Alone and Together - Two prominent themes in the paintings of Marta Whistler
by Dragan Milivojevic
University of Oklahoma
   "One became the symbol of the primordial One, the divine without a second, the non-polarized existence. It comprises relation, entirety, and unity, and rests in itself, but stands behind all created existence."1

   Annemarie Schimmel,
   "Die Zwei ist Zweifel, Zwist, ist Zwietracht, Zwiespalt, Zwitter,
   Die Zwei, ist Zwillingsfrucht am Zweige, shss und bitter."
   Die Weisheit der Brahmanen

   "Two is doubt, disunion, discord, dissension, hermaphrodite,
   Two is the twin fruit on the twig, both sweet and bitter."
   Rhckert, Die Weisheit der Brahmanen2

   The aim of this article is to analyze a selected numbers of Ms. Whistler's paintings which portray isolated individuals and objects, two individuals and objects and a number of individuals and objects. The primary criterion of the analysis is to discover symbolic meanings in paintings of individuals and inanimate objects, as well as the symbolic meanings of their numbers. Although secondary to this analysis, other pictorial factors such as form and color will be also taken into account, adding another dimension to the contrast between one, two and many.

   Certain obvious characteristics pertain to the portrayal of a single individual. The most prominent is the absence of all social ties and circumstances as the focus of our attention is brought to a high degree on one object. The eye of the viewer does not roam across the canvas. Everything is presented as here and now, and it is usually the face and form of the figure which provide some clues about the mood and other psychological indications of the person depicted. The non-polarized human existence may indicate loneliness, a state of alienation from the rest of humanity or an inability to bridge the yawning gap between himself/herself and others.

   The presentation of two individuals implies a completely different set of circumstances. The original unity of a single individual portrayed is broken up and now, as a viewer, one is faced with a division, which in itself implies a relationship with all its multifaceted aspects. It may be initiated by either of the two individuals depicted or by both. Number 2 has therefore both positive and negative connotations. It is a precondition for individuals of two different genders to create new life, or it also may en gender a seed of discord.

   In confronting a multitude of individuals or objects on a canvas, the eye of the viewer has to roam around the composition in order to realize the relationship among the items, their relationship in terms of primacy and relative importance. An object's prominence is usually indicated by its size, its foregrounding on the paintings well its centering or sidelining. The number of individuals or objects presented possesses symbolic significance. The number 3 is considered to be a sacred number which resolves the difference and tension between numbers 1 and 2, as manifested in Christian trinity and the Buddhist tri-ratna symbols.

   An example of a solitary tortured existence is the oil painting #117. The blue background draws the viewer into infinity which further recedes into blue nothingness. Part of the woman's chest and breast is black, indicating to the viewer that her whole body will be enveloped by blackness and that it will eventually disappear by being absorbed into the black background. On the other, hand part of her face and body is brown, the color of earth. The division between black and brown points symbolically to the contrast between potential nonbeing and existent being.


Oil Painting #117

   The loneliness of the male figure in painting #40 oozes with hopelessness, indicated by the bars restricting his upward motion, while the open black book on his body contains his sealed and irrevocable fate. The open book shows two pages. The right page bears zero numbers. The left page displays and all-knowing heavenly eye embedded in a shell resembling female genitalia, which is symbolic of procreative power and complements the male genitalia on the same page below. The blackness of the book suggests a tragic fate, which the zero sign symbolizes nothingness as well as complete potentiality. The movement from zero is possible only upward to number one, as an addition of zeros does not change the numeric value. This potentiality is realized as a glimmer of hope if not for the individual then as least for the human face. He emerges from the blue infinity of space with a bouncy, upward motion like an athlete pressing against the bars. The lower black doomsday book has an opening though which his genitals protrude. Out of it rays shoot into infinity. The three rays, the synthesis of one and two, male and female, are fertility symbols scattering sperm into the space, and it is as though the man wants to convey the message, "Although I am doomed to perish, part of me will engender another human being like myself and the human race will continue."


Oil Painting #40

   The number 2, as has been pointed out, may have opposite symbolic meanings - that of discord/separation and that of unity and togetherness. The figures in oil painting #14 are physically separated and facing different directions, but the origin of their prior androgynous unity, indicated by the connecting polygon, is still present. The halves of their heads when placed side by side horizontally would form one head. The arm of one figure extends into the blue specked polygon which connects with the arm of the woman. Thus, the arms of the two human beings are fused into one arm. The exact nature of the relationship between the two figures is left undefined while it is complementary and not antagonistic. It looks like an intermediate stage of separation of the male and the female as it is described in the Book of Genesis. The loss of the original unity of human beings and their eventual separation, physical and spiritual, is one of the frequent themes in Ms. Whistler's paintings. Unlike other paintings where this separation is presented as tragic event, in this painting the woman appears to be celebrating her yet incomplete emergence as a new identity and a separate human being despite the man's holding on to her and trying to prevent it. One could interpret this painting as an incipient attempt at the woman's physical and spiritual emancipation.


Oil Painting #14

   There is an alternate possible interpretation of who separated from whom in this painting. Is the man or the woman the originator of the separation? Contrary to the biblical tradition presented above in which the man is originator and the woman originated, this alternate interpretation offers a reverse origination sequence. The sharp, this point of the connecting polygon is directed towards the man and it may be surmised that he is just about ready for this thin edge binding him to the woman to be severed. This separation would be like a re-enactment of the birth of a human being, with the thinning edge of the polygon serving as an umbilical cord connecting him to the broad base of the woman's placenta. The woman, according to this interpretation, would be celebrating for a different reason, that of shedding the man from her body, although the result will be the same as in the previous interpretation - a free and unencumbered woman's existence.

   'Alone and Together' would be the most appropriate title for the painting #35. The two individuals, a male in front and a female behind, are bound to one another by a wire net. The contradictory meaning of number 2 - togetherness and separation, unity and discord - is played out in all its acute starkness. The wire which binds them is a hindrance preventing their final intimacy and protection in their unity and yet it is a curse as they can never become fully fledged and independent individuals. They seem to be suspended between becoming full individuals and their original unity as one androgynous human being. Unlike painting #14, this thwarted separation is portrayed as a tragic event. This is the negative aspect of number 2 and duality. In addition to the inner predicament of the couple there I s also present an outer one which they will have to face. The red posts supporting the wire in which they are enmeshed separates them from the outer world where all kinds of tribulations are in store for them. These modern Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of knowledge and now they are prisoners of life with old age, sickness and death. Just as the flower on their right is already inclining and will wither and die, so they will too.


Oil Painting #35

   Fhnfist
   Des Menschen Seele,
   Wie der Mensch aus Getem
   Und B'sen ist gemischt, so ist die Fhnfe
   Die erste Zahl aus Grad und Ungerade

   Five is
   the human soul
   Just as mankind is comprised of both good and evil,
   so the five is the first number made up of even
   and odd
   Schiller3

   There are five individuals in painting #38. "As an indivisible combination of the masculine 3 and the feminine 2, 5 appears, for pure mathematical reasons, to be a fitting number to express the union of male and female."4 The symbolism of the number 5 dominates the painting. In addition to the 5 individuals, 4 women and 1 man, there are 5 red rays, with the one on the extreme left bifurcating while the white creature in the upper right hand corner has 5 spurs issuing from her body. The focus of the painting is the male figure in the center and his carefree, triumphant and assertive gesture of raised arms. The woman standing in the background with her head framed by the man's outstretched arm is a secondary figure. Each individual in the painting appears to be riding - or carried by - his or her own ray of light originating in the blue infinity of space.


Oil Painting #38

   This painting, unlike #35, is life affirming with the implication of renewal and procreation. Just as the sun's rays have brought these individuals to life, so they, in turn, will give life to others. This is quite in agreement with the number 5, 'the quinta essencia', the fifth essence, which is symbolic of the life giving power of renewal. The aqueous creatures in the upper right-hand corner reinforce the symbol of fertility -x their extraordinary powers of reproduction demonstrated by the vast number of eggs they lay.

   Unlike the previous paintings discussed where the central figures in the foreground are men in painting #11 we find the reverse to be true. The women occupy the foreground and are confronting the viewer 'en face' while the men are depicted behind them with three quarters of their faces visible. The scene is domestic and casual; glasses and plates of food on the table suggest togetherness and conviviality. The men seem, to be hiding behind the women's backs. Did somebody barge in unannounced and the men are trying to hide? Are they ashamed of being found in this delicate and compromising situation? Let the viewer decide. The threatening cat on the mantelpiece prosides over the gathering. In some traditions cats are associated with sin, and this association may be pertinent to the scene presented on this painting.


Oil Painting #11

   Number 4 is used symbolically in different religions and mythologies. In Christianity and in the Bible's Book of Revelations, this number suggests the notion of universality. In this painting it may relate to the universally practiced male indulgence inillicit sex. Depending on the viewer's value orientation, the scene presented in the painting may be an example of courage and boldness in the flouting of bourgeois morals by the women, or an example of sin and depravity by both men and women.

   The first impression of painting #09 is one of order and symmetry. The viewer perceives a group of inanimate objects on a red background presided over by a pale greenish sphere. There are triangles, rectangles, and pointed linear sticks placed horizontally, and a combination of different objects with a bulge at one end placed both vertically and horizontally. What does the painter have in mind? Is this just a random collection of different objects or do the objects have symbolic meanings? In other paintings of Marta Whistler such as #11, the human genitalia are freely depicted, but there are other ways they could be presented by employing symbols. Asking a painter about his/her intention and motivation for employing symbols would be useless, because an artist does not deliberate about them. Symbols proceed from the artist's unconsciousness and in that way they are similar to dreams. Here we may use Freud's interpretation of dreams as a heuristic device in deciphering Whistler's painting #09. To quote Frued: "...All elongated objects, such as sticks, tree-trunks and umbrellas (the opening of these last being comparable to an erection) may stand for the organ ... as well as all long sharp weapons, such as knives, daggers, and pikes... Boxes, cases, chests, cupboards, and ovens, represent the uterus..."5 Freud's contention is that such symbols transcend dreams and they appear in myths, folk tales and pictorial representations. Assuming the validity of Freud's theory, Whistler's painting ceases to be a riddle and lends itself to an easy if not entirely convincing interpretation. A blue triangle pointed downward is a symbol of a female sexual organ, and the same could be said about the triangles pointing sideways. "Point uppermost triangles stand for fire and the male sexual organ; point downwards, for water and the female sexual organs."6 Triangles are intimately connected with the number 3; the three triangles pointing sideways parallel the three sticks located below which, according to Freud, stand for male genitals. The four rectangular boxes to the left, following Freud's symbolic explanation, stand for female genitalia and occur in the same number as the blue triangles. The arcane construction denotes male genitalia somewhat more descriptively and realistically than the sticks below. The stick with a bulge in it pointing toward the triangles indicates potential penetration, although it is difficult to know whether the horizontal projection is situated in the three dimensional space. It should be kept in mind that the Freudian symbolic interpretation of visual signs is based on dream symbolism which Freud claims to be similar to the unconscious origin of artistic creativity. The general objection raised against the Freudian theory of reductionism to the sexual drive applies here, too. The human mind is too complex to be limited to the sexual drive alone. There are different ways of seeing the interpreting this painting, as Campbell demonstrates.7 One may also conclude that painting #09 is just a juxtaposition of color and form, and that the whole meaning of the painting resides in them and nothing else.


Oil Painting #09

   There is also the number symbolism which may be pertinent to this discussion. The question to be resolved is: Are the numbers of items in this painting accidental and arbitrary or planned and deliberate? If we assume the former, we would agree with the postulate that #9 is purely a decorative painting, an interplay of color and form deprived of any symbolism. In the latter interpretation the number of sticks, triangles and rectangles has a symbolic meaning of its own which is explored below. The number 4 plays an important part in mythologies and religions; it is related to the symbolism of the cross and square in the meaning of wholeness and universality. In the Indian, Greek and Roman traditions this number is used as a decorative fertility symbol to form squares and rectangles. In numerology, even numbers signify the womb and are female, while odd numbers are associated with maleness. Following this line of symbolic substitution, Whistler's use of rectangles indicates a universal fertility symbol. Number 3, being an odd number, is an indicator of maleness. Whistler's blue triangles are inverted, pointing downward, while if they were standing on their bases pointing upward they would be symbolic of maleness. "The Dogan and Bambara regard three as the number symbolizing the male principle and depict it in a hieroglyphic showing the penis and two testicles. As well as the symbol of maleness it is also that of motion, in opposition to FOUR, the symbol of femaleness and the elements."8 The three sticks are thus related to the four blue triangles with the Freudian implication of male (3) and female (4) genitals.

   The construction on the left side of painting has five parts. It is a synthesis and reconciliation of the complementary opposition of sticks, rectangles and triangles, with even numbers signifying a womb and odd numbers related to male genitalia. This synthesis is based on the five parts divided into four and one, resulting in androgyny.

   The sphere presiding over the scene (the moon or the sun) is hierarchically the supreme object of all those presented in the painting. It is considered to be a sign of the original unity of the heavens. Its relation to the rectangles represents a transition from heavens to earth. Jung considered the symbol of the circle to be an archetypal image of the totality of the psyche, a symbol of the ego, while the square to be the symbol of the terrestrial matter of the body and of reality.9 Thus, all other objects are contained and issue from the sphere. The supremacy of the sphere is shown by its height and size in relation to other objects in the painting.

   It should be mentioned that the Freudian interpretation of the painting would be accessible only to those who are familiar with is code; otherwise the painting would safely pass the strictest puritanically fundamentalist scrutiny.

   1Annemarie Schimmel, The Mystery of Numbers, Oxford University Press, 1993, p.42.

   2Quoted in Annemarie Schimmel, The Mystery of Numbers, p.46.

   3Friedrich Schiller, Die Piccolomini, G.P. Putnamfs Sons, 1888, p.32, II.1(edited by James Morgan Hart) In Christian art number five is symbolic of man, the four limbs of the body with the head controlling them, see Gertrude Grace Sill, A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art, Touchstone Book, 1975, p.137.

   4Annemarie Schimmel, The Mystery of Numbers, p.106.

   5Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Avon Books, 1965, p.391 (translated from German by James Strachey). In Christian art number five is symbolic of man, the four limbs of the body with the head controlling them, see Gertrude Grace Sill, A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art, Touchstone Book, 1975, p.137.

   6Jean Chevalier and Alain Gherbrant, The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, Penguin Books, 1996, p.1034. (Translated by John Buchanan-Brown). This triangle symbolism was prevalent in India, Greece, and Rome. An indirect confirmation of their symbolism in Ms. Whistlerfs pictorial art is the blue color which she uses in painting female genitals in her other paintings.

   7Addressed to Ms. Whistler: gYou seem to have the most arcane manifestations of mathematical expression, exemplified by your #9 oil. As a case in point, one need only to consider the profoundly incommensurable relationship between curves and lines which have so puzzled and enthralled the greatest of philosophers and mathematicians from the ancient Pythagoreans to definitive modernists beginning with Galileo, Descartes, Leibnitz, and Newton.h Private correspondence from professor Stephen (Sen) Campbell, University of California at Irvine.

   8Jean Chevalier and Alain Gherbrant, The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, p,995.

   9Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols, London, 1964, p.249.

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