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the-cricket-chirps · 2 months

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Ithell Colquhoun

Ages of Man

1944

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juniperusashei · 27 days

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The Crying of the Wind: Ireland by Ithell Colquhoun - 3/5

EDIT: I have scanned and uploaded a copy here: https://archive.org/details/crying-of-the-wind

I had to go on a bit of a quest to find this book; it isn’t available online anywhere to my knowledge (not even my dubious usual sites!) and physical copies go for upwards of a hundred dollars, but luckily I was able to get a card from my university’s library that allowed me to get another card to check it out from a different university’s library. So a whole lot of hype for a travelogue.

I’ve been on a bit of an Ithell Colquhoun kick lately, to the point that I can actually spell her name without verifying. She is most famous for her visual art, which straddles the line between surrealism and abstraction, and much of her literary work such as her novella The Goose of Hermogenes is rooted in the occult tradition to the point that the rest of the surrealist movement apparently found her annoying and kicked her out. I was curious what take such a mythic individual would have on a relatively mundane genre as the travelogue, and I did find The Crying of the Wind an interesting if a bit jarring read. It is jarring in that most of the book is a typical travelogue, recounting conversations with locals and visits to typical tourist sites such as Glendalough, interspersed with asides about the occult or the fairy realm. Fair, because Ireland as a nation has always embodied contradictions, most notably that between their Pagan past and the Catholic Church (syncretisms not unlike what Gloria Anzaldúa talks about in Mexico)! For example, Colquhoun goes into a detailed dive into the theories behind the fairyland before concluding they are “beings inhabiting a supersensual plane which interpenetrates the universe normally perceptible to human senses.” It feels tongue in cheek, but knowing her, it’s not.

Did I enjoy this occult tour of Ireland? I didn’t find it stunning the way my favorite travel writers such as Joan Didion and Vita Sackville-West can be, but it was certainly an interesting angle. Though well-intentioned, Colquhoun’s colonial British upbringing does show itself, which is perhaps expected for a book published in the 1950s, but there was a surprising amount of portraying the Irish as “noble savages” — in an odd way, this book felt quite orientalist at times. Nevertheless, I think I would enjoy travelling with Ithell, just because the attention she gives the local flora on every page reminds me of how much I geek out about plants whenever I travel.

#The Crying of the Wind: Ireland #ithell colquhoun #travel #nonfiction #3 #march 2024 #2024

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thunderstruck9 · 1 year

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Ithell Colquhoun (British, 1906-1988), Anthurium, 1936. Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 51.5 cm.

#ithell colquhoun #british art #f #anthurium

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las-microfisuras · 4 months

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Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988)

#Ithell Colquhoun

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waitinqroom · 2 years

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we return to, and redefine the same, tragic stories. ocean vuong / ithell colquhoun / mary oliver

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jareckiworld · 9 months

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Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) — Scylla [oil on board, 1938]

#Ithell Colquhoun #british art #women surrealists #occult art #british surrealism

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banji-effect · 3 months

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I went to the Judy Chicago retrospective at the New Museum today and really loved the way she/the curators included a kind of mini overview of works by female geniuses throughout history as part of it. These are just a few--I was so excited to see a piece by Unica Zürn in person!

From top:

Emma Kunz, Work No. 003, no date (circa 1940) Ithell Colquhoun, Alcove, 1946 Unica Zürn, La Serpenta, 1957 Georgiana Houghton, The Spiritual Crown of Annie Mary Howitt Watts, 1867 Hilma af Klint, Group IX/UW, The Dove, no. 2, 1915

#not least because the whole thing was a christine de pizan reference!#emma kunz #ithell colquhoun #unica zürn #georgiana houghton #hilma af klint #<3

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anotherdayinbliss · 10 months

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Four cards from Ithell Colquhoun's Tarot as Colour deck, 1977

Drawing on the colour symbolism of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an occult secret society, the Tarot as Colour deck was created using automatist techniques. It features luminous enamel paint poured onto paper and then swirled into spiralling liquid patterns: part marbled oil spill, part whirlpool. Colquhoun veers away from traditional symbolism to dwell in the marvellous and murky realms of spiritual abstraction. source

Colquhoun was perhaps the most committed and engaged female occultist of the twentieth century. […] She pursued the mysteries with every breath and used that passion to fuel an incredible output of art and writing. Throughout her life, she created thousands of pieces of visual art, wrote, published and performed hundreds of poems, wrote several novels and three travel guides, wrote a history of the Golden Dawn magical order, drafted radio dramas, produced philosophical commentaries and quite a large number of articles on thick occult theory. But her art was always in service to her magic. […] Like other Surrealists, Colquhoun used automatic techniques in her writing and painting, but she used automatism to go deeper, to make contact not only with her own subconscious, but also to open herself as a channel to other planes and entities who would reveal themselves through her art. source

#miscellaneous #Ithell Colquhoun

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roaenexists · 3 months

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Taro As Colour by Ithell Colquhoun, published by Fulgur Press

#these are some of my favorite pairings from the deck so far #this deck is wild ive never had such intuitive readings before #taro as colour #ithell colquhoun #tarotblr #tarot cards #tarot #divination #art #abstract #abstract art #abstract aesthetic #1970s #roaenpost #fulgur press

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rheo-tu · 1 year

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Ithell Colquhoun - The pine family (1940)

#art #art and photography #surrealism #ithell colquhoun #paintings

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maeviuslynn · 7 months

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youtube

In this video I discuss the life and work of surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun with the incredibly brilliant academic and practitioner Amy Hale PhD. Amy is an Atlanta based writer, curator, and critic, ethnographer and folklorist, speaking and writing about esoteric history, magic, art, culture, women and Cornwall.

Women have always been a part of the history of the occult, but their work has failed to be explored and highlighted the way it should have been for reasons we discuss in the video.

#occult #Ithell Colquhoun #occultism #artist #magick #ceremonial magick #Amy Hale #Youtube

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the-cricket-chirps · 2 months

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