The 2018 publication of S. Ferrières-Pestureau’sLa violence à l’œuvre (Violence at work) provides a spot-on illustration of the way that art at different times periods has taken up what exceeds the various declensions of the human body that translates its violence. The author of this article relates major events of western history to the pictorial representations that either interpreted or provoked them, noting new perceptions of violence arising from the body.
A series of painting entitled the “Football Players” modifies Nicolas de Staël’s way of painting by relying on the canvas, making him worry about how to represent a present experience which “has trouble” taking shape. This pictorial turning point can be interpreted as the translation of adolescent tension that is trying to stay close to the vital form of experience and which is erased as soon as it takes shape.
There are men who remind us that the flow of history is neither unhurried nor measured. Caravaggio (1571-1610) was one of these, thanks to innovations that were so radical they changed the course of Occidental painting. A notorious troublemaker – he was convicted of murder – he never ceased painting, be it under the protection of liberal patrons or on the run from papal justice. The disparity between the suspended moments he captured on canvas and his wayward wanderings punctuated with actions suggests that, despite the seminal nature of his work, his creative powers never quite prevailed over the attraction of the abyss he staged right from his early production. The drift accelerated in later years whilst he still engaged, sheltered by his canvas, in large religious compositions, exploring themes of despair and seeking out divine release.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7