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Taro As Colour (Book)

ITHELL COLQUHOUN
—Introduction by Amy Hale

£50.00

Limited edition

Out of stock

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DESCRIPTION

In 1977, a series of 78 strange enamel works were exhibited in a small gallery in Cornwall. The vibrant images were modestly grouped together in five large frames. For the curious viewer the artist provided a page of explanation, affirming that these ‘psycho-morphological’ studies were, in fact, designs for a Taro. Within a few weeks, the exhibition was gone.

Such was the first and last appearance of Ithell Colquhoun’s revolutionary explorations of the Taro As Colour. The product of a lifetime of esoteric study and art practice, Colquhoun’s bold project seeks to dispense with the figurative narratives of the traditional tarot and re-imagines the forces behind each card as pure colour. Drawing from the pioneering work of Moina Mathers and Florence Farr in the 1890s, Colquhoun integrates the esoteric teachings of the Golden Dawn with Surrealist automatic techniques to produce a design for a taro deck that remains unique in Western esotericism. Setting aside the role of the tarot in fortune-telling, through the power of pure colour Colquhoun invites us to reach for transcendence.

Published here as a book for the first time, Taro As Colour draws upon newly commissioned photography to present Colquhoun’s magical designs in vivid colour. Printed using the latest techniques of six-colour offset lithography, the original cards are augmented with gold and silver inks and gloss coated to better emulate the original enamels. Colquhoun’s original essay is also accompanied by a scholarly introduction by Amy Hale, who explores the background, approach and theory behind this extraordinary body of work.

The book is issued with four variations of elemental binding: Air (Yellow), Water (Blue), Fire (Red) and Earth (Indigo).

DETAILS

Hardback
Cloth spine, elemental boards
Printed in six colours
208 pages
10.6 x 8.25 inches (27cm x 21cm)
1.4kg
English text

STATUS

LIMITED STOCK AVAILABLE
OUT OF STOCK
300 copies only of each element cover

After I had completed the pack, I saw some slides showing nebulae in outer space and the birth of stars. These recalled my designs and confirmed my conviction of their cosmographic function.

Ithell Colquhoun, ‘Taro As Colour’, 1978

CONTENTS
  • Introduction – Amy Hale
  • Taro As Colour –  Ithell Colquhoun
  • Seventy-eight enamel taro card designs, reproduced in six colours
  • Index of correspondences, citing esoteric names, traditional tarot names, King scale colours and cabalistic letters
Weight 1.55 kg
Dimensions 26.4 × 20.4 × 3 cm
country_of_manufacture

Austria

hs_code

4901.99.0000

CONTRIBUTORS