Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Genius of the fern loved gully : the supersensual life of Ithell Colquhoun : artist and occultist / Amy Hale.

By: Publisher: London : Strange Attractor Press, 2020Description: 304 pages : illustrations (some colour), portraits ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781907222863
  • 1907222863
Other title:
  • Ithell Colquhoun : genius of the fern loved gully [Cover title]
Subject(s):
Contents:
Finding Colquhoun -- "Already I knew my own mind" -- "Objective hazard": surrealism -- Atlantean currents: Celticism -- "A stream of power, set in motion": occultism -- "More brilliant than crystal": the legacy.
Summary: This book offers the first in-depth biographical study of the British surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, situating her art within the magical contexts that shaped her imaginative life and work. After decades of neglect, Colquhoun's unique vision and hermetic life have become an object of great renewed interest, both for artists and for historians of magic. Although her painting are paintings represented in such major collections as Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery, Colquhoun's rejection of both avant-garde and occult orthodoxies resulted in a life of relative obscurity. Her visual and written works have only recently received adequate recognition as a precursor to contemporary experiments in magical autobiography and esoteric feminism. After rejecting the hectic social expectations and magical orthodoxies of London's art and occult scenes, Colquhoun pursued a life of dedicated spiritual and artistic enquiry embodied in her retreat to Cornwall. Genius of the Fern Loved Gully balances engaging biography with art historical erudition and critical insight into the magical systems that underscored her art and writing.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book CGLAS Library Monographs Room COL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 19/03/2025 11931

Includes bibliography (pages [290]-[295) and index.

Finding Colquhoun -- "Already I knew my own mind" -- "Objective hazard": surrealism -- Atlantean currents: Celticism -- "A stream of power, set in motion": occultism -- "More brilliant than crystal": the legacy.

This book offers the first in-depth biographical study of the British surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, situating her art within the magical contexts that shaped her imaginative life and work. After decades of neglect, Colquhoun's unique vision and hermetic life have become an object of great renewed interest, both for artists and for historians of magic. Although her painting are paintings represented in such major collections as Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery, Colquhoun's rejection of both avant-garde and occult orthodoxies resulted in a life of relative obscurity. Her visual and written works have only recently received adequate recognition as a precursor to contemporary experiments in magical autobiography and esoteric feminism. After rejecting the hectic social expectations and magical orthodoxies of London's art and occult scenes, Colquhoun pursued a life of dedicated spiritual and artistic enquiry embodied in her retreat to Cornwall. Genius of the Fern Loved Gully balances engaging biography with art historical erudition and critical insight into the magical systems that underscored her art and writing.