Neofiguration and Iconoclasm in David Lynch’s Cinema

Abstract

Iconoclasm and idolatry are opposite sides of the same coin: the cult of images. Through representation, man, since primitive times, has sought to understand his inner world, and hence giving rise to magical thinking and then to religious faith. Thereafter, philosophical doctrine would be responsible of these issues for the sake of discovering a truth that exists beyond the appearances of the visible world. As avant-garde artistic currents, surrealism, symbolism, and neofiguration would resume the reflection on the icons and their deformation so that man becomes the center of visual works. Painting, with authors such as Edward Hopper and Francis Bacon, will once again pose the debate between image and abstraction, light and darkness, body and soul. David Lynch, the cult film director, will show in his films this eternal debate of a philosophy that seeks self-knowledge and the transcendence of being.