Symbolist art related to the portrayal of spiritual values, emotions and the world of dreams often aligns with my concerns.
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
I was at the Dulwich Picture Gallery a few days ago to see Ciurlionis' remarkable work and marvelled at his mastery of pastel and tampere. As early as 1904 Ciurlionis was creating a large number of fascinating abstract works. He depicted environments using the anthropomorphic treatment of landscapes common in Symbolist painting, and applied soft, poetic colours to them. Angels, planets, the sea and strange plants appear frequently in his work as a statement of the earth's connection to the universe. For Ciurlionis, painting is also about telling a story.
‘I'd like you..to listen to silence, which is a song of the New Language. I'd like to compose a symphony from the murmur of the waves, from the mysterious language of the ancient forest, from the twinkling of the stars, from our songs, and from my immense longing.’
CIURLIONIS IN A LETTER TO HIS FUTURE WIFE
SOFIJA IN 1908
Agnes Pelton
Pelton's work is very dreamy and symbolic. The images of stars, mountains, swans, and various recognisable elements in her paintings create a sense of magical fantasy. It has a dizzyingly light quality that draws people in. I was surprised to find that her painting Mother of Silence (1933) coincidentally shares a wrapping momentum with my Hiding and Escaping I, mixing the religious implications of the Buddha image with the sense of the female spirit.
She appeared in New York at the same time as an artist who had a profound influence on me, Hilma af Klint, but unfortunately, they didn't know each other.
Hilma af klint
Many years ago, Hilma af Klint first captivated me with her then distinctive and extremely feminine palette-“the blossoms, lacy garlands, and curlicues; the looping, cursive lines of cryptic text that surge across the surface; the palette of pinks and lavenders, peaches and baby blues—draw freshness, to a contemporary eye, from their symbolic associations with feminine iconography.”
As the founder and medium of the organisation 'the Five' (de Fem), she claims to make purely spiritual paintings - she even denies her own identity as creator when confronted with her work, but is only informed by unknown forces "through" - perhaps preferring to refer to her creative act as sacred transcription.
Soriano, Kathleen. M.K. Čiurlionis between Worlds. london, london: Dulwich picture gallery, 2022.
Goldstein, Andrew. “Who Was the Mystical Painter Agnes Pelton? .” Artnet News, April 6, 2020. https://news.artnet.com/the-big-interview/agnes-pelton-haskell-interview-1822842.
Davis, Ben. “Why Hilma Af Klint's Occult Spirituality Makes Her the Perfect Artist for Our Technologically Disrupted Time.” Artnet News, October 29, 2018. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/hilma-af-klints-occult-spirituality-makes-perfect-artist-technologically-disrupted-time-1376587.
“Hilma Af Klint: A Painter Possessed.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, February 21, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/feb/21/hilma-af-klint-occult-spiritualism-abstract-serpentine-gallery.