The Psychology of Cultural Change in Painting

Abstract

NO painter can avoid some degree of self-expression ; he may introduce a large amount of it, but in any event he is unlikely to be utterly objective. Whatever his choice of subject and treatment, his composition will be psychologically significant. What is perhaps even more important is that he has expended energy in the making of his picture and, through strife and toil, has arrived at something which, by highly complex paths, represents at last a function of his social environment. Thus, in the introduction to his monograph, Dr. R. W. Pickford paves the way for the detailed development of his theme. He is concerned neither with techniques nor with aesthetics ; his task is to discuss social influences in their impact upon artists. In so doing, he performs a double service—to the man of science who realizes the profundity of all that is involved in creativeness (in whatever form), and to the historian, who is sometimes curiously reluctant to see in paintings the documents he most may need.

The Psychology of Cultural Change in Painting

By Dr. R. W. Pickford. (British Journal of Psychology, Monograph Supplements, 26.) Pp. vi + 62. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1943.) 8s. 6d. net.