Occultism, Modernity and Visual Art

Art has always been informed by the esoteric: as far back as the Florentine Renaissance, paintings such as Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera have been imbued with occult references. The disenchantment and rationalism brought forth by modernity, though, only increased the intensity of the two coming together. In this lecture, Dr Christian Giudice will review the ways in which various occult currents inspired the most disparate authors: from the the Symbolist works of Odilon Redon and Félicien Rops to the Theosophy-inspired works of Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint; from the inner visions of Austin Osman Spare to the Gauguin inspired works of Aleister Crowley. The lecture will cover forty years of visual art spanning the four decades straddling the end of the twentieth century (1880-1920), and will look at movements including Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Ceremonial Magic and Thelema.

This is the third lecture in the 'Occultism and Modernity,' series given by Dr Christian Giudice. Chris received his doctorate in Western Esotericism at the University of Gothenburg and now lives in London. He recently founded Kamuret Press.