Vom Spiegelbild zum Bild

The early female self-portraits are self-portraits - painted from the mirror. However, their purpose is not the self-sufficient reflection that the myth of Narcissus tells us. Rather, they demand the perception of women in their profession as painters and serve the artists' self-discovery. Recognition in the mirrored image is of decisive importance for the development of the human subject. With the emergence of abstraction, the subject of the unconscious, which contains our desire, increasingly appears in painting. A system of representation comes to the fore that explores emotional states and reveals self-designs and creative processes beyond the familiar potential for symbolization. It bypasses the function of representation and leads to a new image. The gaze is directed inwards in order to transfer it to the general.

Eva Wolfram-Ertl, Mag. Dr., is a psychoanalyst (WAP, IPV) and group analyst in private practice, member of the New Viennese Group Lacan School, focus of her work is the interface between psychoanalysis and art, founder of the association Forum for Art and Psyche, lecturer for the university course in art therapy at the Sigmund Freud Private University and at the ARGE Bildungsmanagement. She was a guest student of Daniel Richter and works as a freelance artist with regular vernissages.