Chyurlyonis’s alchemy: the sounding transformation painting

Abstract

Article is devoted to the analysis of works of the Lithuanian composer and artist Mikaloyusa-Konstantinas Chyurlyonis (1875-1911) in the context of alchemical tradition and analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung. The relevance of a research is caused by 150-year anniversary of the artist which coincided with similar date since the birth of the Swiss psychologist that emphasizes deep synchronistic communication of their approaches to a research of unconscious. The main objective of article – to interpret life and a creative method of Chyurlyonis as complete opus magnum – alchemical process of transformation in which personal experience, the musical and picturesque beginnings merge in a whole. In work the methodology of cross-disciplinary synthesis uniting art criticism, alchemical and yungiansky approaches is applied. The biography of the artist through a prism of the main stages of Great Making is considered: nigredo (the period of the academic apprenticeship), solutio and mortificatio (dissolution of borders of arts and experience of the love drama), coniunctio ("an alchemical wedding" with Sofia Kimantayte), albedo (structuring chaos in cycles of "Sonatas" and "Zodiac signs") and rubedo (the final transmutation marked by tragic leaving). Special attention is paid to the analysis of a symbolical system of the artist including vertical structures (a ladder as axis mundi), circular compositions (a mandala as Egoism symbols) and the principle of a sinesteziya which is considered as manifestation of alchemical mysterium coniunctionis. The author draws parallels between visual alchemy of Chyurlyonis and a yungiansky concept of an individuation, showing as cosmogonic images of the artist function as the card of psychological development. Chyurlyonis's heritage is interpreted not only as the unique phenomenon in the history of art, but also as the relevant tool for integration of the fragmented experience of the modern person, the offering way to integrity through dialogue of consciousness and unconscious.