ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the component drives of exhibitionism, urethral eroticism, phallic narcissism, and voyeurism as possible unconscious components of artistic production. It also examines the defensive structure of fetishism, classified by Freud as a form of perversion, though one that seems to be a universal feature of human sexual life. The chapter argues that the mechanisms of fetishism are relevant for a consideration of the formal dynamic between the centre and edge of an image, and the stylistic and conceptual presence of the pictorial frame. It explores some of the traces of excremental fantasies that underlie the avant garde's attack on the idealizations of traditional art. The chapter demonstrates the differences between the masculine and feminine forms of the French avant garde, contrasting the phallic comedy of transgression with the receptive wit of ambivalence. It also explores a moment of transgression, a "paradigm shift" or "quantum leap", in the practices of French avant garde artists.
