Research On Subconsciousness And Creative Practice In Abstract Expressionist Painting

From vague cognition to the existence of unknown fields in the human spirit,to affirming their existence,to taking them as the main research object,and finally naming them as the subconscious and creating a new theory around them,scholars have gone through a long process of exploration.Freud first realized the significance of the subconscious,and he broke away from the shackles of mainstream rationalism at that time,creating a psychoanalytic theory.Jung inherited and developed Freud’s thought,and established the collective subconscious theory by sublating it.Their viewpoints have inspired various fields in literature and art,and are the key factors that influenced the artistic concepts and painting styles of the time.Expressionism is the first art genre with world-class influence in the United States,and it is an important chapter in the history of Western art.The unprecedented brutal war has made artists fully feel the horror of the dark side of human nature,and they attribute its origin to reason.In order to abandon evil and promote good,they begin to trust their instincts and release their subconscious mind.During the war,a large number of European artists migrated to the United States,and the accompanying modern artistic concepts made it suddenly clear to American avant-garde artists who were eager for innovation but were in a state of confusion.They were particularly interested in surrealism.Surrealism is deeply inspired by the subconscious theory and combines art with it,hoping to use art to reveal instincts and expose human nature through instinct.The automatic creation method among them deeply surprised avant-garde artists.After sublating foreign ideas and combining their own practical creative experience,avant-garde artists have gradually developed abstract expressionism that represents their pursuit.Abstract expressionist artists attempt to evoke the common primitive instincts of mankind in the most straightforward form of creation,and the psychological state changes during creation have become the focus of attention.Unconscious factors such as the subconscious began to dominate the painting,and painting became a means of venting essential desires.This characteristic is vividly displayed in the action painting school,which is typical of its many performance styles.This study mainly explores the impact of subconscious theory on abstract expressionist artists by studying and collating relevant literature and analyzing typical works.Taking Jackson Pollock,the representative of the Action Painting School,as an example,this paper analyzes the role of subconscious factors in his creative process and their manifestation in his works.Finally,it summarizes the relationship between subconscious factors and artists’ concepts and performance styles,and draws inspiration from the interdisciplinary research of psychology and art that is conducive to the development of contemporary painting.