The Art of C.G. Jung

by The Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung (Editor), Ulrich Hoerni (Contributor), Thomas Fisher (Contributor)

A world-renowned, founding figure in analytical psychology, and one of the twentieth century’s most vibrant thinkers, C.G. Jung imbued as much inspiration, passion, and precision in what he made as in what he wrote. Though it spanned his entire lifetime and included painting, drawing, and sculpture, Jung’s practice of visual art was a talent that Jung himself consistently downplayed out of a stated desire never to claim the title “artist.” But the long-awaited and landmark publication, in 2009, of C.G. Jung’s The Red Book revealed an astonishing visual facet of a man so influential in the realm of thought and words, as it integrated stunning symbolic images with an exploration of “thinking in images” in therapeutic work and the development of the method of Active Imagination. The remarkable depictions that burst forth from the pages of that calligraphic volume remained largely unrecognized and unexplored until publication.
The release of The Red Book generated enormous interest in Jung’s visual works and allowed scholars to engage with the legacy of Jung’s creativity. The essays collected here present previously unpublished artistic work and address a remarkably broad spectrum of artistic accomplishment, both independently and within the context of The Red Book, itself widely represented. Tracing the evolution of Jung’s visual efforts from early childhood to adult life while illuminating the close relation of Jung’s lived experience to his scientific and creative endeavors, The Art of C.G. Jung offers a diverse exhibition of Jung’s engagement with visual art as maker, collector, and analyst.

Genres: Art, Psychology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Mysticism

269 pages, Hardcover

First published November 20, 2018

Reviews

[James]

Fascinating subject matter and some nice reproductions of Jung's art, but I felt that the text got bogged down in an excessive number of distracting end notes that made the reading experience more of a chore than it should have been.

[Tiago F]

I'm a huge fan of Jung and have dived a fair bit into his work, but in addition to his philosophy and psychology, I've always really enjoyed his art, it always struck me as incredibly expressive and authentic. I have a very similar vibe from William Blake, despite their art is quite different, and Blake being more proficient.

I was delighted to know there was a book about Jung's art. This is actually quite recent, and Jung generally isn't thought of as an artist. This book was the first time of a big collection of his art and explaining Jung's artistic journey.

The book is bigger than I thought, in part because it deals with a lot of background information. For example, many of Jung's paintings of him as a child and teen survived, and those are displayed in the book and also aided by a short biography and how it relates to his art.

All the art is very well explained, and it rarely leaves you in the dark about a specific work. If anything, I found some painting's descriptions to be almost too in-depth. If someone isn't super familiar with Jung, it would be very overwhelming and hard to decipher.

It explains the art both in the symbolic sense, obviously almost exclusively within Jung's system, but I was also surprised that it dived into a lot of technical details of painting itself. As Jung was completely self-taught, it goes over the techniques he discovered, how they changed over time, the experiments he made, and so forth.

I really appreciate that the approach was quite a holist about art in general, and not just showing his best paintings. It even includes many passages and descriptions of his involvement with art in general. Such as comments on modern art, seminars, visits to museums, etc. Even details about the building of his house, which has always fascinated me, was provided.

It also has a big focus on his collection of art. I really liked this aspect which gave a very personal touch to the book, as if you got to know Jung in a more intimate way by seeing what he prized and what he collected. It also had a good amount about the Red Book, not only in the images themselves, but also on the calligraphy and "background" illuminations which were really enjoyable to dive into, and it's easily missed.

It was delightful to go through the book and I'm glad I got it. If anything I think at times it seemed to be too broad, and perhaps it would be a better read if it was more condensed. Nevertheless, given that this is the only place where everything related to Jung's art was compiled, I understand the need to make this resource as comprehensive as possible. Otherwise, what would be left out would be for practical purposes lost and forgotten.

If you have been caught under Jung's artistic spell, it's very well worth getting. If you just like Jung in general, however, I wouldn't get the book in hopes of further insights. While I'm sure there are some, I think it's minimal and it's too specific to his artistic interests to be of value for most people.

[Karen]

Jung refused to consider himself an artist because his focus was on what the images he created could tell him about his psychological processes and he thought the term ‘artist’ would relieve him of that responsibility. But he was an artist, an incredibly talented and versatile one. This stunning book is, for me, more valuable than his celebrated Red Book. It includes, of course, a great many images from that work, but adds context through discussion and examples of the ideas and the artwork that led to Red Book images. The many essays further contextualize the work, showing the important place of art in Jung’s life, whether as a collector, a psychoanalyst or, quite definitely, an artist.

[Anton Zlatev]

Бе абсолютно удоволствие да се чете това произведение на изкуството, позволяващо да надзърнем в един Юнг, който до момента не е бил осветен. Страхотна книга, поздравления за българския превод!

[Judy]

Not for the casual reader, nor for someone who knows very little about Jung.

Reading this felt like jumping into an advanced university class ... two-thirds of the way through the semester. For a while, I tried reading word for word, but I quickly realized that I wasn't assimilating what I read, so I started skimming. Jung was widely read and had many interests -- I kept wondering if he were happy in his chosen career.

Here are a few quotes that I believe captured a key idea.

p 25 Since antiquity, our general attitude to art has always been empathetic, and for this reason we designate as beautiful only those things we can empathize with. If the art-form is opposed to life, if it is inorganic or abstract, we cannot feel our own life in it. Jung

He did not like/understand modern art and thought it was a reflection of the modern world.

Jung believed that dreams and subconscious thoughts revealed our inner selves. My inner self is obviously quite different from his.

Thomas Fischer's chapter about Jung should have appeared much earlier in the book.

As for layout ... the text lines are long; two columns would have made for easier reading.

[Lars Winky]

Incredibly eye opening: Carl Jung did illustrations of some of his myths and throies in subconcious paintings and symbolic sketches that manifest some f his archetypes. In this book the explanation of the Western Mandala was fascinating as it was a visual representation of the myths of creation and the struggle between the density and the lightness of the universe in the Arcanes of Thoth, in paintings. The Sequence of drawings are almost animated and could be easily be make into a movie that explains the origin of life and the stablishment of the order of the 4 elements in the earth and the balance of them. These are transcripts and explanations of the meaning of the drawings seen in the Red Book, but which they are not explained in the Red Book. One needs to read both books at the same time to understand the drawings. Otehr figures like tehe symbols of snakes and teh golden dressed boy are explained here as well. The "European Mandalas" As jung refers to them in The Secret of the Golden Flower Commentary are also explained here. The 4 sides, the top spirit and the bottom material darkness intertwined serpent and so on...

[Ellenore Clementine Kruger]

stunning

This is very abrahamic with a celtic twist seeming a little kells… im very sorry this is getting rare and sacred but it alludes to the war on power and reverence and keeping who or what … i hope people find peace but what i found in this was a paralyzing fear enclosed with awareness like studying history and astrology in synch

[Thiago Santos]

Maravilhosa introdução ao lado artístico revelado postumamente do grande pensador C.G. Jung.

[Ann]

Skimmed quite a bit of the text.

[Dora Witherell vandenberg]

Another side of Carl Jung.

[Parsa Dayani]

بنظرم خوندن کتاب سرخ قبل از خوندن این کتاب الزامیه
و همینطور انسان و سمبل‌هایش
یکم کتاب تو ماندالاها ریز میشه
و کاش مقاله‌های یونگ راجع به آثار پیمایش و دوشان رو هم میوردن