Quote on Violence

“It is no secret that our culture is fascinated by images of fascism (In film Rainer Fassbinder, Hans Jürgen Syberberg…and in art Robert Longo, Jack Goldstein, Troy Brauntuch, Anselm Kiefer, Gilbert &

George…), and this fascination cannot be explained away either as a dandyish taste for the scandalous or as a return, not of the repressed, but of the desire for repression. For any such hypothesis there is no end of evidence (one sees a new authoritarianism as well as a new irrationalism everywhere). But I want to think about „fascinating fascism“ in other terms - in terms of the irreality of contemporary capitalist culture. ” ⁵⁸

Quoting this statement of Hal Foster from the book: Recodings shall not thematize fascism or provoke actual society problems. It rather underlines how cruelty and certain desires lead to habitual behavior and its regarding culture. This dissertation research is about the conditions of painting by a painter, an artist who is interested in understanding the desire under the stimulus of violence within the post internet time.

Specializing and researching about the act of painting and corresponding movements.

“The common use of the term ’violence’ to denote physical force alone is limited and limiting in any discussion of the phenomenon. Whereas force is undoubtedly an element in some forms of violence, it is a sense of violation that is common to all. By violation is meant that denial of another's right to his or her body and dignity, or the denial of the autonomy and sovereignty of one country by another; such denial being an ethical response to the autonomy of others. ” ⁵⁹

The term “violence” is indefinite. Violence is always somehow cruel and evil, in the event of war for example, traumatizing for perpetrators and victims alike.

Violence always has an aspect of power, even if it seems to be completely unintentional.

Violence consists in the curtailment of the freedom and the possibilities of another, so it

FOSTER (1998), op.cit. p. 79

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THOMPSON, Allan Campbell (2001) - The representation and aestheticisation of Violence,

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Capetown, University of South Africa, p.7

is to a certain extent communicative. Violence can also be fun and more to be reviewed as a sort of histrionical act. And still this research shall point out that exercising violence is more likely to be associated with pleasure and lust, such as sex is often associated with power or scrutiny.

“To finish with, I should like to help you to realize fully that the point I have brought you to, however unfamiliar it may have seemed at times, is none the less the meeting of the ways for violent impulses at the very heart of things. ” ⁶⁰

Describing violence poses fundamental problems both in its scientific analysis as in a pictorial image. The subject is too broad to be grasped in its entirety. In its various forms, violence affects many, sometimes extremely different areas of life and disciplines. Violence has existed in various forms at all times, which makes it a part of life. In its extreme form of violence, war can be subsumed under the open concept of violence. From today's point of view, people's lives have always been characterized by violence and cruelty from the very beginning, through ancient Greece, the Middle Ages to the present day. For each of these epochs there is an individual standard that makes ⁶¹ it possible to approach the respective form of violence. As far as the historians can be trusted, there were illustrations of violence and death as early as the Stone Age. Even if Stone Age people may not have seen themselves as artists and it was more pragmatic to demonstrate how to kill a buffalo with certain weapons, or to practice the magic of a hunting spell. The idea of the artist as an autonomous spirit is much more recent. But only a few court artists, whether the Hautevolee⁶² or the church, were only rarely able to come close to this ideal that emerged in the Renaissance.

“Violence was received as part of life in art. Various iconographic patterns have emerged that are always related to the time and culture in which the representations were made. In particular, the social

BATAILLE, Georges (1962) - Erotism, Paris, Walker and Company, p. 24

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ALTHOFF, Gerd (1998) - Cultures of Violence. Ritulaziation and symbolization of violence in

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History (Kulturen der Gewalt. Ritualisierung und Symbolisierung von Gewalt in der Geschichte), Frankfurt, Campus Verlag, p. 158

The term Hautevolee, borrowed from French, is an often derisively synonym for the English

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expression of High Society or High Snobiety

understanding and handling of violence influence the way in which events are portrayed and evaluated. The numerous manifestations of forms of violence in painting range from ancient depictions of combat to war photography of the 21st century. ” ⁶³

Beginning in ancient times, in addition to depictions of deities and divine figures, violence is not neglected here either. And for the people of that time, violence, ⁶⁴ death and brutality in every form was constantly present and a part of each ones life. In the epoch of the “dark times” of the Middle Ages, painting, whether as a fresco on a church wall or as an illumination in a missal, primarily served to proclaim the history of salvation. Only a few people could read, the creation of mankind was intended to ⁶⁵ proclaim god's word and feed the fear of god. Descriptions of the last judgment and the punishments of hell had their effectiveness on the people. The depictions of the sufferings of martyrs or of the crucified Jesus often had deeply rooted aspiration and therefore a perpetual repeating desire for cruelty. If one realizes how much "our" history is shaped by war and rulership, the importance of reflecting our behavior becomes more significant.

“It is a general phenomenon in our nature that the sad, the terrible and the awful lure us to themselves with irresistible magic, that we feel pushed away and again attracted by appearances of lamentation and horror with equal strength. [...] The raw son of nature, whom no feeling of tender humanity curbs, surrenders to this mighty move without hesitation. It must therefore be founded in the original disposition of the human mind and be explained by a general psychological law. ” ⁶⁶

Based on the consideration that violence has more than just one form and one cause, the German-American social psychologist Erich Fromm pursued various theories on violence in his interdisciplinary report The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

HANS, Henrike (2015) - There is only beauty in Combat (Schönheit gibt es nur noch im

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Kampf), Berlin, Universitätsverlag, p.47 Idem, p. 28

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BRAUNFELS, Wolfgang (1984) - Small Italian Art History. Ostfildern, DuMont Reiseverlag,

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p. 13

HANS (2015), op.cit. p.27

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(1974). Fromm defined two main types of violence in mankind, the former is the defensive and more innocent violence, which helps humans and animals to survive and can be seen as an instinct. It can be described as defensive behavior directed against a specific threat. The other one is vicious and more conscious violence, which is executed throughout sheer appetite for the wicked. The difference, according to Fromm, is that in addition to harmless violence, the vicious violence is expressed in destructiveness and cruelty. But what is this vicious violence and what is it based on? In order to investigate this, Fromm contrasted the instincts, which comprise innocent aggression, with the human character as a counterpoint, which has a decisive influence on the actions of people and their secret desires. Fromm verifies:

“The character is a relatively permanent system of all non-instinctivistic drives [...] through which man relates himself to the human and natural world. One can understand character as a human substitute for the lack of animal instinct; he is the second nature of man. ” ⁶⁷

Differences in the character are linked to various social structures. The basic human need to “achieve something” is closely related to the use of violence. A special case in Fromm's theory is modern society. According to Fromm, technical developments and the resulting distance from traditional human existence lead to an unconscious, chronic boredom. The inner emptiness demands compensation, for example through action or violence:

“In trying to transcend the triviality of his life, man feels driven to seek adventure, to look beyond the barriers of human existence and even to cross them. This is what makes the great virtues and the great vices, the creative activity and the destruction so exciting and attractive. ” ⁶⁸

Close companion to such violence in painting or only the imagery of depicted violence was and is Francisco de Goya. The painter who was born in 1746 in Spain was

FROMM, Erich (1973) - Anatomy of human destructiveness, London, Henry Holt, p. 204

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Idem, p. 242

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all about the structures of war and pain, after he painted and developed his style for royal families as a portraitist, he studied fresco paintings for religious manners in churches and cathedrals. In the time between 1792 and 1808 both his works and life changed in many ways. Due to an apoplexy Goya became deaf and developed a critical perception of his environment. This critical perspective is reflected in his works in connection with his imagination. In the following years after 1792 he withdrew more and more in order to paint his own subjects and motifs, which are preferably political related. His most famous works were created during this time, for example his The caprices series, which he published in 1799. However, Goya quickly annulated these ⁶⁹ paintings in order to maintain his position as a court painter. Around 1800 his painting Naked Maja⁷⁰ was published, which was also one of his most famous and most scandalous works.

The caprices translated to English from the original Spanish title Los Caprichos

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Naked Maja translated to English from the original Spanish title La Maja desnuda

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Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), Los Caprichos, 1793-1799, Series of 80 Etchings and burnished aquatint, Museo Goya. Colección Ibercaja - Museo Camón Aznar, Spain. Depicted here from left to right: Woman on top

(Volavérunt),It´s time (Ya es hora), You who can’t (Tú que no puedes)

Francisco de

In 1808 the troops of Napoleon conquer Spain and Goya, who was still working in the service of the Spanish court, was commissioned to paint the fight between the French occupiers and the rebellious Spanish militants. Above all Goya had to immortalize the heroic deeds of the Spaniards and reflect the brave position of the Spanish in his paintings. Goya's patriotism and loyalty to the Spanish royal family was therefore putted to test. Goya accomplished 82 etchings which go by the name of The Disasters of War⁷¹. The balance between Goya´s sight and his view for cruelty and violence are astonishing facts and deeply connected to certain outcomes of this work.

His goal was not to document a certain offense by any side, he showed the truth of war from both side and therefore he illustrates the evil deeds in all mankind in relation to that war.

The violence in those images of The Disasters of War are based on their accomplished authority. They report a scene of violence into the imagination of the viewer, who is able to visualize the template. The painting turns the viewer into a

translated to English from the original Spanish title Desastres de la Guerra

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Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), Disasters of war (Desastres de la Guerra), 1810-1814, Series of 82 Etchings and burnished aquatint, Museo Goya. Colección Ibercaja - Museo Camón Aznar, Spain

witness of the violence, and not infrequently into its victim. It is difficult to portray pure violence because the observer can only grasp the feelings of being hurt or hurting someone. Mostly the consequences of violence, for example for the human body or the apparatus that stands for the exercise of violence are painted, such as Goya's militiamen at the execution in 3rd of may in Madrid⁷². Violence appears like an abstract physical force that is beyond our perception and only becomes manifest due to its effect on the material world. Especially this manifestation of violence, the visualized one, only grows bigger and bigger with time.

“Why is it necessary for any violence to be aestheticized? Surely most people are aware of the effects and horrors of the different types of violence in reality, and are not rendered immune to those effects through the experience of an 'artistic' text? I would suggest that the principal result of the aestheticisation of violence is to make the violence acceptable to its audience, not merely in the superficial sense of making what is actually repellent attractive, but rather in allowing for an enjoyment of aesthetic violence. ” ⁷³

The explicit showing of violent scenes in the painting or an image can therefore be completely free of any formal violence, which suggests that the venue and

3rd of may in Madrid translated to English from the original Spanish title El 3 de mayo en

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Madrid)

THOMPSON (2001), op.cit. p. 43

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Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), El 3 de mayo en Madrid, 1814, Oil on canvas, 345 x 266 cm, Museo del Prato Madrid, Spain

the violence need not be congruent. An image that shows violence can be seen as a memorial: its function is “do not repeat, do not forget”, for example, about the documental photography of nazi prisoner camps. The representation of violence is one of the basic themes of visual art. However, this does not necessarily imply that this representation must also be disturbing, but it definitely deaden certain emotions and causes lacks of empathy.

“It follows from this, then, that such representations are contingent - they bear a conditional relation to actual events, which, by the very nature of a posteriori empiricism, are necessarily unknowable in themselves. Any representation is further complicated by the factor that any reception of the representation (by a reader, spectator, author and so forth) is dependent upon social, artistic and inter-subjective conventions which can result in vastly differing interpretations of our reactions to the same event or description. Thus, any representation, be it fictional or otherwise, is an aesthetic representation. ” ⁷⁴

Idem, p. 32

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Unknown photographer, Children in Auschwitz, 1945. Keystone-France/ Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images

Unknown photographer, Prisoners hauling earth for the construction of the "Russian camp" at Mauthausen, 1942. API/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images