"Bicameral Art"

This is the artwork of Jürg Walter Tauber, M.D., Ph.D., (1938 - 1989), Swiss-born transplant surgeon and immunologist, who found himself a handicapped man after two operations and radiation to remove a tumor in the brainstem. Overcoming a profound depression, he developed his own technique of painting by using his no longer controllable right hand (formerly dominant) to make a random paint-stroke on paper. After patiently retraining his left hand, he gained the ability to finish the painting by bringing out what the paint-stroke suggested in his imagination. He called it "bicameral art," involving both hemispheres of the brain; also viewed as a dialogue between the unconscious psyche and the conscious mind, based on the depth-psychology of C.G. Jung. Short poems convey a spiritual teaching --hopeful, often humorous, sometimes sarcastic.

Over time, the paintings became bigger and more fanciful, involving papercuttings based on blind scribbles with the non-dominant hand (and involving members of the family to help out), while the poems turned into intricate two-liners, based on the German "Schüttelreim"(the inclined viewer will easily find out how they are constructed). Here, Jürg chose a crucial word that touched on the "complex" evoked in the painting. He started to sign with "Chaim" (the hidden, spiritual life-force), to honor his Jewish anchestry.

Please click on the icon to view painting and poem in full.

Beautiful digital prints in various sizes may be ordered directly from Hugh Milstein at Digital Fusion by providing the number of the picture on the webpage,

www.digitalfusion.net