January 27, 2011

Apollonian vs. Dionysian

I struggle to find my way between the German and French in my work. I'm German by heritage, but I strive to be French as well. My professor, David, tells me this is me fighting between my Apollonian and Dionysian sides. This idea comes from Nietzsche in his work The Birth of Tragedy.  Nietzsche describes the Apollonian as "logical inference," and the Dionysian as "certainty of intuition." When the two work together there is a "powerful birth." My German side seems to be the Apollonian nature, whereas the French I try to bring out is more of the Dionysian.  To explain it with more visual sources, take the Beckmann painting on the left (German, Apollonian) vs. the Bonnard painting on the right (French, Dionysian).  These are what I am constantly trying to marry.

 

1 comment:

  1. thanks for posting all this work, its always intresting and fun to see someone creative at work. And i always forget the diffrence between Dionysian and Appolonian.

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