For as long as we can remember, art has always had some form of emotion behind it. Movies and paintings have been known for drawing emotions out of an audience for a multitude of reasons. Art and emotions have shared a close and personal relationship with each other but it’s almost mysterious how artist is able to pull these emotions. In this article we analyze what emotions are and how they have enhanced not only famous artwork, but the benefits people can gain from making their own self expressive art.
What are Emotions?
Most peopleve felt an emotion before. Happiness, sadness, anger, excitement, it’s what makes us human after all. But what exactly is an emotion? Emotions can be described as different mental states that are a reaction to the way we interact with the world and/or our surroundings. For example, fear is a mental state that responds to an object or animal’s dangerous nature. In artwork like landscape paintings, and music suspend our beliefs in order to make our moods more compatible with what the art’s content provides.
Something like music can symbolize and associate itself to a listener’s memories which invokes a response. They can be felt, experienced, and expressed with different levels of intensity like getting really excited for an amusement park or becoming overwhelmed with grief when you lose someone special. The emotion itself is not negative, but it can create a positive or negative experience.
Artists Using Emotion
Artwork #1: In The Dead Dark of Night I Wanted You by Tracey Emin in 2018
Emin depicts a nude woman with their attacked by angry slashes of black paint. When you first look at this picture, you can feel a sense of danger, fear, anger, and discomfort. Emin layers her composition similarity to how emotions and experiences are complexed. The remnants of anger from a fit of her rage seen with the aggressive brushstrokes and red drips representing a bloody scene. These marks build and surround the figure, invoking drama and the feeling of ferocity.
Artwork #2: The Swing by Jean Honore Fragonard in 1767
Fragonard depicts a young woman in a billowing, ruffled, ballet pink dress on a swing in a forest. It’s surface level expresses a fun and over the top romantic scene. The natural forest and color palette of the piece helps lean the modern audience into the sense of romance. This piece however is full of salacious undertones, representing a man and his mistress with implications of a sex act between the woman and the men depicted. That undertone can also invoke feelings of discomfort and coyness.
Artwork #3: The Scream by Edvard Munch in 1895
This particular piece by Munch encapsulates dread, worry and anxiety. It shows us a man walking ahead of two people with his hands over his ears. Munch states that this was painted in response to a walk he went on with his friends. The artist stated that he could feel the sensation of nature screaming around him. The figure itself is not screaming but it is attempting to block out nature’s screams.
Artwork #4: The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh in 1889
This famous art piece shows us a beautiful swirling blue sky with large yellow stars and a small village nestled in the background with a large cypress tree in the foreground. This beautiful picture can leave an audience feeling calm but also sad and melancholic. Not only does the dark cypress tree represents mourning and death but others interpret the piece as an aspect of Van Gogh’s mental decline and depressed emotional state.
Emotional Self Expression in Art
In order for our emotions to move through us freely, they have to be accepted and expressed. Many of us can accept how we feel but it can be much harder to express that emotion in a healthy way. Self-expressive art allows you to create and dig deep to ask yourself important, critical questions. It allows you to open up and bare yourself through creative expression. You can gain valuable insight into your own logic patterns and reasonings behind certain actions.
It can also create something that is a reflection yourself and allow you to feel your emotions fully and completely. A subject matter the artist recreates can influence the audience to go on an emotional journey with the artist. Self-Expressive art doesn’t rely on rigid art rules or years of art experience, it only requires that you create spontaneously. Don’t be discouraged if you make a mistake, failure is one of the best ways to learn but what’s important is allowing that creativity to flow.
LOCAL EVENT: The Wisdom Knot Exhibit
The Greensboro Project Space is hosting an art exhibition by UNCG student Paul Stanley Mensah! Mensah uses metal, wood, leather and fabric to bridge the past with the present. Based in rich Ghanaian heritage, Mensah delves into the impact of slavery, the power of unity, and the wisdom seen in Akan proverbs and Adinkra symbols.
When/Where: April 15th-19th, Reception is April 19th from 6:00pm-8:00pm. 111 February One Pl, Greensboro NC, 27406
Prices: FREE
SOURCES
Ambrossini@me.com. (2023, September 27). Art and emotion – how artists convey feeling through brushstrokes. Angela Edwards. https://www.angelaedwards.co.uk/art-and-emotion-how-artists-convey-feeling-through-brushstrokes/#:~:text=What%20makes%20brush%20strokes%20so,connection%20with%20the%20artists%20hand.
Cohen, A. (2019, September 9). Undressing the Erotic Symbolism in “The Swing” Fragonard’s Decadent Masterpiece . Why Fragonard’s “The Swing” is a Masterpiece of Rococo Art. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-undressing-erotic-symbolism-the-swing-fragonards-decadent-masterpiece
Gilpin , W. (n.d.). 10 works on grief and loneliness by Tracey Emin and Edvard Munch. Royal Academy of Arts. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/10-works-grief-loneliness-tracey-emin-edvard-munch
Naar , H. (n.d.). Art and Emotion. Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/art-and-emotion/#H2
Nyansapo (wisdom knot)mfa thesis Exhibitionby Paul Stanley Mensah. Downtown Greensboro, Inc. (n.d.). https://www.downtowngreensboro.org/event/nyansapo-(wisdom-knot)mfa-thesis-exhibitionby-paul-stanley-mensah/7244/
Ruopp, S. (2020, June 23). The importance of expressing emotion through art. Arts Academy in the Woods. https://www.artsacad.net/the-importance-of-expressing-emotion-through-art/
Starry night:10 secrets of Vincent Van Gogh Night stars painting. Vincent van Gogh. (n.d.). https://www.vincentvangogh.org/starry-night.jsp
GREENSBORO COLLEGE ART COLUMN 