Filosofia

he successful publication of The Red Book (2009) has marked an important change in the history of C.G. Jung. Not only has this colossal book upended our understanding of Jung-expanding the horizon of scholarly research on Jung and visual works-but it has also permanently shifted the perspective in Jung History. Indeed, after The Red Book, it has become impossible to conduct an investigation into depth psychology, without considering Jungʼs engagement with art. Even more importantly, Jungʼs own images and pictures have become increasingly relevant to Jung studies. The Art of C.G. Jung (2019), edited by the Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung, is the first extensive work to include both a collection of essays on Jung and art, and a gallery of archival images of Jungʼs own visual production. For this reason, The Art of C.G. Jung is bound to become required reading for present and future generations of Jung scholars. As the president of the Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung, Daniel Niehus, writes in the foreword, Jungʼs artwork presents unique features, some of which display ʻsimilarities to the development in modern art of the early twentieth centuryʼ (7). Such features are all present in the emblematic illustrations from Liber Novus, chosen for the front and back covers of the book. The first essay of the collection, ʻImages from the Unconscious. An Introduction to the Visual Works of C.G. Jungʼ by Ulrich Hoerni, serves as an introduction for the rest of the book. As reported by Hoerni, the ʻfirst, albeit incomplete overview of [Jungʼs] creative workʼ happened during the biographical exhibition organised by the City of Zurich in the Helmhaus for the one hundredth anniversary of Jungʼs birthday, when paintings by Jung, facsimiles of Liber Novus and photographs of stone carvings were displayed (11). Even though one had to wait until 1993 for an inventory of Jungʼs creative work to be compiled, a certain interest in Jungʼs relationship with visual arts had already been spreading since the publication of Memories, Dreams, Reflections.