The Hidden Essence of Art

Stephen Newton gained an honours B.A. at Leeds University, UK, in 1971; an M.A. in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, UK, in 1986; an M.A. in Art and Psychotherapy with Distinction in 1993 at the University of Sheffield, UK, and after doctoral research in the Department of Psychiatry there, a Ph.D in the psychoanalysis of the creative process in 1998. He has lectured widely and has had many papers, reviews and essays published. He has had 3 books published: The Politics and Psychoanalysis of Primitivism (1996), described by David Buckland in The Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945 as ‘the acclaimed study’; Painting, Psychoanalysis, and Spirituality (2001), described by Gilbert J. Rose in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association as ‘often brilliant in dealing with art and art theory’; and Art and Ritual – A Painter’s Journey (2008), described by Donald Kuspit as ‘truly major’. In 2000 Newton was elected Visiting Professor at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle, UK.