus, Albert. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt. [Book Review] USA: Vintage, 1992. http://ow.ly/vcdk. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Citizendium: The Citizen's Compendium Web Site. Existentialism. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Existentialism. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Cooper, David Edward. Existentialism: A Reconstruction, 2nd Ed. USA: Wiley-Blackwell, 1999. The Dividing Line Web Site. Existentialism and Karl Barth. http://www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/Philosophers/Barth/barth.shtml. Retrieved 19 October 2009. The Dividing Line Web Site. Existentialism and Martin Buber. http://www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/Philosophers/Buber/buber.shtml. Retrieved 19 October 2009. The Dividing Line Web Site. Existentialism and Paul Tillich. http://www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/Philosophers/Till/till.shtml. Retrieved 16 October 2009. Encyclopedia Brittanica. Existentialism (Philosophy): Problems of Existentialist Theology. http://www.britannica.com/facts/5/560685/Rudolf-Bultmann-as-discussed-in-Existentialism- philosophy. Retrieved 19 October 2009. The Existential Primer Web Site. Franz Kafka: The Absurdity of Everything. http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/kafka.shtml. Retrieved 19 October 2009. The Existential Primer Web Site. Karl Jaspers: Living as Philosophical Action. http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/jaspers.shtml. Retrieved 16 October 2009. The Existential Primer Web Site. Martin Heidegger: A Complicated Philosopher. http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/heidegger.shtml. Retrieved 19 October 2009. The Existential Primer Web Site. Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Reconnecting Education and Philosophy. http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/merleau.shtml. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Ficacci, Luigi. Francis Bacon 1909-1992. USA: Taschen, 2003. REFERENCES (CONT'D.) Fun Trivia Web Site. During World War II Which Countries Did Germany Invade, When Did They Invade These Countries, and What Was the Outcome http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question83137.html. Retrieved 15 October 2009. Gonzlez, ngel. Alberto Giacometti: Works, Writings, Interviews. [Book Review] USA: Poligrafa, 2007. http://ow.ly/vcf6. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Irvine, Andrew. Existentialism. http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/lectures/wphil_theme20.htm. Retrieved 19 October 2009. KeyWen Web Site. Gabriel Marcel. http://keywen.com/en/GABRIEL_MARCEL. Retrieved 16 October 2009. King, Winston L. The Existential Nature of Buddhist Ultimates. http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/winston1.htm. Retrieved 16 October 2009. Marino, Gordon Daniel. Basic Writings of Existentialism. USA: Modern Library, 2004. McVicker, Idelette. Finding Purpose. http://womentodaymagazine.com/selfesteem/purpose.html. Retrieved 16 October 2009. Modern Impressionist. An Analysis of Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'Avignon, and the Cubism Movement. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/461323/an_analysis_of_picassos_les_demoiselles.html cat=2. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Mounier, Emmanuel. Existentialist Philosophies: An Introduction. USA: Mcgiffert Press, 2008. Notable Quotes Web Site. Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes. http://www.notable-quotes.com/s/sartre_jean_paul.html. Retrieved 16 October 2009. Oxford Art Journal. [Online journal] 9 (1) (1986): 85-89. http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/9/1/85. Retrieved 19 October 2009. The Quotations Page. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900). http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Friedrich_Nietzsche/. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Sylvester, David. The Brutality of Fact: Interviews with Francis Bacon. USA: Thames & Hudson, 1988. ThinkExist Web Site. Nikolai Berdyaev Quotes. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/nikolai_berdyaev/. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Tillich, Paul. Existentialist Aspects of Modern Art. http://www.religion- online.org/showarticle.asptitle=1568. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Todd, Olivier, et. al. Albert Camus: A Life. USA: Vintage, 1997. Read More