Annual Association of Art Historian's Conference 2009. Full text of academic paper for the poster session: Interdisciplinary Investigations. Full copyright with author Dr Anna Middleton January 2009.
Medical Discourse and Avant-Garde Art: The Intersection between Science and Art, history and practice in early twentieth century Paris.
Abstract: This paper attempts to demonstrate that the relationship between medical science and the visual arts in the early twentieth century was more closely integrated than has hitherto been thought. Interest in the sciences, medical discoveries and innovations marked this period and the inter-related aspects of the two discourses of art and science can be demonstrated by closer examination of key protagonists, such as the poet-writer Guillaume Apollinaire and his relationship with certain avant-garde artists of the period. It could be argued that Apollinaire and his personal interests in medical science and innovations acted as a catalyst for the development of certain ground breaking aesthetic approaches and novel inconographic references as demonstrated in the work of Picasso and Chagall respectively. Indeed other authors have demonstrated that Apollinaire’s legacy had a part in shaping the ideas and concepts of a more medico-scientific nature developed by artists and writers as disparate as Duchamp, Andre Breton and Georgio de Chirico. This paper focuses on the earlier integration of novel medico-scientific ideas into an aggressively avant-garde set of visual practices starting with a brief examination of the Cubist fragmented surface and the material evidence that links part of the development of Cubist techniques with medical discourse. It then moves on to examine in detail key works by Marc Chagall from the period in which he was in close contact with Apollinaire in Paris, 1911-1914. The iconography of the works relate to contemporary medical innovations and practices as well as to more ancient and esoteric medico-scientific constructs informed by alchemical texts and imagery.
