Georgiana Houghton

"Abstract paintings were being produced even before Kandinsky. Completely independently from each other, Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884) in England, Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) in Sweden and Emma Kunz (1892-1963) in Switzerland developed an individual, abstract pictorial language. What they had in common was a desire to make visible the laws of nature, the intellect and the supernatural. Their works are being presented side by side for the first time in an exhibition. The three women artists all found their artistic language within the context of the spiritual movements of their times: Houghton in spiritism, af Klint in theosophy and Kunz in naturopathy. Their artworks bear witness to a 'mediumistic' praxis: Houghton and af Klint were inspired by higher beings to paint, while Kunz developed her drawings with the help of a pendulum. In addition, the volume shows stills by Harry Smith and James and John Whitney, who - inspired by various occult movements - made experimental films during the 1940s"--Publisher's website.

Encompassing movements from post-impressionism to post-modernism, eminent and widely published art historian Bernard Smith has written a sweeping history, a reformulation of art history in the twentieth century.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1882 Edition.

EARLY AND CONTEMPORARY SPIRIT ARTISTS, PSYCHIC ARTISTS AND MEDIUM PAINTERS FROM 5,000 B.C. TO THE PRESENT DAY. History, Study, Analysis. Scientifical, Psychological, Philosophical, Artistical, and Metaphysical Study of Mediumship in Art (730 Pages). Published by Times Square Press, New York. This is the University-Economy Edition. Also available in Museum Edition, a collector's item, deluxe edition in full colors printed on glossy, heavy stock paper. Also available in ebook edition in 3 volumes. This is a world's premiere; the first encyclopedic book on this subject, ever printed. Authoritative, comprehensive, documented, fully illustrated, and rich in content, analysis, historical presentation, and comparative studies of all the facets and genre of Spirit Art, Psychic Art, and Mediumistic Art. A true treasure. For more information, contact Marla Cohen at [email protected]

John Houghton (1624-1684), son of John Houghton, was born in England. He married Beatrix Joselyn (1625-1720) in Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire, England. They immigrated to America in 1647 and settled in Massachusetts. Ancestors, descendants and relatives lived mainly in England, Massachusetts, Illinois and Wisconsin.

EARLY AND CONTEMPORARY SPIRIT ARTISTS, PSYCHIC ARTISTS AND MEDIUM PAINTERS FROM 5,000 B.C. TO THE PRESENT DAY. History, Study, Analysis. MUSEUM EDITION, Volume I from a set of 2 volumes. Scientifical, Psychological, Philosophical, Artistical, and Metaphysical Study of Mediumship in Art. Published by Times Square Press, New York. This is the Museum Edition, a collector's item, deluxe edition in full colors printed on glossy, heavy stock paper. Also available in University-Economy Edition at a very reduced price. Also available in ebook edition in 2 volumes. This is a world's premiere; the first encyclopedic book on this subject, ever printed. Authoritative, comprehensive, documented, fully illustrated, and rich in content, analysis, historical presentation, and comparative studies of all the facets and genre of Spirit Art, Psychic Art, and Mediumistic Art. A true treasure. For more information, contact Marla Cohen at [email protected]

Spectres of the Self is a fascinating study of the rich cultures surrounding the experience of seeing ghosts in England from the Reformation to the twentieth century. Shane McCorristine examines a vast range of primary and secondary sources, showing how ghosts, apparitions, and hallucinations were imagined, experienced, and debated from the pages of fiction to the case reports of the Society for Psychical Research. By analysing a broad range of themes from telepathy and ghost-hunting to the notion of dreaming while awake and the question of why ghosts wore clothes, Dr McCorristine reveals the sheer variety of ideas of ghost seeing in English society and culture. He shows how the issue of ghosts remained dynamic despite the advance of science and secularism and argues that the ghost ultimately represented a spectre of the self, a symbol of the psychological hauntedness of modern experience.

Georgiana Houghton was Spiritualist artist living and working in England in the 1860-80's. The VSU has the largest known collection of her work in the world, and as part of their 150th Anniversary celebrations is publishing a book of their collection. This catalogue is of the 35 paintings held by the VSU. It consists of one essay on Houghton's paintings in Australia and a brief history of Spiritualism in Australia including that of the VSU, plus an essay on her way of working, and a biography of Houghton, by Jeff Stewart. An Introduction by Alan Bennett and Lorraine Lee Tet. An essay from the Grimwade centre on the paint and paper and techniques used by Georgiana Houghton, and the works condition and conservation .The book is large format and full colour. Most of the 35 paintings reproduced have text by the artist on the reverse side, which is also reproduced. They are a number of full colour photographs accompanying each essay and introduction.

 Nineteenth-century Victorian-era mourning rituals—long and elaborate public funerals, the wearing of lavishly somber mourning clothes, and families posing for portraits with deceased loved ones—are often depicted as bizarre or scary. But behind many such customs were rational or spiritual meanings. This book offers an in-depth explanation at how death affected American society and the creative ways in which people responded to it. The author discusses such topics as mediums as performance artists and postmortem painters and photographers, and draws a connection between death and the emergence of three-dimensional media.

A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never seen it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but was accidentally killed--or even murdered. Or how about the fact that one of Andy Warhol's most enduring legacies involves Caroline Kennedy's moldy birthday cake and a collection of toenail clippings? ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest, and most fascinating stories behind the world's great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird, and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore.

Critical attention to the Victorian supernatural has flourished over the last twenty-five years. Whether it is spiritualism or Theosophy, mesmerism or the occult, the dozens of book-length studies and hundreds of articles that have appeared recently reflect the avid scholarly discussion of Victorian mystical practices. Designed both for those new to the field and for experts, this volume is organized into sections covering the relationship between Victorian spiritualism and science, the occult and politics, and the culture of mystical practices. The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and the Occult brings together some of the most prominent scholars working in the field to introduce current approaches to the study of nineteenth-century mysticism and to define new areas for research.

By the early 1830s the old school of Gothic literature was exhausted. Late Romanticism, emphasising as it did the uncertainties of personality and imagination, gave it a new lease of life. Gothic—the literature of disturbance and uncertainty—now produced works that reflected domestic fears, sexual crimes, drug filled hallucinations, the terrible secrets of middle class marriage, imperial horror at alien invasion, occult demonism and the insanity of psychopaths. It was from the 1830s onwards that the old gothic castle gave way to the country house drawing room, the dungeon was displaced by the sewers of the city and the villains of early novels became the familiar figures of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, Dorian Grey and Jack the Ripper. After the death of Prince Albert (1861), the Gothic became darker, more morbid, obsessed with demonic lovers, blood sucking ghouls, blood stained murderers and deranged doctors. Whilst the gothic architecture of the Houses of Parliament and the new Puginesque churches upheld a Victorian ideal of sobriety, Christianity and imperial destiny, Gothic literature filed these new spaces with a dread that spread like a plague to America, France, Germany and even Russia. From 1830 to 1914, the period covered by this volume, we saw the emergence of the greats of Gothic literature and the supernatural from Edgar Allan Poe to Emily Bronte, from Sheridan Le Fanu to Bram Stoker and Robert Louis Stevenson. Contributors also examine the fin-de-siècle dreamers of decadence such as Arthur Machen, M P Shiel and Vernon Lee and their obsession with the occult, folklore, spiritualism, revenants, ghostly apparitions and cosmic annihilation. This volume explores the period through the prism of architectural history, urban studies, feminism, 'hauntology' and much more. 'Horror', as Poe teaches us, 'is the soul of the plot'.

The nineteenth century witnessed a proliferation of alternative religious currents and practices, appropriating earlier traditions, entangling geographically distinct spiritual discourses, and crafting a repository of mindscapes eminently suitable to be accommodated by later generations of thinkers and practitioners. Penned by specialists in the field, this volume examines important themes and figures pertaining to this occult amalgam and its resonance into the twentieth century and beyond. Global guises of the occult, ranging from the Americas and Europe to India, are variously addressed, with special attention to the crucial role of mesmerism and the origins of modern yoga.

Jennifer Tucker studies the interaction of photography and modern science in late Victorian Britain, examining the role of the photograph as witness in scientific investigation and exploring the interplay between photography and scientific authority.

The abiding presence of spiritualism in art, from af Klint to Susan Hiller Bringing together more than 30 international artists from the late 19th century to the present day, Not without My Ghosts surveys work inspired by spiritualism and its rich cultural history. With original essays by art historian Susan L. Aberth and curators Simon Grant and Lars Bang Larsen, this publication explores the anti-authoritarian political agendas of 19th-century spiritualism and the movement's close association to the history of feminism, as well as its continued influence on contemporary practitioners. Spanning diverse artistic approaches, Not without My Ghosts offers a unique insight into the ties that bind spirit and mediumistic art across the centuries.

In her absorbing study of nineteenth-century mystical writings, Sarah Willburn formulates a new conception of individualism that offers a fresh look at Victorian subjectivity. Drawing upon extensive archival work in the British Library, Willburn analyzes séance accounts, novels about mediumship, and metaphysical treatises to make important connections between contemporary writings on mysticism and fictional works. Willburn presents the theories of compelling characters such as Newton Crosland and Lois Waisbrooker and provides exciting new readings of well-known texts by Charlotte Brontë, Eliot, Martineau, and Corelli. An understanding of the Victorian fascination with mysticism, Willburn argues, leads to a better appreciation of cultural constructions of the citizen in England and of the public sphere. She introduces two key concepts against the backdrop of popular mysticism: "possessed individualism," a model for Victorian individualism based on spiritual possession, and "extra spheres," which complicate the traditional binary opposition of public and private. Together, these formulations urge us to rethink our views of Victorian political economy and gender as they pertain to mystical and religious practices.

A collection of fifteen original essays analyzing gender in the imagery of science.

What is 'performance drawing'? When does a drawing turn into a performance? Is the act of drawing in itself a performative process, whether a viewer is present or not? Through conversation, interviews and essays, the authors illuminate these questions, and what it might mean to perform, and what it might mean to draw, in a diverse and expressive contemporary practice since 1945. The term 'performance drawing' first appeared in the subtitle of Catherine de Zegher's Drawing Papers 20: Performance Drawings, in particular with reference to Alison Knowles and Elena del Rivero. In this book, it is used as a trope, and a thread of thinking, to describe a process dedicated to broadening the field of drawing through resourceful practices and cross-disciplinary influence. Featuring a wide range of international artists, this book presents pioneering practitioners, alongside current and emerging artists. The combination of experiences and disciplines in the expanded field has established a vibrant art movement that has been progressively burgeoning in the last few years. The Introduction contextualises the background and identifies contemporary approaches to performance drawing. As a way to embrace the different voices and various lenses in producing this book, the authors combine individual perspectives and critical methodology in the five chapters. While embedded in ephemerality and immediacy, the themes encompass body and energy, time and motion, light and space, imagined and observed, demonstrating how drawing can act as a performative tool. The dynamic interaction leads to a collective understanding of the term, performance drawing, and addresses the key developments and future directions of this applied drawing process.