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Alfred Georgres REGNER, peintre graveur

Photo 1950 d'Alfred-Georges Regner
Unconscious and Modern Painting

Extract of a conference by Alfred-George REGNER Boulogne sur Mer, January 1950. Location of conference at City Hall.


Ladies and gentlemen,

Do I have to explain why, in the title of my talk, I have associated modern painting and the subconscious? Even though this does not seem necessary, it might be wise to elaborate..

Painters from all periods have been a loyal mirror to the major preoccupations and most important discoveries of their contemporaries, often participating themselves in the research and having their hand in it. Living painters, to my knowledge, still follow that path.

In the intellectual world, the most important recent discovery is the invention of psychoanalysis by FREUD. As in the Renaissance, science's first faltering attempts were the big torment of mankind.

The codification of perspective must have been something fascinating for the knowledgeable painters of the 15th century. Paolo UCCELLO must have experienced great joy in drawing the first accurate receding lines. In another realm of ideas, Leonardo de VINCI must have had great pleasure in dissecting and pinpointing by drawing the interior of the human body. Yes, these great painters really lived and worked at the pinnacle of the knowledge of their time period to be able to understand it enough to transmit to us that image so faithfully.

A real painter must avoid putting his step in the step of those that came before him. Nothing sensational remains to be discovered in perspective and anatomy. To interest oneself in these sciences only shows that the interested party has a certain nostalgia for the past, symbol of a happy childhood that many men seek to hold onto, to relive, by fear of life.

The subconscious is today, and for a longtime to come, the unknown territory that those who seek must explore. Painters must not fail their mission. The subconscious must exalt them.

For this undertaking, knowledge of the psychology of the human psyche is indispensable. It is the key to the right pathway, the key that opens ourselves in the most profound way, and it is the key that allows us to know ourselves and to know others.

The exploration of the soul by psychoanalysis informs the why of a vocation and, in particular, on the why of an artistic vocation.

Alfred Georges REGNER

Extract of a conference Boulogne/Mer, January 1950 -
Conference with the Town hall