OVERVIEW

The first I:MAGE was a seven day interdisciplinary exhibition and events programme, curated by FULGUR at The Store Street Gallery, London. The venue was chosen due to it’s proximity to Treadwell’s Bookshop, who generously offered facilities for ancillary events associated with the programme. Over the course of a week, more than 300 people attended.

One of the highlights was the first public exhibition of Austin Osman Spare’s Formula of Zos vel Thanatos, loaned by Steffi Grant. There were also a series of important works by Ithell Colquhoun; a rare loan from the National Trust.

The texts below were published in the I:MAGE 2013 catalogue.

INTRODUCTION

This exhibition is the fruit of many years. It has grown from a sentiment that there are an increasing number of artists who are working in a particular way, with a particular iconography, and with particular intent. Their work enchants and casts glamours. It is pregnant with esoteric purpose and meaning. It would seem to evoke otherness.

Such works are glaringly at odds with modernity and popular art criticism. As a consequence, contemporary esoteric art has too often been subsumed into other categories. It has been considered post-symbolist art, art brut, surrealist art, outsider art, magical realism, neo-romanticism, or visionary art – to name a few.  But while these categories are useful, they do not seem adequate to express the broad scope and inner complexities of this esoteric imagery.

How then, might we define it? Surprisingly, not all esoteric art is figurative, nor is it necessarily laden with occult symbols. It does not seem bound by media, or geography. Nor is it limited to a single political – or indeed spiritual – ideology. And when Kandinsky called for the artist to be the priest of beauty, did he consider the inner needs of Austin Spare, or Leonora Carrington? Their art is decidedly esoteric, but not spiritual in any conventional sense. It is curious then that both art and magic claim the power to evoke. In a primal way, they are intimately connected. And amid the noise of modernity, this is the voice that quietly speaks to us.

It gives me great pleasure then to present I:MAGE – an international collection of dazzling artists whose work falls within this emerging category of esoteric art. Some of these artists are established, others rising, some just beginning their careers. But all are united by an esoteric import. In some instances this has been born from many years of personal praxis. It is my hope their works will speak to you as they have to me.

Robert Ansell
May 9, 2013

FULL PROGRAMME

JESSE BRANSFORD

Building the Fourth Pyramid: An Esoteric Art Installation
May 20th, Treadwell’s Bookshop

Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) was a prolific British artist and occultist whose interests (and contact list!) spanned nearly the entirety of the developing British magical subculture in the 20^th century. Based in Cornwall for 40 years, this illustrated lecture  explores Colquhoun’s relationship with Cornwall’s land, history and politics and how it shaped her own spiritual and artistic progression.

AMY HALE

Ithell Colquhoun: Cornwall, Landscape and the Goddess
May 23rd, Treadwell’s Bookshop

Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) was a prolific British artist and occultist whose interests (and contact list!) spanned nearly the entirety of the developing British magical subculture in the 20^th century. Based in Cornwall for 40 years, this illustrated lecture  explores Colquhoun’s relationship with Cornwall’s land, history and politics and how it shaped her own spiritual and artistic progression.

JOHN CONSTABLE

Spare: A One-Man Play
May 24th, Treadwell’s Bookshop

Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) was a prolific British artist and occultist whose interests (and contact list!) spanned nearly the entirety of the developing British magical subculture in the 20^th century. Based in Cornwall for 40 years, this illustrated lecture  explores Colquhoun’s relationship with Cornwall’s land, history and politics and how it shaped her own spiritual and artistic progression.