Alchemy, Jung, and Remedios Varo : Cultural Complexes and the Redemptive Power of the Abjected Feminine

"Alchemy, Jung, and Remedios Varo offers a depth psychological analysis of the art and life of Remedios Varo, a Spanish surrealist painter. The book uses Varo's paintings in a revolutionary way: to critique the patriarchal underpinnings of Jungian psychology, alchemy, and Surrealism, illuminating how Varo used painting to address cultural complexes that silence female expression. The book focuses on how the practice of alchemical psychology, through the power of imagination and the archetypal Feminine, can lead to healing and transformation for individuals and culture. Alchemy, Jung, and Remedios Varo offers the first in-depth psychological treatment of the role alchemy played in the friendship between Varo and Leonora Carrington--a connection that led to paintings that protest the pitfalls of patriarchy. This unique book will be of great interest for academics, scholars, and post-graduate students in the fields of analytical psychology, art history, Surrealism, cultural criticism, and Jungian studies."--Publisher's description Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of contents Figures Acknowledgments Prelude: Preparing the canvas Part I The death of Remedios Varo and the science of all things Chapter 1 Varo’s alchemical practice of painting and the problem of patriarchy Alchemy and art as modes of deep inquiry Mother, father, and the making of an alchemist The nature of the alchemical first matter Black and blue: Imagination and the importance of the nigredo All art is propaganda: Patriarchy and Varo’s alchemical practice of painting Mirror of the marvelous: Art, psyche, and the experience of the numinous Wonder, Surrealism, and Jungian psychology Psychology, alchemy, and the mercurial nature of the prima materia Note References Chapter 2 The fructifying bonfire of trauma and death Remedios as remedy: The replacement child and a search for identity Tension of opposites: Masculine and Feminine in the theater of war Prison: Varo in the underworld The trauma complex, art, and the healing capacity of imagination References Chapter 3 Putting the canvas on the easel: Surrealism, alchemy, and the unconscious Surrealism and alchemy: Re-enchanting the world The heroine’s quest: Symbolic alchemy and the transformation of deep suffering References Chapter 4 The end as beginning: Varo’s dream of the executioner, last painting, and death The dream of the executioner and the renewing aspect of the dangerous secret Still Life Reviving: Varo’s last painting and preparation for death Threads of change: Death, rebirth, and the dream of the executioner Note References Chapter 5 Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle: Psychology, alchemy, and weaving the garment of a new world Premonition: Weaving a woman’s mystery Toward the Tower: Varo, the beehive, and the retelling of a traitorous truth Women at work: Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle and the alchemical Feminine Self-representation and the transformative concept of the double Feeding the caged moon: Patriarchy, the Feminine, and Jung’s theory of complexes Raveling: Varo and the transformation of cultural complexes powered by patriarchy Secret recipes: Alchemy, creation, and the art of political weaving References Chapter 6 Voyage to the center of the inner world: The Feminine quest, the labyrinth, and the dangerous secret Quest of the Feminine: Art, psyche, and female initiation Spiral Transit: Spiritual gold and the journey of the soul Dead Leaves: The labyrinth, Ariadne’s thread, and rewinding the myth of the male hero Notes References Chapter 7 Cauldrons of color: Dead Leaves and the alchemical movement between death, life, and rebirth The blackening: The human soul and its need for death to come alive The blue thread: Imagination and initiation into the labyrinth of one’s own being The two whitenings: The furnace of distress and the death of innocence Silvered imagining: The hammered soul and the symbol as a living presence Three ravens: Black, white, and the red that brings all things to an end Note References Chapter 8 Birds and eggs: Symbol of the liberated soul and image of immortality Art and the alchemical symbolism of the egg The egg in the alchemical paintings of Leonora Carrington The egg, the liberated soul, and the dream of the executioner Notes References Chapter 9 The dream of the executioner: A paradigm shift The archetypal Masculine and the man in the egg The Juggler: The alchemical androgyne and the union of opposites in the world Still Life Reviving: Image as soul food Facing death without fear: Dream 9 and the menace within The Encounter: The egg, an owl, and an image of the dangerous secret The artistic diary: Toward the culmination of the work, the coniunctio Manifesting the sacred The dream of the executioner and the dangerous secret: A paradigm shift Dreams of alchemy: Love, wonder, and the creative forces that animate the soul References Part II Mystical sisters Chapter 10 Kindred spirits: Varo, Carrington, and the possibilities of woman’s creative power Crookhey Hall: Carrington and the prima materia of childhood Down Below: The onset of war and the female body as alchemical vessel From mayhem to madness: Carrington in the asylum of the patriarchy Destruction as the cause of coming into being Notes References Chapter 11 Breaking out: Varo, Carrington, and blackening the patriarchal paradigm The Terrible Mother and the voice of the eternal Feminine Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst: Challenging the authority of the father A feminist Surrealism Exposing the big con and the project of female empowerment References Chapter 12 In the footsteps of Virginia Woolf: Humiliated Manhood and the re-visioning of the Feminine A woman’s war: Woolf, words, and the will to power The difference a friendship made Note References Chapter 13 Alchemy in exile: Varo and Carrington in Mexico City Stirring the cauldron: Varo and Carrington in the alchemical kitchen Varo’s death: Alchemy and the bath that kills and vivifies Note References Chapter 14 The way they loved each other: The crucible of friendship and the unmaking of patriarchy Reclaiming the place of the Feminine The distorted and dislocated Feminine: The surrealism of Wifredo Lam Horns of the goddess: The Minotaur in the work of Varo, Carrington, and Lam Female sexual objectification and other problems of patriarchy Note References Part III Symbols of transformation Chapter 15 Imaginal dialogues: The alchemical treasure of the Feminine Note References Index