Anxiety

Fear, whether justified or not. Angst. Unjustified, anxiety can be produced by pathologies known as phobias. Examples of phobias: gymnophobia, iconophobia, and xenophobia.Examples of works in which anxiety is important: Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944), Anxiety, 1894, oil on canvas, 94 x 73 cm.Quotes: "No one but myself knows the anxiety I go through and the trouble I give myself to finish paintings which do not satisfy me and seem to please so very few others." Claude Monet (1840-1926), American painter. See Impressionism. "For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art. Without anxiety and illness I should have been like a ship without a rudder." Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Norwegian painter. See expression and Expressionism. "It seems I have learned to bear the anxiety of uncertainty. Now I accept that one can't know ahead of time what is on the other side. You might say my new works project a greater degree of jeopardy." Anne Truitt (1921-2004), American painter. "I don't have big anxieties. I wish I did. I'd be much more interesting." Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), American painter. See Pop art. "In the end, I feel that one has to have a bit of neurosis to go on being an artist. A balanced human seldom produces art. It's that imbalance which impels us. . . . The artist lives with anxiety." Beverly Pepper (1924-), American sculptor. See sculpture. "I think perhaps there would be more anxiety in my work if I lived in New York." Edward Ruscha (1937-), American painter who lives in California. "In contemporary art, surface is an expression of anxiety, and no one is as anxious about surface as I am." Charles Ray (contemporary), American sculptor who lives in California. 1998. See contemporary, expression, and surface.Also see angst, ethnocentrism, existentialism, and pain.