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This paper begins to establish an ‘aesthetic of the unknown’ by drawing together theorists and approaches from mainstream art criticism to provide a starting-point for an aesthetic sympathetic with Jungian perspectives, in an attempt to bridge a gap between contemporary abstract painting, contemporary art theory, and Jungian studies. This is a framework for approaching abstract painting not as an object awaiting interpretation or ‘reading’, but rather as something that offers a numinous experience (or experience of the unknown), which can be thought about but may remain ultimately unknowable and irreducible. Such experience – involving both the unconscious and conscious mind – would provide glimpses of forms of meaning not accessible to full rational exposition. This type of unconsciously understood meaning is explored, acknowledging that there is a need to preserve this encounter with the unknown and a need for a contemporary critical, theoretical framework that recognises the importance of this within abstract painting. This paper begins to establish an ‘aesthetic of the unknown’ by drawing together theorists and approaches from mainstream art criticism to provide a starting-point for an aesthetic sympathetic with Jungian perspectives, in an attempt to bridge a gap between contemporary abstract painting, contemporary art theory, and Jungian studies. This is a framework for approaching abstract painting not as an object awaiting interpretation or ‘reading’, but rather as something that offers a numinous experience (or experience of the unknown), which can be thought about but may remain ultimately unknowable and irreducible. Such experience – involving both the unconscious and conscious mind – would provide glimpses of forms of meaning not accessible to full rational exposition. This type of unconsciously understood meaning is explored, acknowledging that there is a need to preserve this encounter with the unknown and a need for a contemporary critical, theoretical framework that recognises the importance of this within abstract painting.
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