Episode 23: Justin Duerr

Philadelphia artist and musician Justin Duerr is the author, compiler and researcher of the upcoming book, The Temple of Silence: Forgotten Works and Worlds of Herbert Crowley.

Scheduled to be published in February 2018, this oversized archival art book documents for the first time the works of Crowley, who in 1917 disappeared from the art scene, never showing his work again.

After marrying American heiress Alice Lewisohn, Crowley traveled around the world, eventually winding up in Zürich where the couple became analysands of C.G. Jung’s, and part of the Psychology Club’s inner circle.

In a 1951 letter, Jung described Crowley's work, saying that the “drawings by Mr. Crowley are quite interesting in as much as they contain curious symbols referring to the sympathicus as well as to the multiple luminosities of the collective unconscious. He has been driven into astounding depths – quite dangerous when consciousness is not up to it. Such things usually leave a peculiar void in the conscious world after they have passed.”

The book’s original Kickstarter campaign, which ended on November 11, 2016, brought in 740 backers and raised $96,772. In the summer of 2017, the project was chosen for Kickstarter Gold where 211 backers pledged an additional $25,639.

Justin is a highly regarded visionary artist in his own right, and I highly recommend taking a look at his works on his website, justinduerr.com, which also includes his upcoming events. And the Bronze-plated Wigglemuch Pin, “The Temple of Love” print, “The Temple of Dreams” print, and The Temple of Silence Slipcase Edition are now available for purchase from Beehive Books.

This interview was recorded on November 9, 2016. It’s 01:13:33 long and 68.7 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser or download it directly to your computer. This episode is also available on iTunesStitcher, and Google Play Music.

SHOW NOTES

Beehive Books Publisher of The Temple of Silence

Locust Moon Comics Josh O’Neill’s West Philly comic shop, art gallery, and small press

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles Documentary film by Jon Foy {free to stream on Vimeo}

Resurrect Dead photos Promotional stills, Sundance 2011, and a Toynbee Tile gallery by Steve Weinik

Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969 by Dan Nadel

Aleister Crowley Author page

Mary Horgan Mowbray-Clarke

The Sunwise Turn: The Modern Bookshop Short article by Yukie Ohta

The Sunwise Turn/Mary Mowbray-Clarke Papers An Inventory of Records at the Harry Ransom Center

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Author page

Alice Coomaraswamy Ananda’s wife, stage name “Ratan Devî”

Ratan Devî: Indian Singer by Aleister Crowley, Vanity Fair, May 1916

An Improvement on Psychoanalysis: The Psychology of the Unconscious (For Dinner-Table Consumption) by Aleister Crowley, Vanity Fair, December 2016 {full text .pdf}

Ordo Templi Orientis International Headquarters

Eranos Conferences

The Last Romantic: The Story of More Than a Half Century In the World of Art by Martin Birnbaum

William Blake Author page

Aubrey Beardsley Author page

John Frederick Mowbray-Clarke

John Frederick & Mary Horgan Mowbray-Clarke Papers Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Catalogue of International Exhibition of Modern Art Association of American Painters and Sculptors {Available to read online; indexes Crowley’s works in the show}

Harry Ransom Center The University of Texas at Austin

ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

Charles Burchfield Artist

1913 Armory Show

Alice Lewisohn

The Neighborhood Playhouse: Leaves From a Theatre Scrapbook by Alice Lewisohn Crowley

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Their collection of Herbert E. Crowley’s work

The Psychology Club Zürich Founded by C.G. Jung in 1916

Beatrice Hinkle and the Early History of Jungian Psychology in New York by Jay Sherry {references Jung attending the Armory Show with Hinkle}

The Red Book: Liber Novus by C.G. Jung

The Spirit in Man, Art, & Literature by C.G. Jung {Collected Works, Vol. 15; contains “Ulysses: A Monologue” and “Picasso”}

Introduction to Jungian Psychology: Notes of the Seminar on Analytical Psychology Given in 1925 by C.G. Jung {contains Jung’s comments on Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp}

Robert Edmond Jones

Jung, My Mother and I: The Analytical Diaries of Catharine Rush Cabot by Jane Cabot Reid

Thomas Fischer, Ph.D., is a great-grandson of Jung’s, and since 2013 has been the Director of the Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung

Justin Duerr mystery photo

Jung family home 228 Seestrasse, Küsnacht

C.G. Jung Institute Zürich in Küsnacht

The Psychology Club’s cast of characters by Herbert Crowley

Dream Analysis, Part 1: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930 by C.G. Jung

Last Interview with Dr. Jung by Herbert Crowley

C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 2: 1951-1961 by C.G. Jung

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle by C.G. Jung

Alice Crowley Obituary New York Times, Jan. 12, 1972

AFTER THE EPISODE

Justin Duerr: Surrender to Survival Art exhibit, Jun. 27, 2019 - Jan. 12, 2020 at Inuit: The Center for Intuitive & Outsider Art (Chicago); Artist’s Reception Jul. 25, 2019 | A Conversation with Justin Duerr Jul. 27, 2019

The Temple of Silence has been nominated for two 2019 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards: Best Publication Design, and Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips.

The Temple of Silence is referenced in the new book, The Art of C.G. Jung, published in 2018.

This episode is dedicated to Bob & Debbie Hickey.