Jung’s Reception of Picasso and Abstract Art


Book Description

This book explores the nature of Jung’s understanding of modern art, in particular his reception to the work of Picasso and his striking prejudice shown in his controversial essay of 1932. Offering an important contribution towards understanding Jung’s attitudes towards Picasso and modern art, the book addresses the impact that Jung’s unwillingness to engage in a deeper exploration of modern artforms had on the development of his psychological ideas. It explores and uncovers the reasons for Jung’s derogatory view of Picasso and abstract art more generally, revealing how Jung was unable to remain objective due to his own complex and equally fascinating relationship with art and the psychology of image making. The book argues that modern art parallels Jung’s interests by embracing the spirit of experimentation and using new imagery to challenge creative conceptions, which makes Jung’s attitudes towards modern art all the more surprising. Jung’s Reception of Picasso and Abstract Art will be of great interest to researchers, academics and those interested in analytical psychology, Jungian studies, art history and modernism, aesthetics and psychoanalysis.




Jung's Reception of Picasso and Abstract Art


Book Description

This book explores the nature of Jung's understanding of modern art, in particular his reception to the work of Picasso and his striking prejudice shown in his controversial essay of 1932. Offering an important contribution towards understanding Jung's attitudes towards Picasso and modern art, the book addresses the impact that Jung's unwillingness to engage in a deeper exploration of modern artforms had on the development of his psychological ideas. It explores and uncovers the reasons for Jung's derogatory view of Picasso and abstract art more generally, revealing how Jung was unable to remain objective due to his own complex and equally fascinating relationship with art and the psychology of image making. The book argues that modern art parallels Jung's interests by embracing the spirit of experimentation and using new imagery to challenge creative conceptions, which makes Jung's attitudes towards modern art all the more surprising. Jung's Reception of Picasso and Abstract Art will be of great interest to researchers, academics and those interested in analytical psychology, Jungian studies, art history and modernism, aesthetics and psychoanalysis.




The Paradoxical Meeting of Depth Psychology and Physics


Book Description

This book unites the worlds of physics and depth psychology through analysis of carefully selected existing and new dream materials. Their interpretation by Matthews provides fertile ground for the unifying of the extreme opposites of psyche and matter and forms a continuation of the deep dialogue between acclaimed psychologist Carl Jung and Nobel physicist Wolfgang Pauli. What emerges is an individuation process where inner and outer worlds are intertwined through a succession of dream images, culminating with that of the ring i, the mathematical function at the heart of quantum physics. This mysterious function unites wave and particle and symbolically carries the quality of paradox. The occurrence of the ring i in Pauli’s and the author’s dreams suggests paradox is a necessary psychological state to experience a living union between psyche and matter. Analysis of accompanying materials further indicates the arising of a new world view where inner and outer, mind and matter, may again be seen as a unified whole. This book is an engaging read for academics and researchers in the field of Jungian psychology and will appeal to those interested in the novel application of quantum physics to philosophy, psychology and spirituality.




Jackson Pollock


Book Description

Published to accompany the exhibition Jackson Pollock held the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 1 November 1998 to 2 February 1999.




Man and His Symbols


Book Description

The landmark text about the inner workings of the unconscious mind—from the symbolism that unlocks the meaning of our dreams to their effect on our waking lives and artistic impulses—featuring more than a hundred images that break down Carl Jung’s revolutionary ideas “What emerges with great clarity from the book is that Jung has done immense service both to psychology as a science and to our general understanding of man in society.”—The Guardian “Our psyche is part of nature, and its enigma is limitless.” Since our inception, humanity has looked to dreams for guidance. But what are they? How can we understand them? And how can we use them to shape our lives? There is perhaps no one more equipped to answer these questions than the legendary psychologist Carl G. Jung. It is in his life’s work that the unconscious mind comes to be understood as an expansive, rich world just as vital and true a part of the mind as the conscious, and it is in our dreams—those personal, integral expressions of our deepest selves—that it communicates itself to us. A seminal text written explicitly for the general reader, Man and His Symbolsis a guide to understanding the symbols in our dreams and using that knowledge to build fuller, more receptive lives. Full of fascinating case studies and examples pulled from philosophy, history, myth, fairy tales, and more, this groundbreaking work—profusely illustrated with hundreds of visual examples—offers invaluable insight into the symbols we dream that demand understanding, why we seek meaning at all, and how these very symbols affect our lives. By illuminating the means to examine our prejudices, interpret psychological meanings, break free of our influences, and recenter our individuality, Man and His Symbols proves to be—decades after its conception—a revelatory, absorbing, and relevant experience.







The Art of C. G. Jung


Book Description

A lavishly illustrated volume of C.G. Jung’s visual work, from drawing to painting to sculpture. 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.




Masterpieces of Western Art


Book Description

This volume traces the history of painting from medieval times to modern times with a focus on each era and its major artists. This volume traces the history of painting from medieval times to modern times with a focus on each era and its major artists.




Paths to the Absolute


Book Description

A groundbreaking account of the meaning of abstract painting From Mondrian's bold geometric forms to Kandinsky's use of symbols to Pollock's "dripped paintings," the richly diverse movement of abstract painting challenges anyone trying to make sense of either individual works or the phenomenon as a whole. Applying his insights as an art historian and a painter, John Golding offers a unique approach to understanding the evolution of abstractionism by looking at the personal artistic development of seven of its greatest practitioners. He re-creates the journey undertaken by each painter in his move from representational art to the abstract—a journey that in most cases began with cubism but led variously to symbolism, futurism, surrealism, theosophy, anthropology, Jungian analysis, and beyond. For each artist, spiritual quest and artistic experimentation became inseparable. And despite their different techniques and philosophies, these artists shared one goal: to break a path to a new, ultimate pictorial truth. The book first explores the works and concerns of three pioneering European abstract painters—Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky—and then those of their American successors—Pollock, Newman, Rothko, and Still. Golding shows how each painter sought to see the world and communicate his vision in the purest or most expressive form possible. For example, Mondrian found his way into abstraction through a spiritual response to the landscape of his native Holland, Malevich through his apprehension of the human body, Kandinsky through a blend of religious mysticism and symbolism. Line and color became the focus for many of their creative endeavors. In the 1940s and 50s, the Americans raised the level of pictorial innovation, beginning most notably with Pollock and his Jung-inspired concept of action. Golding makes a powerful case that at its best and most profound, abstract painting is heavily imbued with meaning and content. Through a blend of biography, art analysis, and cultural history, Paths to the Absolute offers remarkable insights into how a sense of purpose is achieved in painting, and how abstractionism engaged with the intellectual currents of its time. Please note: All images in this ebook are presented in black and white and have been reduced in size.




Light on Fire


Book Description

The first in-depth biography of Sam Francis, the legendary American abstract painter who broke all the rules in his personal and artistic life. Light on Fire is the first comprehensive biography of Sam Francis, one of the most important American abstract artists of the twentieth century. Based on Gabrielle Selz’s unprecedented access to Francis’s files, as well as private correspondence and hundreds of interviews, this book traces the extraordinary and ultimately tragic journey of a complex and charismatic artist who first learned to paint as a former air-corps pilot encased for three years in a full-body cast. While still a young man, Francis saw his color-saturated paintings fetch the highest prices of any living artist. His restless desire resulted in five marriages and homes on three continents; his entrepreneurial spirit led to founding a museum, a publishing company, a reforestation program and several nonprofits. Light on Fire captures the art, life, personality, and talent of a man whom the art historian and museum director William C. Agee described as a rare artist participating in the “visionary reconstruction of art history,” defying creative boundaries among the likes of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. With settings from World War II San Francisco to postwar Paris, New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, Selz crafts an intimate portrait of a man who sought to resolve in art the contradictions he couldn’t resolve in life.




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