Mity. Kilka tropów

Abstrakt

Myths. A Few Tropes

The text is mainly about some references to myth in the 20-21st century art. A rift in treatment of myth during this period is interesting. On the one hand, in popular literature and media a generic term “myth” is often used. But it is often understood as something substantially irrational and used with a certain disdain, as well as on the boundary of being pejorative. Whereas in serious anthropological and philosophical texts and in art, “myth” may be on the one hand specified in the case of “classical” mythical stories there are references by names to mythical characters in sequences of events, and on the other fully rational elements are excavated from it within its context, which significantly explain natural phenomena and cause and effect aspects of the surrounding world. Taking more rational way of describing myth into consideration, I chose examples of myths: Oedipus, Androgyne and Pygmalion’s. Oedipus is burdened with interpretations and omnipresent in the surrealist art for example especially strongly in Max Ernst’s works. Also, as an “out-take” of the myth, part about Sphinx, carries interesting proto-feminist threads in Leonor Fini’s paintings. A hermaphroditic Androgyne seems to draw out a new actuality and is interpreted in twofold unity, or completely entangled. In twofold unity as in Marc Chagall’s works or Magdalena Abankowicz’s they are associated but separated presence of personas. In the sense of negative rifting we may analyze genres of womanly act, which hides objectification of broken Androgyne. However, entanglement is on the one hand a connection as in lovers’ embrace and on the other over-individualistic duos or bigger groups of artists, especially those who have been also performance artists since the 60s of the 20th century. Pygmalion myth profusely used in art hides within, among others, a metaphor of illusion.