Pictorial Space throughout Art History: Cézanne and ... - ARAS

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
Individuation creates more internal “space” or “breathing room” or “room
to maneuver” between opposite extremes |56| |6| |7| |8|. Ted's responses became
more conscious, less compulsive. When he was challenged he could choose to
acquiesce or to ignore the challenge. If he chose to assert himself he could be
more measured. In painting the equivalent of this psychological space is the
pictorial space or breathing room between opposite planes (see Pictorial Space).
Just as myths of the hero's journey describe individuation, so do creation
myths |57|. A Polynesian creation myth provides an image of expanded inner
space:
In the beginning Rangi and Papa, the first parents, clung to each other.
Their sons lived between them in darkness. Then one of their sons,
Tanemahutu, who would later create the tall trees and all the living
things in the forest, pushed them apart to bring space, light and air to the
world. Rangi was forced to become the sky and he wept for his beautiful
Papa who lay below him as the earth. The rain of his tears threatened to
flood the earth. Then the sons turned Papa over onto her belly so that
Rangi would not be reminded so vividly of her. Papa's sighs of sorrow can
be seen in the rise of the early morning mist.
Because the tree had to grow (which suggests the unfolding of the
personality), Rangi and Papa's fusion had to be sacrificed. As in painting, the
opposites had to be separated to create space for movement and breath. The
parents yearned for each other and their yearning created water (water suggests
feeling). A painting is also enlivened by the attraction between opposites.
After Rangi and Papa had been separated, the attractive force between
them had to be adjusted to preserve dry land. Dry land suggests the conscious
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