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Two weeks ago I got the chance to travel to Venice for the day, predominantly to see the Biennale, but also to stop by the Guggenheim. As an avid fan-girl of both Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, I was excited to finally see their works in person. Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity concentrated around magic and the occult, spirituality and identification during the turbulent years of a war-stricken world. Themes of morality and mortality, life and the afterlife, magic and reality, all play a symbolic role in the works of the 20th century artists on display at the Guggenheim.
To Carl Jung, artists are “the unwitting mouthpiece of the psychic secrets of their times.” But what lies within art that relays so accurately the sentiments of their time? By the 20th century, art no longer had the life-enhancing role it once had before the Enlightenment. For one, in the 19th century, Christianity reached its pinnacle. The French Revolution “cleansed” the West of Christianity, leaving in its remnants a hardly recognizable, but highly understandable scientific worldview.
Artists transformed the turbulence of the early 20th century in many ways. Instead of creating works of beauty, modern artists introduced the world to the “horrors of the night” (Nietzsche), and none did this better than the Surrealists. Submerged within bloodshed, Surrealism became not only a movement, but a way of living. “Life and death, the real and imagined, top and bottom are no longer experienced as contradictory opposites” (André Breton, Second Manifesto). It brought chaos to the forefront, it annihilated the human form, and blurred the line between organic and inorganic. As a manifestation of escapism, it relied heavily on myth and magic. Magic, to Max Ernst, was “the means of approaching the unknown by other ways that those of science or religion.” In the context of WW2, magic and the occult became ways to free the mind of its limitations. The Surrealists longed to regenerate humanity spiritually during a time of intense suffering. Breton claimed that magic had the power to make what was invisible, visible. Instead of beautifying the world through pretty images, they wished to strip the world of its facade and show it in all its blazing horror.
Did mysticism inhabit the role religion once possessed? What lies within the supernatural that captivates one so deeply throughout times of suffering? And, perhaps more importantly, with the rise of science, should we not be past our need for mythology? According to both Nietzsche and Jung, the answer is a resounding no. Whereas science looks at cause and effect and helps us understand the world in a pragmatic sense, mythology deals with psychology and the human predicament.
“It is the role of religious symbols to give a meaning to the life of man. The Pueblo Indians believe that they are the sons of Father Sun, and this belief endows their life with a perspective (and a goal) that goes far beyond their limited existence. It gives them ample space for the unfolding of personality and permits them a full life as complete persons. Their plight is infinitely more satisfactory than that of a man in our own civilization who knows that he is (and will remain) nothing more than an underdog with no inner meaning to his life.” (Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols)
The Surrealists transferred meaning into symbolism in the form of alchemic images and occult themes. They translated the overall absurdity of their war-torn reality and created images which still, to an extent, resonate with us today. Overall, the underlying psychological atmosphere of the time led to the creation of impactful art. Inversely, the analysis of modern art also demonstrates the innate suffering of modern society in general. We are, and have been since the Enlightenment, a civilization ailing with spiritual sickness. Each one of us, to a more or lesser extent, in deep existential pain, a scattered human form once held together by faith.
“The development of modern art with its seemingly nihilistic trend towards disintegration must be understood as the symptom and symbol of a mood of universal destruction and renewal that has set its mark on our age. This mood makes itself felt everywhere, politically, socially, and philosophically. We are living in what the Greeks called the right moment for a “metamorphosis of the gods,” of the fundamental principle and symbols. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious man within who is changing. Coming generations will have to take account of this momentous transformation if humanity is not to destroy itself through the might of its own technology and science.” (Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self)
Our world, so governed by the scientific worldview, instructs us that mythology is illusory, primitive, and full of lies. However, a belief in this “primal” magic can relieve the body and mind, and heals the suffering soul. This exhibition had a similar impact on me. Though some images were gruesome, they were also full of understanding, a tranquilizer of sort to the oversaturated mind. Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity will be up until September 26, 2022. If you have the chance, I highly recommend visiting.
You are so lucky you got to see that exhibit!!!!! I bought the art book the second it started and I’m hoping that sates my desire to see it!
Great post, Shifra! I’m so glad you can distill these concepts down for me to easily digest. You hit the nail on the head yet again. Science can’t necessarily define the soul or the meaning of life. Or at least, maybe not a definition that humanity is satisfied with. The imagery you bring up reminds me of the hero’s journey and the power that stories have in defining our lives in a relatable way. Alas, I’ll quit rambling. Thanks for sharing 😁