Chancery Art Gallery

From the Freudian view, arts derive from the same source as fantasies and dreams, and have the same purpose – to reduce tension in the soul. This applies to both creation and perception of the art, regardless of modality – painting, sculpture, literature, music, dance, etc. Thus, in some respects artists are not special – like the rest of us, they have the same narcissistic desires and fantasies, rather shameful to share under our cultural restraints. But unlike us, artists have a very special gift – they are able to exhibit their fantasies in a skilful, camouflaged way, and to attract us first with the external, formal side of their work. It traps us, provoking a preliminary, properly aesthetic pleasure, turning our internal "censor" off guard. And then, it enables us to enjoy our own deep prohibited fantasies – projected on the art – without shame and self-blame, with revealing catharsis. How are artists able to do this? It's their mystic secret; it's ART.