An Object Relations Perspective on Development in the History of Art

An integration of concepts from psychoanalytic object relations theory and developmental cognitive psychology enables us to develop a theoretical model of the structural development of mental representations. This theoretical model enables us to understand how major aspects in the structure of twentieth-century art involve an extension of the sense of self as a stable reference point in an ever-changing dynamic, experiential field. This theoretical model also enables us to appreciate how contemporary emphasis on the representation of the complexities of nature (involving uncertainty, ambiguity, and multiplicity), as well as an emphasis on subjectivity, reciprocity, and nonlinear systems, maintains continuity with and extends the structure latent in earlier representational styles in the history of art in Western civilization. Representation in art has progressed from the flat two-dimensional plane of paleolithic art, to the intuitive representation of three-dimensional space in Greek art, to the systematic representation of depth in Renaissance art, to the emphasis of indeterminacy in a spatial—temporal field in modern art in which an articulated sense of self is essential in understanding, appreciating, and representing the complexity and multiplicity of nature.