Channeled Visions: Women, Esotericism and Modern Art

Popular esoteric movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Spiritualism and Theosophy, provided a number of women artists with new avenues of creative expression. This lecture will focus on their attempts to chart new spiritual territories utilizing innovative visual strategies. Some of the artists to be examined are the British medium Georgiana Houghton, Swiss healer Emma Kunz, Swedish Theosophist Hilma af Klint, and the American visionary Agnes Pelton.

About the Speaker:
Susan Aberth (B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; M.A., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; Ph.D., The Graduate Center, CUNY) is an Associate Professor in the Art History Program at Bard College. Her specialties include Latin American Art, Surrealism, Outsider Art and Esotericism and she is particularly interested in women surrealists working in the Americas. In addition to her 2004 book Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art (Lund Humphries and Turner in Spanish), she has contributed essays to Surrealism, Occultism and Politics: In Search of the Marvelous (Routledge Press, 2018), Leonora Carrington: Cuentos Mágicos, (Museo de Arte Moderno & INBA, Mexico City, 2018); Unpacking: The Marciano Collection (Delmonico Books, Prestel, 2017), and Leonora Carrington and the international avant-garde (Manchester University Press, 2017) as well as articles in Abraxas: International Journal of Esoteric Studies, Black Mirror (London), and Journal of Surrealism of the Americas. She is currently working on a book that explores the role of trance mediums in the formation of modern art, particularly in the United States (working title: Channeled Visions: Mediums and Modern Art).

Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist
On view through September 8, 2019 at Phoenix Art Museum.

Thumbnail Image Credit: Agnes Pelton, Day, 1935, oil on canvas, Gift of The Melody S. Robidoux Foundation.

[Acid_Viking]

Pamela Colman Smith is another female esoteric artist who deserves mention. She was the illustrator of the "Rider-Waite" tarot, but also did visionary watercolor paintings from images that appeared to her while listening to classical music.

[abigailmcgarrigle]

Brilliant lecture and really helpful for my own research thank you so much

[AMuk]

I was interested to listen to this lecture, having had my mediumistic works in the same exhibitions as these great women. I respect my place as a man in the subject area and it's origens. We are all together, respectful trying to understand something than ourselves. ❤

[nancydockter]

Wonderful lecture. I enjoyed it so much. It brought so much together -- fine art by women, feminism, esoteric spirituality, politics and social activism. Fascinating. Such an important area of art history. Thank you for bringing it to light in a serious way. I share your fascination with esoteric spirituality. Great that you are making that a focus as an art scholar.

[deere]

This was excellent. Thank you. Super informative. Radical spirits is a great book by the way for anyone interested.

[jamielynnlewin]

Thank you so much Dr. Aberth. I am a graduate MFA candidate studying fiber and material studies and have been struggling to find overt examples of channeling in my medium. I, too, perform trance embroidery. I had never heard of Madge Gill.

[todosmisvideosaqui]

Great lecture, thank you. The information about the author of Mrs. Lincoln with Spirit of Abraham Lincoln photography could be found at the archive in the College of Psychic Studies in London. They have an amazing collection of spirit photography among other tressures.

[anukulikova]

for me this is very valuable information. as i receive similar codes, but already with relative translation. and create pictures of the language of light

[Lastqueensofireland]

Beautiful
I've just found Artist Georgiana Houghton

[joanabensby]

Very interesting ...as a Espiritist, feeling happy and releavid that the Espiritual World is still being discussed .

[cindystechschulte]

Did you mention a place to download the "thought forms" pamphlet? I'm sooo interested. Thankyou

[finnjacobsen]

It's not true that Hilma af Klint never showed her works to anyone. She showed them to Rudolf Steiner who rejected them (being afraid of competition?), and she made small copies of her works in notebooks which she brought with her when she traveled to find someone interested in doing an exhibition. Not showing any of her works for 20 years also is a myth. Her testament does not mention this. She never said that the world was not ready. There exists a note where she writes that works to be opened 20 years after her death, were marked with +x. "Opened" most probably refers to her notebooks which she herself struggled to understand. As far as I know, none of her works are marked with +x.

[lynd]

Illinois has a theosophical society too

[นงกนกโทมัส]

Thank you so much I am very much this kind of esoteric medium at present living in isolation for the last 12years have made 10, 000 drawing plus many paintings. Can we talk?

[robertspies]

The human need to believe is baked into our DNA and can be used by the clever and ambitious.

[lynd]

Info regarding this material is not discussed enough. Thank you

[Unfunny_Username_]

29:38 - whoah - not a lethal weapon???

[HTHMTV]

Please visit #tharperart on instagram... I think I know now where my art inspiration is coming from... before watching this video, I did not know by the way I was born to n Peekskill NY

[juliestephenson]

"Some of her work was saved.... In AUSTRALIA, of all places." Of all Really????

[lisalemonjello]

I really wish they wouldn't have used Native Americans to further their art and beliefs. You find it interesting, I find it to be another clear example of stolen honor, appropriation, and the "Noble Savage" trope. It's been nothing but harmful to indigenous peoples.