The Expression Of Native And Death Instincts: Subconscious Interpretation Of Bartis And Bacon Paintings

The distinct in sub-consciousness is a great influence factor in painting works. The distinct can include life instinct and death instinct, the former stemming from sexual instinct with protecting life and seeking pleasure as the basic tone, while the opposite death instinct reflecting the request of the life into the inorganic statistic status. These two instincts are opposite but also interdependent; contradictorily coexisting in the whole process of life. The thesis selects the painting works of Balthus and Bacon’s as the typical and valuable research targets in the research on the relation between human unconsciousness and painting creation.Adopting the research method of aesthetic psychoanalysis, the research has been conducted in the thesis by the approach of spiritual analysis and image analysis; with the painting works of Balthus and Bacon’s as the examples, the writer has respectively and connectively explained the creative psychology behind, and thus got the awareness of their different psychological features and artistic styles due to the contradiction and integration of the life instinct and death instinct in sub-consciousness.In comparison and analysis, there appeared a strong spiritual collision caused by their distinct aesthetic positions, and thus leading to such a conclusion: as seemingly different their works are, they came from the same source of creativity—the common coexistence of life instinct and death distinct in human sub-consciousness. It is right their coexistence that made their works achieve an integration of subjective and objective elements. When the two instincts were expressed in their works, they also served as psychotherapy for the painters. The integration of the works and the painters developed the completeness of painters’ personality and achieved the successful unification of subjective and objective elements.And then starting from the relation of the painters and viewers, the thesis drew a conclusion about the aesthetic experience by analyzing the reasons for the strong artistic appeals in their works, in hope to offer a reference for our painting creation.