Catharsis in Art


Birth, 2007


























Catharsis in art is all around us, from the purpose and the need to make the art to the intention of releasing the emotional burden within the artist. To understand and observe catharsis in art is to understand the emotional power of art. Many artists hope to transcend their surge of emotions by revealing them through raw depictions of ugliness, absurdity, human suffering, and rage against social or political injustice. These portrayals can facilitate self-reflection and empathy and cause the viewer to examine their own pain, fears, perspective, or lack of expression. 


Spider, 1996























French American modern and contemporary artist, Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) is sometimes known as a reluctant hero in feminist art. She referred to herself as a feminist and an artist rather than a female artist. Her most famous works are her installations of her large-scale bronze spider. (1996) 


They were made to symbolize the qualities she admired about her mother; her strength, vulnerability, and her mother's role of protector. Her cathartic artist statement pointed to the importance of an emotional unveiling as she stressed that "Art is a way of recognizing oneself" (PBS 2020) and in this same way as it becomes a mirror, an appreciator can find a piece of themselves in the thing. Over her many decades, Bourgeois was also a prolific printmaker and painter. Her self-portraits and themes on the topic of childbirth and motherhood speak to a cathartic need to share the life-altering shift and many sacrifices women endure on their bodies to bear children and exist as women and mothers in society. 


In her later years, she spoke of her incessant “need to make things” to encounter these physical works outside and alongside her human body. This cathartic need was represented with block-like statues that represented the people she had loved and lost over the years. 


Untitled, 1982




















Basquaits expressive brushstrokes and daring street art style brought a catharsis to his artwork with his raw emotion and politically charged energy on themes of dehumanization. His topic was often the black body interacting with the ugliness and violence of whiteness in an imperialist culture. Basquaits statements were nuanced and split between racial injustice yet also highlighted the catharsis of black betrayal and complicity which was his lived experience as a neo-expressionist in the white-centered contemporary art world. 




References

Lesso, Rosie. 2019. "Louis Bourgeois. Fear, Trauma, and Catharsis." The Thread.

https://blog.fabrics-store.com/2019/06/20/louise-bourgeois-fear-trauma-and-catharsis/

Bell Hooks, "Remembering Basquiat." 1993. Art in America. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/from-the-archives-altars-of-sacrifice-re-membering-basquiat-63242/

PBS Digital Series. 2020. "Definition of Art". The Art Assignment

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-definition-of-art-3jxymu/




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