September 26–December 14, 2019
Opening reception, Thursday September 26, 5–7pm
The Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to present Symbols & Archetypes: Two Millennia of Recurring Visions in Art , an exhibition that examines artworks and artifacts from different eras, cultures, and disciplines, all through the lens of the archetypal themes that they share. This gallery presentation takes as its point of departure Carl Jung’s 1912 publication Symbols of Transformation, which frames the unconscious as a collective psyche, and the instinctive force driving visions to reappear time and again throughout human history—in dreams, religions, folklore and art from across the world.
Organized into four categories—Celestial Events, Major Arcana, Serpents & Slayers, and Sacred Geometries—Symbols & Archetypes will explore artworks made over the span of two thousand years, to include: Chinese currency from the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BCE); fifth-century illuminated manuscripts; alchemical texts from sixteenth-century Germany; early European tarot cards, proto-surrealist illustration by nineteenth-century French caricaturist J.J. Grandeville; collaged self-portraits by avant-garde French photographer Claude Cahun; twentieth-century lithographs by Marc Chagall and Salvador Dalí; and TV news archives from the Apollo moon landing. Alongside historical works are those by twenty-first century artists whose imagery delves into the collective unconscious: Martin Puryear (b. 1941, USA), Rubens Ghenov (b. 1975, Brazil), Sharona Eliassaf (b. 1980, Israel), and Nashville-based David Onri Anderson (b. 1993, USA) among them.
Objects on view are gathered from across Vanderbilt University’s collections, including the Fine Arts Gallery, History of Medicine Collections, Television News Archives and Special Collections at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries. This exhibition was organized by Emily Weiner, Fine Arts Gallery interim curator, in consultation with Volney Gay, Vanderbilt University professor emeritus (Psychiatry, Religious Studies, and Anthropology) and training and supervising analyst, The St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute.
Claude Cahun (French, 1894–1954)
Aveux non Avenus (Disavowals), 1930
Illustrated book with eleven collotypes
Made in collaboration with Marcel Moore (French, 1982–1972), Published by Carrefour Press
8 5/8 inches
Vanderbilt University Special Collections & University Archives
Sharona Eliassaf (Israeli, b. 1980)
99 Cent Dream, 2017
Oil on canvas
22 x 28 inches
Courtesy of the artist
J.J. Grandville (French, 1803–1847)
“The Wanderings of a Comet,” from Another World, published 1844
Illustrated book
10 5/8 x 7 11/16 inches
Vanderbilt University Special Collections & University Archives
Edward Emerson Barnard (American, 1857–1953)
Total Eclipse of the Sun, June 8, 1018
Lantern Slide
Vanderbilt University Special Collections & University Archives
George Romney (
English, 1734–1802)
The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions, ca. 1786–1791
Oil on canvas
Vanderbilt Art Association Fund Purchase
1972.063
St. Margaret and the Dragon
France, ca. 1430
Ink and color on arch-shaped vellum
Vanderbilt Art Association Acquisition Purchase
1983.014