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Lynda Harris has three degrees in the history of art from
universities in the USA and UK. She has taught extra-mural
classes in art and symbolism for London University, and
has also given evening lectures, including some at the Theosophical
Society. Her book, The Secret Heresy of Hieronymous Bosch,
was first published in 1995, and since then she has written
shorter pieces on Catharism (20) and esoteric artists of
the late nineteenth century.
—~§~—
The conference was organised by Dr Sarah Turner, Dr Marco
Pasi, Dr Christopher Scheer and Katie Jane Tyreman of the
Enchanted
Modernities network (a new research site),(21) in collaboration
with the University of Amsterdam’s Centre
for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents
(HHP). It was attended by around 160 scholars interested
in various types of esoteric and mystical art. In addition
to painting, there were talks on relevant music, dance,
architecture and the applied arts. The delegates came from
countries in Eastern and Western Europe (including Britain),
Israel, the Americas, India, Australia and Japan. The conference
covered the influence of esotericism (Theosophy in particular)
over artists in these countries between c.1875 and the 1960s.
The majority of the talks were held in two venues belonging
to the University of Amsterdam. Lectures were grouped into
themed sessions, which took place simultaneously in both
locations. This enabled more subjects to be covered, but
it also meant that the delegates had to choose between two
lectures at any one time. Choosing could be difficult, as
the subjects were interesting, varied and comparatively
new to art conferences. But the great majority of the talks
have been recorded, and will be available through the Theosophical
Society for those who missed the conference, or want to
fill in the gaps. They will also be published at a later
date.
On Thursday morning the conference also gave the delegates
a choice between visits to Amsterdam’s Theosophical
Library and the Ritman
Library, where an exhibition ‘Beauty as the Imprint
of the Cosmos’ was held in partnership with the HHP.
The Ritman has a large collection of books on comparative
religion, gnosis, esotericism, Hermeticism and related subjects.
It has also set up a blog on the conference, in which some
of the lectures are illustrated and discussed.(22) [328]
This report can only give a ‘taste’ of a few
of the highlights of the conference, and, as the appeal
of the individual arts and countries will vary from one
person to another, the choice of which to discuss here will
have to be personal. One session which I found appealing,
for example, was on the Symbolist movement of the late nineteenth
century. In this session, Paul Sérusier, was discussed
by Christel Naujoks. Sérusier, a founding member
of the painting group known as the Nabis (prophets), reacted
against the Impressionists. Nabi art aimed to depict symbols
and ideas (rather than exact physical reality) by the use
of pure colour and line. With his ideas greatly influenced
by Schuré’s book ‘The Great Initiates’,
Sérusier painted subjects from Hindu mythology and
depictions of the Mysteries of Eleusis. Another interesting
talk in this session was Sarah Turner’s ‘Orphic
Modernity’. It examined a group called the Theosophical
Arts Circle, founded in London by Clifford Bax. Its journal,
‘Orpheus’, published between 1907 and 1914, had
an important input from Jean Delville, the Belgian Symbolist
painter who was living in London at that time. Many other
artists with an interest in Theosophical subjects are also
represented in the journal, a publication well worth looking
at in detail.
The sessions on the esoteric arts in Russia and the Balkans
introduced some lesser known artists, as well as covering
better known ones such as the Russian Nicholas Roerich,
who had a major influence on the ballet ‘The Rite of
Spring’. Roerich’s art and ideas were discussed
in a talk by Anita Stasulane. He read some of Blavatsky’s
writings early in the twentieth century, and many of the
themes of his 7,000 paintings were inspired by Theosophical
ideas and interests. Other, less well-known figures from
these areas included the Nicolay Raynov, the Bulgarian writer,
artist and art historian whose works were discussed by Yuri
Stoyanov. Raynov, who was the chairman of the Bulgarian
Theosophical Society during the 1930’s, also took an
interest in the ancient heretical literature of his country,
including some in the Bogomil tradition. He had been expelled
from the Orthodox church, but managed to retain his university
position during the Communist period by keeping his many
esoteric interests and connections unpublicised.
In a different session of talks, Jenny McFarlane’s
lecture ‘Leadbeater in Sydney’ revealed Leadbeater’s
major influence in this city after his move there in 1914/15.
One of the artists influenced by his Theosophical ideas
was the photographer Judith Fletcher, who took pictures
of Leadbeater and his circle. The jeweller Gustave Kollerstrom,
another member of the circle, fashioned relevant objects
such as a cross which was seen as an object which could
connect the spiritually aware with invisible reality, and
help to manipulate it. As in the Platonic tradition, this
realm was seen as more real than the shadowy physical world.
Another interesting talk by Susana Pliego Quijano looked
at esoteric symbolism in the Mexican mural paintings of
Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and their circles. These artists
are usually viewed as leftwing painters who expressed nationalist
and political ideas. Quijano’s talk revealed that they
were also interested in Theosophical, Pythagorean and other
esoteric concepts. Paintings discussed included Rivera’s
early murals of 1921 in the National Preparatory School
of the University of Mexico, in which Quijano sees an expression
of Theosophical ideas on creation, evolution, macrocosm
and microcosm. Jose Clemente Oroczo met Besant and others
when he went to New York City in 1928, and his ‘The
Fraternity of All Men at the Table of Universal Brotherhood’
at the New School can be seen as reflecting their Theosophical
as well as socialist ideals.
The presentations in the music and dance sessions revealed
the influences of Theosophical concepts in these artistic
spheres. Christopher Scheer, for example, discussed Leadbeater
and Besant’s images of the thought forms which are
inspired by music, and linger on after the [329] pieces
have been played. He also talked of the musician Maud MacCarthy’s
ideas of music as a bridge to the spirit world. Maud (whom
Besant later tried to distance from Theosophy) believed
that music enabled a wordless communication with higher
entities. Dance was also very much intertwined with esoteric
ideas, as revealed, for example, in Fae Brauer’s illustrated
talk on hypnotic dancing. Esoteric dance had a wide influence
in France, but this talk concentrated on the particular
use of dance as therapy by Albert de Rochas. Influenced
by magnetism and spiritualism during the 1890s, Rochas based
his techniques on what he called unconscious art –
dance under magnetic hypnosis. One of his dancers, known
as Magdalene G., copied Greek positions, and was said to
have taken on a second personality while dancing, in which
she was unaware of her own actions. Rochas took photographs
of his dancers in locations such as Rodin’s studio
and the Parthenon, and their positions influenced the artist
Mucha, as well as the well-known dancer Isadora Duncan.
The evening keynote address, ‘Rethinking Theosophy
in its early 20th -century context’, given by Linda
Dalrymple Henderson introduced some significant ideas about
science and esotericism. Henderson discussed the importance
of the scientific concept of the ether in the esoteric and
mystical ideas of Blavatsky, Leadbeater, Steiner and others.
The chemist and physicist Sir William Crookes also believed
in ether vibrations, which could transmit thought. Many
artists (Kandinsky, for example) were also influenced by
it. With the advent of Einstein’s theory of relativity
during the 1920s, however, many of the older theories based
on the presence of the ether suffered a serious disconnect.
This led to revisions of some of the earlier Theosophical
writings. It also had an important influence on art, possibly
even leading to the works of artists such as Marcel Duchamps.
The presentations referred to here are only a few examples
of the many interesting and varied talks given at the conference.
This three day event revealed the widespread influence of
the esoteric and mystical ideas connected with Theosophy,
and the degree to which they have been expressed through
the arts. The number of people who find these subjects interesting
and inspiring today is also striking. This trend must be
increasing, as, twenty or thirty years ago, conferences
such this as would not have attracted such a large group
of international scholars. No doubt there are many more
artists with similar interests still to be looked at, and
many more conferences still to come.
Note:
An upcoming international conference on similar themes,
‘Visions of Enchantment: Occultism, Spirituality &
Visual Culture’, will be held at the University of
Cambridge, 17-18 March 2014. A collaboration between the
Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge and
the Arts University Bournemouth, it will be organised in
association with ESSWE. (The European Society for the Study
of Western Esotericism. (23)
Stop Press:
Planning is underway for another Theosophical History conference
to be held in London, the first since 2007, possibly in
September 2014.
Endnotes
20. See Psypioneer Vol.9 No. 4 2013: The Cathar
View: The Mysterious Legacy of Montsegur (review) –
Lynda Harris:—http://www.woodlandway.org/PDF/PP9.4April2013.pdf
21. Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy, Modernism and the
Arts, c. 1875-1960:—http://www.york.ac.uk/history-of-art/enchanted-modernities/
22. See: http://www.ritmanlibrary.com/2013/10/enchanted-modernities-some-thought-forms-on-the-metaphysical-in-art/
23.Website of the European Society for the Study of Western
Esotericism:—http://www.esswe.org
Source
The report was originally published in Psypioneer
Vol. 9, No. 11: November 2013, 327-9. Founded by Leslie
Price. Edited by Paul J. Gant. Reproduced with kind permission
of the editor.
Lynda Harris also wrote a little study on the British psychiatrist
and Cathar researcher Arthur Guirdham, in which she concluded
that Guirdham was lead astray by, and uncritically believed,
his only source for his past reincarnations, 'Miss Mills'.
Lynda Harris. The Cathars and Arthur Guirdham: an investigation
into the past lives of a Bath psychiatrist and his circle.
Barnstaple: Psychic Pioneer, 2001.
Editing
Endnotes in round brackets. Pagination in square brackets.
Links to institutions added.
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