An astonishing series of largely abstract Victorian watercolors produced by the long-forgotten spiritualist artist Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884). This catalogue accompanies the first exhibition of these remarkable works in the UK for nearly 150 years.

"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.

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.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1882 Edition.

Not Without My Ghosts' brings together more than 30 international artists, from the late nineteenth century to the present day, whose work is inspired by Spiritualism and its rich cultural history.0With 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 nineteenth-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.00Artists featured include William Blake, Marjorie Cameron, Bonnie Camplin, Ann Churchill, Ithell Colquhoun, Louise Despont, Casimiro Domingo, Madame Fondrillon, Chiara Fumai, Madge Gill, Susan Hiller, Barbara Honywood, Georgiana Houghton, Anna Mary Howitt, Victor Hugo, Augustin Lesage, Pia Lindman, Ann Lislegaard, André Masson, Grace Pailthorpe, Franti?ek Jaroslav Pecka, Olivia Plender, Sigmar Polke, Lea Porsager, Austin Osman Spare, Yves Tanguy, Suzanne Treister and John Varley.00Exhibition: Drawing Room, London, UK (27.03-14.06.2020) / Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, UK; Sheffield Museum and Art Gallery, UK (11.2020-07.2021) / Glynn Vivian, Swansea, UK (2021).

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.

The Birthmark deals with the husband's deeply negative obsession of his wife's outer appearances and what does that entail for these two young couples. The birthmark represents various things throughout the story. Two of the main representations are imperfection and mortality. American novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne's (1804–1864) writing centers on New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. Hawthorne has also written a few poems which many people are not aware of. His works are considered to be part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, Dark romanticism. His themes often centre on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity.

The ultimate death compendium, featuring the world’s most extraordinary artistic objects concerned with mortality, together with text by expert contributors Death is an inevitable fact of life. Throughout the centuries, humanity has sought to understand this sobering thought through art and ritual. The theme of memento mori informs medieval Danse Macabre, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Renaissance paintings of dissected corpses and “anatomical Eves,” Gothic literature, funeral effigies, Halloween, and paintings of the Last Judgment. Deceased ancestors are celebrated in the Mexican Day of the Dead, while the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead to secure their afterlife. A volume of unprecedented breadth and sinister beauty, Death: A Graveside Companion examines a staggering range of cultural attitudes toward death. The book is organized into themed chapters: The Art of Dying, Examining the Dead, Memorializing the Dead, The Personification of Death, Symbolizing Death, Death as Amusement, and The Dead After Life. Each chapter begins with thought-provoking articles by curators, academics, and journalists followed by gallery spreads presenting a breathtaking variety of death-related imagery and artifacts. From skulls to the dance of death, statuettes to ex libris, memento mori to memorabilia, the majority of the images are of artifacts in the astonishing collection of Richard Harris and range from 2000 BCE to the present day, running the gamut of both high and popular culture. Table of Contents 1. The Art of Dying 2. Examining the Dead 3. Memorializing the Dead 4. The Personification of Death 5. Symbolizing Death 6. Death as Amusement 7. The Dead After Life Essays: Death in Ancient and Present-Day Mexico, Eva Aridjis,The Power of Hair as Human Relic in Mourning Jewelry - Karen Bachmann, Medusa and the Power of the Severed Head, Laetitia Barbier, Anatomical Expressionism, Eleanor Crook, Poe and the Pathological Sublime, Mark Dery, Eros and Thanatos, Lisa Downing, Death-Themed Amusements, Joanna Ebenstein, The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, Bruce Goldfarb, Theatre, Death and the Grand Guignol, Mel Gordon, Holy Spiritualism, Elizabeth Harper, Playing dead – A Gruesome Form of Amusement, Mervyn Heard, The Anatomy of Holy Transformation, Liselotte Hermes da Fonseca, Collecting Death, Evan Michelson, Art and Afterlife: Ethel le Rossignol and Georgiana Houghton, Mark Pilkington, The Dance of Death, Kevin Pyle, Art, Science and the Changing Conventions of Anatomical Representation, Michael Sappol, Spiritualism and Photography, Shannon Taggart, Playing with Dead Faces, John Troyer, Anatomy Embellished in the Cabinet of Frederik Ruysch, Bert van de Roemer

The first major work of art history to focus on women artists and their engagement with the spirit world, by the author of The Mirror and the Palette. It's not so long ago that a woman's expressed interest in other realms would have ruined her reputation, or even killed her. And yet spiritualism, in various incarnations, has influenced numerous men—including lauded modernist artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Paul Klee—without repercussion. The fact that so many radical female artists of their generation—and earlier—also drank deeply from the same spiritual well has been sorely neglected for too long. In The Other Side, we explore the lives and work of a group of extraordinary women, from the twelfth-century mystic, composer, and artist Hildegard of Bingen to the nineteenth-century English spiritualist Georgiana Houghton, whose paintings swirl like a cosmic Jackson Pollock; the early twentieth-century Swedish artist, Hilma af Klint, who painted with the help of her spirit guides and whose recent exhibition at New York's Guggenheim broke all attendance records to the 'Desert Transcendentalist', Agnes Pelton, who painted her visions beneath the vast skies of California. We also learn about the Swiss healer, Emma Kunz, who used geometric drawings to treat her patients and the British surrealist and occultist, Ithell Colquhoun, whose estate of more than 5,000 works recently entered the Tate gallery collection. While the individual work of these artists is unique, the women loosely shared the same goal: to communicate with, and learn from, other dimensions. Weaving in and out of these myriad lives while sharing her own memories of otherworldly experiences, Jennifer Higgie discusses the solace of ritual, the gender exclusions of art history, the contemporary relevance of myth, the boom in alternative ways of understanding the world and the impact of spiritualism on feminism and contemporary art. A radical reappraisal of a marginalized group of artists, The Other Side is an intoxicating blend of memoir, biography, and art history.