The Art of the Self: The Blue Book of Eranos Founder Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn

Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn (1881–1962) was the pioneering founder of the famous Eranos Conferences, which since the early 1930s have attracted to Ascona (Switzerland) some of the most influential scholars of the 20th and 21st centuries and made an extraordinary contribution to world intellectual history. The unpublished anthology of her artworks, which we refer to today as the Blue Book, can be traced back to two distinct periods. The first phase was essential for a series of “Meditation Plates,” painted between c. 1926 and 1934, and particularly during her collaboration with theosophist Alice Ann Bailey (1880–1949). The second phase concerns a collection of “Visions,” drawn between 1934 and 1938. These were the crucial years of her enduring intellectual relationship with psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), who was one of the main sources of inspiration at Eranos and provided the impetus for the creation of the Eranos Archive for Research in Symbolism. Convinced that “the deepest things in human life … can only be expressed in images,” Fröbe-Kapteyn documented in her Blue Book the forms of imagination of a creative and independent woman. Because of the care with which she had drawn, composed, and preserved it, Fröbe-Kapteyn perhaps hoped that her Blue Book would survive her and also allow future generations to rediscover and make it their own, as a special testament to that endless search for the Self, at once personal and universal, that Jung would theorize with the idea of the “individuation process.” “Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn lived at a time when women were particularly open to mystical experiences that they perceived deep within their souls, connecting them to nature and beyond, to the cosmos itself. We can understand her interconnection with the universe more deeply through her art, which takes on special meaning today as we need to seriously rethink our role as human beings in the great ecosystem of Earth. While awaiting a future edition of Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn’s Blue Book, I wish you pleasant reading of The Art of the Self, in which Riccardo Bernardini reconstructs the creative experience of a visionary woman and her role in the conception of one of the most significant cultural endeavors of our time—Eranos.” Her Royal Highness Princess Irene of the Netherlands “From the very beginning, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn dedicated herself to uncovering and drawing attention to those remote places where spirituality and art intersect—always as odd, unlikely companions. It is this passionate and profound pursuit that Riccardo Bernardini explores in this book: a journey in search, perhaps, of the ‘strange place,’ an imagined ideal where mysticism and artistic expression come together in harmonious union.” Ugo Nespolo, artist and film director “Riccardo Bernardini’s book is a fundamental contribution to the rediscovery of one of the most original figures at the center of debates around art, psychoanalysis, and spiritualism. From The Art of the Self, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn emerges as a protagonist in an expanded—perhaps even haunted—idea of modernity that hasn’t stopped influencing historians and artists in the past few decades.” Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director of the New Museum, New York and of the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan Table of Contents Foreword (Fabio Merlini) Preface (Murray Stein) Acknowledgements Editorial Note Introduction 1. Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn’s Interest in Art and Symbolism 2. Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn’s Iconographic Corpus 3. Artistic Itineraries from Monte Verità to Eranos Conclusion Illustrations Afterword (Her Royal Highness Princess Irene of The Netherlands) Index of names Bibliography