The image of the body-face: The case of Franz X. Messerschmidt and Bill Viola

• Authors: Popczyk Maria
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper, I am predominantly interested in interpretations of emotional states portrayed in images of the face. In particular, the interpretations which have grown around the series of busts by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, as well as those which attempt to expound Bill Viola’s video works. I will refer to aspects of physiognomy, artistic practices and aesthetics, in order to show what each of these tells us about our attitude to the body and emotions and what happens to the body while a person is experiencing an emotion. My aim is to demonstrate how the act of depicting the body, regarded as a cognitive process in an artistic medium accompanied by a special kind of aesthetic experience, becomes a means of communication which is capable of conveying a universal message and of allowing us to define our attitude to the body.

Keywords

EN

body; physionomy; aesthetics; art; emotion; Franz Xaver Messerschmidt; Bill Viola; contemporary art; bodily expression

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. KEN w Krakowie, Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii
• Journal: ARGUMENT: Biannual Philosophical Journal
• Year: 2015
• Volume: Tom: 5
• Issue: Numer: 1
• Pages: 99-110

Dates

published

2015

Contributors

author

Popczyk Maria

• University of Silesia, Katowice

References

• Aristotle. (1913). Physiognomonica. (T. Loveday & E. S. Forster, Trans.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 808b retrieved from: https://archive.org/stream/worksaristotle00arisuoft#page/n61/mode/2up/search/soul (30.09.2014); 811a retrieved from: https://archive.org/stream/worksaristotle00arisuoft#page/n67/mode/2up/search/Physiognomonica (30.09.2014).
• Courtine, J.‑J.& Haroche, C. (2007). Historia twarzy. Wrażenie i ukrywanie emocji od XVI do początku XIX wieku. (T. Swoboda, Trans.). Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria.
• Donald, M. (2001). A mind so rare: The evolution of human consciousness. New York: Norton.
• Goffman, E. (2005). Interaction ritual: Essays in face to face behavior. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
• Kandel, E. R. (2012). The afe of insight: The quest to understand the unconscious in art, mind, and brain, from Vienna 1900 to the present. New York: The Random House.
• Kris, E. (1952). Psychoanalytic exploration in art, Madison. Connecticut: International Universities Press.
• Kuspit, D. (2010). A little madness goes a long creative way. Artnet, October 7. Retrieved from: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/kuspit/franz‑xaver‑messerschmidt10–7‑10.asp(30.09.2014).
• Montagu, J. (1994). The expression of the passions: The origin and influence of Charles Le Brun’s. New Haven–London: Yale University Press.
• Ossowski, S. (1966). U podstaw estetyki. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
• Pötzl‑Maliková, M. (2006). Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. Wien–München: Jugend und Volk.
• Rivers, Ch. (1994). Face value: Physiognomical thought and the legible body in Marivaux, Lavater, Balzac, Gautier, and Zola. London: The University of Wisconsin Press.
• Schmid, Th. (2004). 49 Köpfe. Die Grimassen‑Serie des Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. Zürich: Theodor‑Schmid‑Verlag.
• Sennett, R. (1977). The fall of public man. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Walsh, J. (Ed.). (2003). Bill Viola. Los Angeles–London: The J. Paul Getty Museum / The National Gallery.