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

ARAS Connections Issue 2, 2012
family drew him further into his feelings. He learned to talk to his children as
they grew. He began to help his stepdaughter through adolescent problems.
An individuating personality is more able to recreate itself in the face of
adversity |60|. As I suffer losses due to age, for example, I can find new ways to
take pleasure, or to create, or to love. I have already explained that a plastic
painting does not come to an end but continues to evolve as the artist makes
changes (see study).
A person who contains opposites becomes more authoritative |61| |10|.
When “Anne” was 26 and took a job teaching 13- and 14-year-old children, she
could not maintain classroom discipline. She had to learn not only to encourage
the children but also to set limits. This required that she contain within herself
the tension between these opposites. Then her personality became more
“massive” or “weighty” and she could better stand her ground. What she said
reflected the whole more accurately. She became more of a leader. A plastic
painting is massive or weighty and has extraordinary authority. Every plane
belongs precisely where it is (see Expansion and monumentality).
A person becomes more individual when he or she forms an individual
relationship with the unconscious |62| |11|. He or she organizes more around
inner reality and less around learned attitudes. Winnicott said that depth
includes a “respect for ... the substance of illusion” by which he meant inner
reality |47|. Though Wendy (the writer) learned from other writers, no one had
ever said things quite the way she did. Sam (the man with four children) became
painfully aware of how his father had treated him. He listened to his instincts and
chose his own course as he fathered his own children. A plastic painting is
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