Hans-Heinrich Dittrich: Gestalt Principles as Inspiration

A conversation with Irene Daum | Section: Interviews

Abstract: Hans-Heinrich Dittrich works as a freelance artist in Bonn. When designing his work, he draws on his studies in psychology and his many years of work as a qualified psychologist to examine the findings of Gestalt psychology and its significance for the visual arts.

Mr. Dittrich, when describing your work you refer to scientific findings in psychology, particularly Gestalt psychology. Could you be more specific about these references?
Based on my training as a qualified psychologist with a clinical focus and my work as a Gestalt psychotherapist, I have discovered parallels to theories of Gestalt psychology – one of the roots of Gestalt psychotherapy – in my abstract paintings in my artistic work. However, I do not concentrate on scientific theories; rather, as with my focus on therapeutic work, I would describe myself more as a pragmatist. I would most likely describe myself as an artist who works with an affinity for science. For me, important insights into psychology were gained primarily through individual case analyses and introspection, rather than through empirical studies of large populations.

Which theories and findings of Gestalt psychology are particularly important for your artistic work?
In addition to the Gestalt laws postulated by Max Wertheimer, which describe the perception of objects and their interaction, I would like to particularly emphasize figure-ground perception in the perception of the holistic Gestalt. In selective perception, what is considered important comes to the foreground as a figure, and everything else becomes the background. This can also be reversed. In Gestalt therapy, this figure/ground process is transferred to emotional processes. The most important need emerges from the background as the open figure and becomes a figure in the foreground. This figure can disappear back into the background and make way for a new figure. Particularly important: the whole is not only more, but also different than the sum of its parts. 

How would you describe your artistic development? Did you already deal with art at school or during your studies? Why did you decide to study psychology? What topics interested you most during your studies?
I did indeed deal with art at school and during my studies. I got started with a film about Max Ernst. During my studies I attended both life drawing and calligraphy courses. My interest in studying psychology arose from extensive reading of the writings of Sigmund Freud. My family history probably played a role too. An aunt who died young and whom I never met suffered from schizophrenia and I studied schizophrenia research in detail. In this context, I looked intensively at the systemic approach in psychotherapy. I was most impressed by Mara Selvini-Palazzoli’s book Paradox and Counterparadox . During my studies, my then professor for clinical psychology, Alf Däumling, introduced me to the writings of Carl Gustav Jung and I was fascinated by his teachings of archetypes, images of the soul that appear in similar forms in all cultures, and his construct of the collective unconsciousness.

What factors influenced your decision about your career after graduating?
After graduating, I continued the Gestalt psychotherapy training I had already started during my studies and practiced in my own office. However, for economic and family reasons, I had to give up the office and ended up in IT as a career changer. In addition to my professional work, I have always worked artistically and at the time I was mainly interested in the female nude.

How did you come to the decision to devote yourself intensively to art? How would you describe your career as an artist? What role did your experience as a Gestalt psychologist play in this development?
It was only about four years ago, after completing my professional career as a management consultant in IT, that I was able to realize my life’s dream and devote my life entirely to art. After an initial experimental phase, I moved from nude painting to abstract design. In the ongoing dialogue about philosophical and psychological topics with the gallery owner Christoph Noebel, I realized that my roots as a psychologist and Gestalt therapist are becoming more and more apparent in my work. Seemingly unrelated and heterogeneous objects or figures appear in relation to one another and together with the background as a holistic Gestalt, whereby different laws of Gestalt theory can be understood, such as the law of proximity, which implies that visual elements in spatial proximity are perceived as belonging together. Most important, however, is the figure/background phenomenon, which plays a role both in the painting process and in the viewer’s perception. Viewed from different angles and distances, different figures can emerge from the background into the foreground, an example of this is my work vanities. Figures can become the background again and reveal other figures. These processes can also be influenced by emotional states and in turn evoke emotional states.

Are there artists, particularly science-related artists, who have influenced your own artistic work?
My interest in art was awakened in my youth by the painter Max Ernst. At that time, surrealism developed parallel to psychoanalysis and the discovery of the unconscious. It was within the framework of surrealism that André Breton’s automatic writing (Écriture automatique) emerged as a counterpart to free association. The attempt was made to switch off rational censorship through a state of trance and to put unconscious, dreamlike sequences on paper. Frottage, developed by Max Ernst, is the visual counterpart to this. He calls his method controlled chance. I still find the works of Maurits Cornelis Escher fascinating; he incorporated the principle of tilting figures (such as Rubin’s cup) with the utmost precision into his works (e.g. Bird-Fish). Due to his artistic exploration of Möbius strips, crystal shapes, reflections, optical distortions and fractals, he was highly valued by mathematicians and was often invited to give lectures.

Can you give an example of your work process? Do you work intuitively or sequentially and analytically? What effect do you want to have on the viewer?
I usually start with one or more sketches, in which I sometimes already use the colors to be used. I transfer the sketches to thick cardboard in the size planned for the finished painting and then cut out the shapes. I then transfer the paper cut-out to the painting surface (paper, handmade paper or canvas). I first paint the background and then use the matrix to fill in the objects with a spatula, working from the outside in. During this process I work intuitively, leaving gaps that become the background within the figure. I then continue working with different types of chalk and am inspired by the interaction of the different elements and their interaction with the background. This is how gestures and calligraphic messages arise, such as in the work mental overflow . I use the color gradient or the different structure and thickness of the paint that is created when the paint is puttyed. Depending on the nature of the painting surface, I scratch symbols into the paint that is not yet dry. I want to create the effect that the viewer’s gaze wanders back and forth in the picture and that they turn their attention from the overall shape to the details. I don’t want to offer a solution, but rather present a puzzle. The titles are not meant to help with interpretation either; they are rather paradoxical, such as close your eyes and see, finally unlimited limitations or the game is over – this is no game.

Is there a group of your works that is of particular importance to you personally?
The group of works Ideenschatten, all painted on grey handmade paper, represents a turning point in my artistic work. It begins with the painting Forgotten Pieces. This painting also represents the beginning of my conceptual art, which I call GESTALT-ART. I transfer the perception processes examined by Gestalt psychology, which Gestalt therapy raises to an emotional level, to the artistic creation process. In addition to the interaction of the individual objects with one another, the relationship between the objects and the background is crucial. Starting with planning the composition of objects on a background, my creative process is increasingly intuitive and spontaneous. This goes so far that further figures can emerge from the background, and backgrounds in turn emerge within the figures, until the whole emerges into a figure. In this way, there is a constant alternation between figure and background during the painting process. Gestures arise between the figures and between the figures and the background, which leave their mark in the background and also on the figures. That is why the term GESTALT has another meaning -> GEST AL T = gestural alternative traces. This roughly translates to alternative traces/signs of a gestural nature, because I leave traces on my pictures that seem to point in a certain direction, but which can have a variety of alternative meanings.

What artistic goals do you pursue in your exploration of the findings of Gestalt psychology? Are there any current research questions that particularly concern you?
The goals of my artistic work go beyond the findings of Gestalt psychology. I see my art as a perception experiment. I see the tensions that arise between the figures among themselves and between the figures and the background as gestures that materialize on the background as signs and messages and are expressed in ambivalent and paradoxical symbols with an indeterminate meaning. The symbols are paradoxical because they seem to look like calligraphic elements or are reminiscent of hieroglyphs. However, they are intuitive and spontaneous gestural traces that interact with other objects. The symbols arise in part from gaps in the painting. It is therefore not essential what I paint but mainly what I leave out.

Gestalt psychology has primarily investigated and described cognitive perception processes. I am currently more interested in the emotional and socio-cultural aspects of perception. How is perception influenced by the emotional states and social background of the viewer? What emotions are evoked when looking at a picture and how do they lead to a change in the respective perspective and perception of the figures that come to the fore? How large must the proportion of the familiar be compared to the unknown in order to continue to engage with a work of art? How do the environment, the particular room in which the works of art are presented and the entire audience affect the willingness to see and perceive overall contexts as well as details? 

Mr. Dittrich, thank you for the interesting and insightful conversation.

Featured image: Hans-Heinrich Dittrich in front of his series of works Ideenschatten ( 2022). Photo: Irene Daum.

How to cite this article

Irene Daum (2024): Hans-Heinrich Dittrich: Gestalt Principles as Inspiration. w/k–Between Science & Art Journal. https://doi.org/10.55597/e9944

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