Art and Psychoanalysis

Critical Analysis of Art Module VIII

5 February - 1 March 2025 (Online-Live) 6:30 PM IST - 8:30 PM IST

In standard academic practice, courses on psychoanalysis and art usually begin with an introduction to psychoanalytic theory, which is then followed by an “application” of that theory to art, in order to “explain” the art. This course rejects the idea that psychoanalysis is a master key that can be used to uncover the “truth” of what it analyzes, as much as it rejects the idea that art needs to be “explained.” Rather, the course is based on the hypothesis that both art and psychoanalysis (in the form articulated by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan) are co-equal explorers of psychic processes. Neither is superior to the other in terms of what it discovers, although the realms that they operate within may be subtly different. In this respect, the course will search for the ways in which art and psychoanalysis illuminate each other, each at work in the gaps that the other leaves empty.

One of the key issues we will investigate concerns the relation of images to the domain of the unconscious. As we will discover, many of the operations of the unconscious as described by Freud are also characteristic features of images. This structural homology between the two allows us to pose a series of questions for further consideration: are there specific characteristics within images that make them particularly suited to the unconscious? Equally, do all images contain traces of the unconscious, and is this what we should be looking for when we “read” images?

Class fee: INR 7,500 (Participation), INR 10,000 (Participation + Writing/Final Project)

For further information, please contact ricofranses@gmail.com or info@bicar.org

The Birth of Modern Art. Edouard Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe / Luncheon on the Grass.

Thursday 13th February, 6-7.30 pm at Marfa' Art Gallery, Beirut.

Manet’s painting caused a major scandal when it first appeared in public in 1863. In this class, we will examine the painting in detail to uncover the many ways in which it overturned conventions and opened up a new path leading towards Modern art.

This is the first of a planned series of art history classes. The goal of the series is not simply to impart information, but to teach participants the skills of visual literacy: how to analyze the visual cues provided by an artwork to arrive at an understanding of what it is trying to communicate.

Class fee: $16.

For further information, please contact ricofranses@gmail.com