Bastard children of the avant-garde: artistic expression in the Cubist and Abstract Expressionist movements and the psychoanalytic process.

The art movements of Cubism and Abstract Expressionism, influenced by Jung and Freud, emerged as a symbolic representation of the collective unconscious, and became an expression of the challenging times of a culture in transition. Similar to the technique of interpretation in psychoanalysis, Cubist painting was a method of demarcation, rather than an imitation of what was seen in the physical world. Also, as an expression of collective experience, the avant-garde movement of Abstract Expressionism emerged out of Cubism. It moved away from the logical idealism of Cubism into an expression of felt experience. This paper will review the art of the avant-garde Cubist and Abstract Expressionist movements. The psychology of the artistic process will be explored in relation to psychoanalysis and collective experience.