1. Caravage, Narcisse, 1597-1599, Italy, Rome, Palais Barberini, Galerie d'Art Antique, © Photo SCALA, Florence, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Image Scala
Reflecting the gaze : exploring "Lacanian" theory through art
Presented until the 27th of may 2024, the exhibition « Lacan » at the Centre Pompidou Metz took its shape by four specialists, Marie-Laure Bernadac (art historian), Bernard MarcadĂ© (art historian), GĂ©rard Wajcman (psychoanalysis) and Paz Corona (psychoanalysis).
While the protagonist of the exhibition, Jacques Lacan died in 1981, he anticipated numbers of contemporary issues such as the importance of women and her body. Compared to his contemporaries, such as Freud, Lacan gave great importance to the question of the woman, of whom he said, provocatively, that she does not exist, that is to say, she cannot be reduced to an essence and a norm, but what else can be relevant today?
The genesis of the exhibition
2. RenĂ© Magritte, The False Mirror, 1928, Oil on canvas, 54 x 89,9 cm, © Adagp, Paris, 2023 / Photo © Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence
The genesis of the exhibition was crafted by two psychoanalysts, Paz Corona and Gerard Wajman. The duo wished to create an exhibition in an important institution, in France or in the world. Since they were not curators and didn’t have the knowledge of an institution, they consulted two art historians and send their proposal to the Centre Pompidou Metz and they agree on the concept of the show.
The director of the institution, Chiara Parisi was very enthusiastic about the idea of hosting this experimental exhibition. But before the show open, they hade to spoke to numerous artists and curators of contemporary art and artists/estates which have works inspired by Lacan or by some concept or Lacan in their hands.
Even tho the exhibition concept was always interesting and intriguing, it was a difficult one due to Lacan's thought, who goes in many different directions. His thinking goes in different themes such as language, identity, pleasure, desire, which will open the way for the creation of a thematic exhibition.
For Lacan himself, his psychoanalysis was always connected by works of arts, especially to Modern Art and Surrealism, due to his affinities with numerous artist of those movements. In his writing and his thinking, he refers to specific works from art history, like Holbein "The Ambassadors" and "Las Meninas" by Velázquez. But he was also interested in contemporary works, like those of Duchamp, Dalà and Masson.
His link and work around art came to fruition when he acquired "The Origin of the World" by Courbet. Jacques Lacan probably bought it on the advice of Sylvia Lacan, his wife. After they acquired it, Lacan commissioned André Masson, Sylvia's brother-in-law and a friend of the couple, to create a discreet sliding panel to conceal or reveal the painting as desired. This addition transformed the artwork into a legendary piece, sparking numerous interpretations by female artists. Some chose to display the female form more openly, while others approached the subject with a conceptual twist, adding famous feminized surnames or even a face to the enigmatic portrayal.
Jacques Lacan
3. Gisèle Freund, Jacques Lacan, Paris, © RMN gestion droit d'auteur / Fonds MCC / IMEC / Dist.RMN-Grand Palais / Gisèle Freund, Photo : Medienzentrum Wuppertal
Jacques Lacan was born on April 13, 1901, in Paris, into a bourgeois family, the eldest child of Madeleine and Marc. From 1908 to 1919, he attended Stanislas College in Paris. In 1920, he began his medical studies, specializing in psychiatry and trained at the Special Infirmary near the police prefecture, under the guidance of Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault, whom he considered his "sole master in psychiatry."
In 1921, he frequented the bookstores of Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier, where he witnessed the first presentation in French of James Joyce's "Ulysses." He also pursued studies in literature from 1925 onwards. In 1929, Lacan wrote his only known poem, "Hiatus irrationalis," published in Le Phare de Neuilly, a surrealist magazine.
From 1932 to 1933, Jacques began psychoanalysis with Rudolph Loewenstein and defended his thesis, "On Paranoid Psychosis in Its Relations to the Personality." He sent a dedicated copy to Freud and published an article on style in Minotaure, a surrealist magazine where Salvador DalĂ paid tribute to his thesis.
In 1934, Lacan joined the Paris Psychoanalytic Society (SPP) and married Marie-Louise Blondin, with whom he had three children.
Four years later, he wrote his first major clinical text, "Family Complexes in the Formation of the Individual," for the French Encyclopedia.
During World War II (1940-1945), Lacan abstained from publishing and public speaking. He immersed himself in the study of the Chinese language in Paris. After the Liberation of Paris in 1944, Lacan attended Pablo Picasso's reading of "Desire Caught by the Tail" and engaged with intellectuals in Picasso's studio, photographed by BrassaĂŻ.
From 1945 to 1946, at Picasso's request, Lacan treated his companion, the photographer Dora Maar.
In 1951, Lacan began his seminar at his family's apartment at 3 Rue de Lille, while maintaining his practice at number 5. Two years later, he resigned from the SPP and founded the French Psychoanalytic Society (SFP) with Françoise Dolto. He introduced his foundational text, "The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis," initiating a "return to Freud."
In 1955 Lacan acquiert with Sylvia one of their most prized possession: "L’Origine du monde" by Gustave Courbet.
In 1964, Lacan established the Freudian School of Paris (EFP) after leaving the SFP. He moved his seminar to the École Normale Supérieure.
In 1966, Lacan's seminal work "Écrits" was published, and his daughter Judith married Jacques-Alain Miller. The same year, Lacan invited Michel Foucault for his seminar session, where he present a psychoanalytic commentary very different from that of Words and Things of the work "Las Meninas" by Diego Vélasquez.
In 1969, Lacan's seminar relocated to the Faculty of Law at the Pantheon. There he conducted a seminar on feminine jouissance and proclaimed "there is no sexual relationship."
In 1980, Lacan dissolved his school but founded the Freudian Cause movement, which later became the Freudian School. He delivered his final lecture at the "1st International Encounter of the Freudian Field" in Caracas.
Jacques Lacan passed away in Paris on September 9, 1981.
The Layout of the exhibition
4. Vues de l'exposition Lacan, L'exposition. Quand l'art rencontre la psychanalyse. © Centre Pompidou Metz / Marc Domage / 2023
While first encountering an imposing dark wall with the exhibition titled "LACAN", the visitor is invited in the first room of the exhibition with a text, describing the exhibition, but also Lacan himself, smocking.
This eccentric figure is presented in this first room of the show with numerous archives, dates, elements of his life such as letters and works of art from artists he admired such as Dali's "Dormeuse, cheval, lion invisibles" from the 1930s. Thus, this first room set the tone for the entire exhibition, it's not a show about Lacan, his link to his art collection or his books, it's an exhibition about the writing of Lacan, divided into numerous themes which enters into a fruitful dialogue with selected works of arts.
Thus, the free flowing layout is made up of numerous sections.
1. The first one being the mirror stage theory from 1936, which showed how much people are drawn to their own image. It's like when you see yourself in a mirror and feel a strong connection to that reflection. This theory is all about figuring out who we are and how we relate to ourselves.
2. The following section is dedicated to "Lalangue". In 1955-1956, Jacques Lacan talked about the mind in his Psychoses seminar. He said that the unconscious works like a language. Then, in 1971, he made up a new word, "lalangue," to explain how language connects with what he called the Real. Artists like Marcel Broodthaers have used this idea in their work, playing with words, jokes, literal meanings, mistakes in speech, sounds, and even poetic language.
3. In the 1950s, Jacques Lacan talked about the Name-of-the-Father, which represents the symbolic role of a father figure. At first, this idea was tied to Christianity, but Lacan changed it to fit the changing society. He made a distinction between the real father and the father figure in our minds. In French, "Nom du Père" can also mean "No of the Father," which some artists like Louise Bourgeois, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Camille Henrot rebelled against. They based their art on challenging or destroying the idea of the father figure. Later in his life, Lacan changed the meaning of "Nom-du-Père" to "Les non-dupes errent" (the non-dupes err), which Sophie Calle used in a clever way in her artwork "La mère veille" (The Mother Keeping Vigil).
4. "Objet a", is a key idea from Jacques Lacan, became popular in modern and contemporary art starting in the late 1950s. It represents the object that causes desire, often because it's missing or incomplete. Marcel Duchamp's ideas from 1912 about using small amounts of energy in creative ways seem to hint at this concept. Along with four main objects—like the Breast, Shit, the Voice, and the Gaze—other ideas like the Fall, Emptiness, and the body in parts were also connected to it. The Phallus was included because Lacan saw it as a symbol of something missing.
5. In 1955, Jacques Lacan and his wife Sylvia bought Gustave Courbet's painting "The Origin of the World." That same year, Lacan asked André Masson, Sylvia's brother-in-law and a friend of theirs and Georges Bataille, to make a cover for the painting. This cover was a thin panel of painted wood that could slide open. "The Origin of the World" has been famous for a long time and has inspired many female artists. Some show female genitals more openly, while others add famous female names or even a face to them in a more artistic or thoughtful way.
6. In May 1966, Jacques Lacan talked about Diego Velazquez's painting "Las Meninas" in his thirteenth seminar, called "The Object of Psychoanalysis." This painting breaks the rules of perspective. It's like a picture within a picture, showing both what's hidden and what's seen. Lacan noticed something special about the young girl in the painting, Doña Margarita Teresa. He thought there was a hidden meaning in the way she was dressed. This idea connects to Freud's theories about fantasy and how we look at things. Lacan compared the hidden meaning to the cuts in Lucio Fontana's painting "Concetti spaziali."
7. Lacan's saying "Woman does not exist" means there's no one way to define women universally. He believed that women are diverse, and you can't tie down their existence to just one idea. In his seminar "Encore," he talks about how women are often labeled and criticized unfairly. An artist named Annette Messager made a collection of sayings in 1974, around the same time Lacan was talking about women's pleasure. She stitched together jokes and phrases about women. Tracey Emin, another artist, draws and paints female bodies a lot. But she never shows them in just one way because she believes you can't capture everything about being a woman in a single image.
8. In his eleventh seminar, "The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis," Jacques Lacan credits Joan Rivière, a British psychoanalyst, with the concept of masquerades. He describes it as women creating an appearance to hide their true feelings or desires. This act of wearing a mask can be seen as pushing back against male dominance, a bold move using ultra-feminine styles to challenge how men see them. Throughout history, artists like the Countess of Castiglione, Marcel Duchamp (who sometimes went by Rrose Sélavy), and Claude Cahun have used dressing up and cross-dressing in their art.
9. The phrase "Anatomy is not destiny" is important in modern art. Artists like Pierre Molinier and Urs LĂĽthi, and even contemporary artists exploring queer identities, question the idea that your body determines who you are. Michel Journiac, Nan Goldin, and Edi Dubien's work, which supports cross-dressing and transidentity, challenges the idea that biology determines everything. Lacan didn't believe in strict rules about gender. He thought each person should have the freedom to choose their sexual identity, regardless of what society or biology says.
10. One of Jacques Lacan's famous sayings is "There is no such thing as a sexual relationship." He explained this idea by distinguishing between sexual acts and actual relationships. While physical interactions happen, he believed that relationships between genders aren't straightforward or equal like a math problem. Pascal Goblot's copy of Marcel Duchamp's "Le Grand Verre" (Large Glass) tells a story where the bride in the upper part experiences pleasure without any physical contact with the bachelors below. This complex dynamic is also shown in Maria Martins' sculpture "The Impossible III."
11. Jacques Lacan believed that jouissance, or intense pleasure, is something beyond what words can fully describe because it's not just about language. Words can't quite capture the bodily sensations involved, so they end up being repetitive and missing the point. Lacan talked about two kinds of jouissance: one related to the phallus and sexual acts, and the other more feminine, experienced in the body and imagination, not tied to the phallus. Both men and women can experience it. In his seminar "Encore," Lacan looked at Bernini's "Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" and discussed how mystical experiences of intense pleasure are seen in contemporary art too.
12. Since the 1950s, Jacques Lacan got into studying topological shapes. By the early 1970s, Lacan got really interested in the Borromean knot, inspired by the mathematician Pierre Soury's work. He even said it was like a ring for his finger. Lacan used this knot to show how three important aspects of life, what he called the Real, the Symbolic, and the Imaginary are connected. Many modern artists, like Raymond Hains, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Éric Duyckaerts, Pierre Huyghe, Jean-Luc Moulène, and Gary Hill, have been inspired by Lacan's interest in shapes. He even wrote about artist François Rouan's knots and braids after meeting him at the Villa Medici.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Centre Pompidou Metz
Date: 31.12.2023 – 27.5.2024
Curators: Marie-Laure Bernadac, Bernard Marcadé, Gérard Wajcman and Paz Corona
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Centre Pompidou Metz
Centre Pompidou Metz
1 Parvis des Droits-de-l'Homme
57 000 Metz
Phone: +33 (0)3 87 15 39 39
Mail: contact@centrepompidou-metz.fr