Resurrection Of The Body

Since the early twentieth century in modern art, "body" is not only a biological term, it is also a carrier of rich cultural connotations and symbolic meanings. On such a carrier, the social politics, cultural achievements, morality, ethics, customs and other concepts that people are facing in society are reflected on the "body". This thesis introduces the German Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim (1913.10.6—1985.11.15) to our vision which is still blank now.This thesis uses "body" as an entry point directly and follows a lead which contains three stages:from artists' potential "exploited body" to "self-redemption" which is based on the psychoanalysis initiated by Jung, and then to the "allegorical regeneration" which is recreated under historical background and artistic language. According to this lead, this thesis reviews Oppenheim's unique artistic experiences and concept by positioning her under the historical background of feminism.The conclusion can be drawn through the study of Oppenheim's art work. First, the transformation from "fatherhood" to "motherhood" determines the double features which are "mythological" and "esoteric" in her post artistic period. Second, the revulsion of her artistic creation is based on the change of artists' gender recognition. Third, female artists have achieved self-transcendence and female identity-transcendence, which are to recognize and practice the necessity of the dualism in humanity and the conflict between them. The imbalance caused by patriarchy results in the morbid state of humanity development, just like a person who has mental diseases. Therefore, This profound crisis of society, culture and history needs to be solved by a "complete" humanity. So Oppenheim "redeems" her own body while attempting to "redeem" the balance of humanity development.This thesis applies the typical approach which is increasingly mature in western art history study, i.e. the combination of image analysis, style analysis, psychology and sociology.