Scheidegger & Spiess Vorschau Frühjahr 2018

–C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 199
12 Ibid., 195
13 Ibid., 223.
14 Ibid.
Jost Hoerni captures a well-lit view of one of the quarries from which Jung obtained stone.
© Jost Hoerni
Tower at Bollingen (shown here in a photograph by an unknown photographer
in the early 1960s) can only be seen from the Obersee.
© Jung Family Archives
“The whole energy of these emotions was transformed
into interest in and curiosity about the image.”
–C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 187
“What C. G. regarded as important was that people thought as
the alchemists had done—they had certain experiences, and still
have. He is interested in the experience, not in ‘proving.’”
–Bennet, Meetings with Jung, 94
Detail from The Red Book, page 133.
© W. W. Norton and Company Used by permission of the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung
“Jung told Christina Morgan, as she recalls in her journal: ‘I should advise you to put it all
down as beautifully & as carefully as you can—in some beautifully bound book. It will seem
as if you were making the visions banal—but then you need to do that—then you are freed
from the power of them. If you do that with those eyes for instance they will cease to draw
you. You should never try to make that vision come again. Think of it in your imagination
and try to paint it. Then when these things are in some precious book you can go to the book
& turn over the pages & for you it will be your church—your cathedral—the silent places of
your spirit where you will find renewal. If anyone tells you that this is morbid or neurotic
and you listen to them—then you will lose your soul—for in that book is your soul.’”
Douglas, Translate This Darkness, 159
Detail from The Red Book, folio iv verso, col. 1 (The slaying of Siegfried).
© W. W. Norton and Company Used by permission of the Stiftung der Werke von C.G. Jung
–Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 7
A partial view of the Tower, with the lake behind it,
shows the structure as it appeared in 1983.
© Jill Mellick
–Hannah, Jung, His Life and Work, 153
A great tree branch leans over the Obersee. Wood is constantly being washed up
onto the shore at Bollingen, and trees on the grounds also require constant cutting.
© Jill Mellick
Landscape from a Dormer by Sebastian Gutzwiller d’Alsace, 1835‚ was one of the few
paintings in Jung’s childhood home in Klein-Hüningen. Most of Gutzwiller’s life was
spent in Basel; his work included altarpieces, portraits, and genre paintings.
© Jung Family Archives By permission of the Jung Family Archives
Jung designed a standing desk for The Red Book, which
The standing desk Jung installed to accommodate The Red
he would have installed in the space behind the desk and
Book was built in after the original building was finished.
desk chair where his visionary journey began.
© Jill Mellick Used with permission from the Stiftung C. G. Jung Küsnacht
© Jill Mellick Used with permission from the Stiftung C. G. Jung Küsnacht
“It was during Advent of the year 1913—December 12, to be exact—that
I resolved upon the decisive step. I was sitting at my desk once more,
thinking over my fears. Then I let myself drop. Suddenly it was as
though the ground literally gave way beneath my feet, and I plunged
down into dark depths. I could not fend off a feeling of panic. But then,
abruptly, at not too great a depth, I landed on my feet in a soft, sticky
mass. I felt great relief, although I was apparently in complete darkness.
–Andreas Jung, personal communication, 2012.
After a while my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, which was rather
like a deep twilight. Before me was the entrance to a dark cave, in
which stood a dwarf with a leathery skin, as if he were mummified.”
–Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 179
From the desk and chair in
the study, one has a view of the
short hall leading into the main
part of the library.
© Jill Mellick Used with permission
from the Stiftung C. G. Jung Küsnacht
4 Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity.
5 Jay Sherry in Carl Gustav Jung, and Sonu Shamdasani in his Introduction to The Red Book,
provide a discussion of Jung’s exposure to cultural and artistic influences.
6 Shamdasani, Introduction to C. G. Jung, The Red Book, 196.
—Henri, in Artists on Art, 401
69 Dots (pricks) resembling pencil dots are visible in the facsimile edition of “Liber
71 One such container is preserved at Bollingen.
“I was on the way to discovering my own myth.”
–C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 174
Jill Mellick
The Red Book Hours
Discovering C. G. Jung’s Art Mediums and Creative Process
pencil. Except for cloth, the materials he used to create his manikin would
prove to be his primary mediums throughout his life.
Deemed utterly without talent at a young age, Jung recognized even
then that drawing sightless busts (as required in school) held no inspiration
for him and that he could only make art that came from an inner impulse.
Whether making his manikin or painting on stone or drawing tiny, infinitely
detailed armies in pencil, he pleasurably absorbed himself in a process that
took him out of time. It held a compelling attraction for him. His early
immersion in the creative process is
common among highly creative
individuals. 4
Viewing art and painting were important experiences for Jung, though
his studies at the University of Basel and his early professional work limited
the amount of time he could devote to these pursuits. In his youth he was
drawn to Swiss, German, and Dutch painters, both representational and symbolic.
5 During his medical studies, his natural talent for drawing would have
been diverted to medical drawings and histology. And it would be highly
unlikely if Jung had not encountered the stunning paintings produced by
Ernst Haeckel, the German naturalist, physician, philosopher, and marine
biologist. Although none of Jung’s medical drawings survive, he was fascinated
by histology, which required the highly developed visual capacity to differentiate
tissues. He had always been intensely interested in natural history and its
representation. After a period working at the Burghölzli, the psychiatric hospital
of the University of Zürich, he used his time studying in Paris with
French psychologist Pierre Janet to visit the Louvre. He also visited the British
Museum in London. He bought paintings and engravings, and he also ordered
paintings copied, which he used to furnish his home. 6
Jung was not simply appreciating art; he was also making it. He
worked in pencil, chalk, transparent and opaque watercolors, and oils. Some
of his landscapes appear to be en plein air. Other works might have been
reconstructed from in situ sketches, memory, fantasy, or other artworks.
While his transparent watercolors are not as skillful as his pastels and oils,
they have a spontaneity and freshness that allow the viewer some appreciation
for the delight, absorption, and enthusiasm Jung must have felt as he painted
48 49
contemplate, and theorize. The Red Book itself—startling as it is, and now
available to all—is simply one among scores of visual works Jung created in
relationship to his inner world. It is part of his lifelong practice of carefully
choosing particular art mediums as the most fitting way—for a particular time
and purpose—to express or gain access to his inner world. He himself best
describes his lifetime of work, visual and written: “My works are a more or
less successful endeavor to incorporate this incandescent matter into the contemporary
picture of the world….” 14
“ The years when I was pursuing
my inner images were the most
important in my life—in them
everything essential was decided. It
all began then; the later details are
only supplements and clarifications
of the material that burst forth
from the unconscious, and at first
swamped me. It was the prima
materia for a lifetime’s work.”
“ The Red Book was not closed
away. It was open. When patients
came, they could look at it.”
62 63
84 85
Ein Schlüssel zu C.G. Jungs
legendärem Roten Buch
“ I was informed that children as small as I could
not go along, there was nothing to be done
about it. From then on the Uetliberg and Zürich
became an unattainable land of dreams, near
to the glowing, snow-covered mountains.”
100 101
JUNG’S TOOLS: SHAPING SPIRIT
…a trace, the footprint of the state.
is visible witness to the emergence of inner visions and symbols into form—
and each is a monument to Jung’s need to renew his spirit in timelessness,
introversion, silence, natural beauty, and structured, intentional conviviality.
At Bollingen more than anywhere else, Jung built, dwelt in, and protected
spaces that let his soul dive and surface. A multimedia artwork in itself, the
Tower was the physical matrix for his creativity.
In 1923, in the middle of making The Red Book, Jung felt the need to
“make a confession in stone.” He found lakefront land he could buy and
began to build his now-iconic Tower, extending it until 1955. If Jung had
involved himself in every centimeter of his house in Küsnacht, he did so to
an even greater extent with Bollingen. He allowed it to evolve over decades—
and he knew when it was finished. On its outer walls Jung chiseled bas-reliefs,
some symbolic, some decorative, some familial; in its lakeside grounds
he carved a freestanding sculpture; and on its inner walls he created more if
smaller bas-reliefs and painted complex murals.
Bollingen became the wellspring for his creative output, and he went
there to renew for periods during the last seven years of his Küsnacht work on
The Red Book, and the rest of his life. For decades, he worked there on stone
carving and wall painting. The earliest year that he ordered colors for his wall
paintings was probably 1923, so he was beginning his wall paintings at the same
time he was painting The Red Book.
“ The Tower was built primarily as a place where
Jung could be ‘reborn in stone,’ and where he
could be entirely himself, ‘a place of spiritual
contemplation.’ There were also ‘concrete needs
of the moment’ from the very beginning.”
A trace of the artist’s process, the footprint of his state of consciousness and
skills often lies in the tools he used. For Jung, the right materials and tools
were essential for every type of artistic medium he used. Self-taught in each
medium, he sought and bought the finest pigments and also the finest tools.
His many tools for The Red Book were specific to its considerable
requirements. While the finished product renders the mechanics of production
relatively invisible, in fact Jung would have assembled a wide variety of
tools with which to make his illuminated manuscript.
In the tradition of medieval calligraphers, he used an awl to prick
several pages at once in preparation for ruling. 69 Then he would have used a
ruler, a compass, and a protractor. He needed fine sable brushes with good
“bellies” to hold the color mix generously and predictably: round brushes
with a fine toe or tip for painting small areas; flat brushes with crisp ends and
corners for larger areas; 70 and script, liner, or detail brushes for miniature
work, particularly dots and hand-drawn lines.
Daily necessities included a pencil-sharpening tool; heavy paper or
cardboard to place under his hand to protect work from smudges, stray paint,
and hand oils; glass water containers for dipping and cleaning brushes; and at
least one glass container for dipping the toe of his brush to dilute pigment
mixtures. He also needed at least one tall container in which to store his
brushes handle down in order to ensure that they would hold their shapes as
they dried. For paints he had already mixed, he needed sealable glass containers
to keep the mixes wet between uses. 71
Jung used high-quality pigments with both unflinching generosity
and steady parsimony. He finished bag upon bag to the last grain. Because he
made his paints using mineral pigments with high specific gravity, these pigments
would sink out of suspension between painting sessions; Jung would
have to shake each sealed mixture vigorously before using it again to redistribute
the mineral particles evenly in the gum arabic and water.
For his calligraphy he would have chosen special pens made from quill
or having metal nibs. Sometimes he used his fountain pen for capital letters.
Secundus.” Hugh Milstein, personal communication, 2012.
70 Jung might also have used bright brushes with narrowed corners.
96 97
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