One evening, while he was working in his studio, a moth fluttered and settled against the outside of the windowpane. Birkhäuser turned this event into a painting in which the moth appears to be of monstrous proportions with a wingspan of several yards. He interpreted this picture years later as a representation of his own state of mind. The moth, an image of the soul, was prevented by the glass from reaching the light... He had grown up in a rationalist and agnostic environment, and his instincts were all against the unconscious...

He lost his old enthusiasm for his work... he suffered fits of depression.

It was in this state of perplexity that Birkhäuser and his wife came upon the ideas of Jung, and, impressed, began to note and analyse their dreams. Soon, the dreams became recognizable as landmarks, unmistakably criticising Birkhäuser's tradition-bound style.

One example among many was a dream in which Birkhäuser was at work on a painstakingly detailed study from nature when he noticed that his hand in the act of drawing was turning into a rigid horn.

The unconscious, however, also drew Birkhäuser's attention to new potentialities. Once he had this dream: "I was in bed and had a woman beside me I didn't know. She told me to get up and go to the blue light. At first I was reluctant, too lazy. Then she ordered me again, and I did..." The creative side of Birkhäuser's personality demanded a quest for a new spiritual value.

The artist and his wife both entered a Jungian analysis at this time. The analysis turned out to be for life. In the course of 35 years Birkhäuser collected and worked on more than 3400 of his own dreams.

One key dream from 1942 made it clear that Birkhäuser should choose his own individual direction: in the dream the painter and his wife were being swept along in a vast stream of people all going the same way. All at once two giants in front of them turned to the left and strode off against the current of people pushing forwards. Birkhäuser and his wife followed them, but could hardly keep up with them for the tides of people continually dragging them the other way. The exertion of fighting their way through was finally rewarded when they came to a great table richly laden with good things.

Just how hard this struggle with himself must have been is suggested by the fact that it took the artist twelve years to make the great break and paint a picture entirely according to his own imagination, with no model from the real world. [See The World's Wound]

SOURCE: Light from the Darkness: the Paintings of Peter Birkhäuser, (1980); "Moth" p.7; comments by Eva Wertenschlag and Kaspar Birkhäuser pp.10-13. Passage and dreams untitled.

AFTERWORD

Moth (crayon & watercolor, 1944/45) shows Birkhäuser's skill at realistic portrayal. As a (wannabe) artist myself, I know it's hard to give up closely observed detail when you can render it this well! Mastery can be a drug that's hard to quit. But many dreams lack realworld models; they demand that you work from visualization and memory, and face that you can't render them well--certainly not realistically. They play by other rules.

--Chris Wayan

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sh - Si-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites