“Nowadays, however, numerous contemporary artists are exploring these themes once again and are turning their attention to areas as diverse as alchemy, secret societies, theosophy and anthroposophy, the esoteric branches of the major religions, Eastern philosophies, magic, psychedelia and drug use, universal symbols and myths, George Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way, etc., thereby reviving a level of interest in these issues unseen since the counterculture years of the 1970s. Authors such as Mircea Eliade, the historian of religions and a novelist, Carl Gustav Jung, the psychologist, Henry Corbin, an authority on Sufism, the esoteric branch of Islam,Gershom Scholem, an expert on Kabbalah, the esoteric school of thought of Judaism, and Rudolf Steiner, the philosopher who founded anthroposophy, are now reaching a new and wider readership.
“The exhibition will present, in relatively chronological order, a selection of paintings, drawings, films, sculptures, photographs, installations, books, pieces of music and documents by artists as diverse as Harry Smith, Jordan Belson, Barnett Newman, Agnes Martin, Ad Reinhardt, Antoni Tàpies, Joan Ponç, Henri Michaux, René Daumal, Forrest Bess, Kenneth Anger, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Aleister Crowley, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Bruce Conner, Cameron, Jess, Rudolf Steiner, Joseph Beuys, Sun Ra, Joan Jonas, Francesco Clemente, Wolfgang Laib, Gino de Dominicis, Tania de Mouraud, Terry Winters, Philip Taaffe, Fred Tomaselli, Peter Lamborn Wilson, Genesis P-Orridge, Psychic TV, Ulla von Brandenburg, Suzanne Treister, Carlos Amorales, Jonathan Hammer, Matías Krahn and Gusmão & Paiva, among others. These artists’ work demonstrates the relevance and continuity of all these aforementioned and all-too-often ignored traditions, with art in many instances regarded as a possible path to a higher cognitive plane or as a form of knowledge in itself.
“The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue containing essays by authorities such as Gary Lachman, Erik Davies and Enrique Juncosa.”
For more details visit:
http://www.cccb.org/en/exhibitions/file/black-light/228235.
Thanks to our beloved OHO, Hymenaeus Beta for the tip!
