Many
people associate Surrealism with politics, but it was also permeated by
occult ideas, a fact often overlooked by art historians. This occult influence
goes beyond general themes to the movement's very heart.
This
occult influence goes beyond general themes to the movement's very
heart.
The antinomian stance of Surrealism can be traced directly to the influence
of radical nineteenth century magi such as Eliphas
Lévi, whose Dogma
and Ritual of High Magic was widely read by Surrealism's ideologues.
Amongst these we find its progenitor André Breton.
The
book shows how many Surrealists and their predecessors were steeped in
magical ideas: Kandinsky, with his involvement with Theosophy, the sorcery
of Salvador Dali; the alchemy of Pablo
Picasso and the shamanism of Max
Ernst and Leonora Carrington.
Surrealism did not establish itself in Britain until the 1930s but a select
few felt something in the air. Almost ten years before the Surrealist
experiments with automatic drawing, an obscure English artist, Austin
Osman Spare had perfected the technique.
Nadia
Choucha shows, convincingly, that occult and surrealist philosophies were
often interchangeable. Surrealism and the Occult is seminal reading for
art historians and occultists alike, while artists will find it a vital
guide to the unlocking of the imagination.
Praise
for Nadia Choucha's Surrealism & the
Occult
''Highly
readable...seminal... fascinating'' - Francis X. King
''alive,
with the heady mixture of occult and pictorial symbolism treated with
laudable lucidity.''- Art Book News
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