Suddenly I Awoke: The Dream Journals of Charles E. Burchfield

Throughout his career Burchfield recorded more than a hundred dreams in his journals. He also created thousands of doodles which he called “a form of subconscious thinking in visual terms.” He went on to say that some of his most useful abstract motifs came from the practice. Carl Jung, while serving in the military during World War I in 1917, drew a series of twenty-seven mandalas in pencil in his army notebook. These drawing would later inspire the paintings that fill The Red Book, known to him as Liber Novus.

The exhibition will include drawings and paintings by Burchfield, paired with transcriptions of dreams from his journals. The exhibition will also present material that suggests an affinity between these two early twentieth century visionaries, whose appreciation for nature was both a formative and driving force.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.