Maarten Steenhagen, 'Why do we Paint?'

Why do we paint? Psychoanalysis is a motivational psychology: it helps us make sense of why we do what we do. Psychoanalytic theory of the arts in general, and psychoanalytic accounts of the pictorial arts more specifically offer the outlines of an answer to the question why we paint. That answer, if accepted, sheds light not only on why people value painting, but also on what painting is. In this way psychoanalytic approaches to painting may be thought to inform a philosophical account of pictorial representation. In this paper I present a psychoanalytic account of why we paint, and argue for its significance for the philosophy of art.