1. #aleister-crowley
  2. #blog
  3. #buratti-fine-art-catalogue
  4. #interview
  5. #occult
  6. #paintings
  7. #palermo
  8. #tarot
  9. Artikelen

Exhibition Nightmare Paintings, Aleister Crowley

Introducing Crowley

Studying the occult without stumbling on Crowley is almost impossible.
He left a distinguished mark on spirituality and the occult as we experience it today.
Even if many don’t realize by far, his spiritual legacy is all around.
Words are somewhat insufficient to introduce to you this self called greatest magician of the 20th century. Let me quote the quote Stephen J. King used in his article contribution in Nightmare Paintings :

“Crowley was many things an excellent at most :
a record-setting mountaineer,
a competition-level chess player, the best metrical poet of his generation
in the estimation of some,a literary critic of international reputation,
an innovative publisher, editor and book designer,
a pioneer in the use of entheogens,
and a lion of sexual liberation- he was above all a lover, of men, women,
gods,goddesses and himself…
the key to his appeal was (and is) that he was fun as he was smart.
In truth his only satanic feature was his pride, in which was admittedly
of Miltonian proportions.”

The Nightmare Paintings at Buratti Fine Art

A you tube video about the opening night of an exhibition with artwork by Crowley at Buratti Fine Art caught my eye and I decided to buy the catalogue that was
(incl. shipment from Australia to Belgium) very well priced.
It took a month for the book to get delivered by my postman, but the waiting was worthwhile and the catalogue surpassed my expectations.

Works from the Palermo Collection

The catalogue contains pictures of paintings made in the period he stayed at Céfalu. Here he founded his Abbey of Thelema on April 1, 1920.
He stayed (interrupted by periods abroad) there until 1923 when he was asked by Benito Mussolini’s government to leave Italy.
In this period he created painting of which several survived and got known as the Palermo Collection.

Many times the paintings shown in the catalogue are accompanied by diary fragments of Crowley about his creative occupations at that period. They make the painting come alive, something Crowley would appreciate. He defined magick as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will”. His ideas about art were pretty much the same. In fact for Crowley art and magick were one.

” The Artist is a creative genius; that is, he is the nature of Godhead which devised the Soul as a medium for self-realization. Also, as History assures us, the Artist is of the cast of the initiated rulers of Mankind; he understands the theory of the Universe, he is an Epopt of the Mysteries of Nature, and an Hierophant of the Inviolable Sanctuary.”

More than paintings

This is not a catalogue to glance at once in a while, it is much more that!
Six essays elevate this catalogue to a reference book about Crowley (as an artist).

The Origins of the Palermo Collection
by Giuseppe Di Liberti
Aleister Crowley’s Paintings and the Palermo Collection
by Marco Pasi
The Shock of the New : Crowley’s Artistic Paris 1902
by Robert Buratti
Caves of Sorcerers : The American Beginnings of Crowley’s Art
by William Breeze
The Shadow of the Thelemites: The Abbot, the Abbey and the Nightmare
by Stephen J. King
Making an Exhibition of Himself : Aleister Crowley in Berlin 1930-1932
by Tobias Churton
They are all what you can expect of well written essays. To the point, balanced and clear.
A joy to read for everybody with a little knowledge of the life of Crowley and with interest in him (as an artist).
A source of background information. You just want to read more about Crowley after you have read the essays.
The book is stuffed with with all kinds of information, e.g. I found out that he was an admire of the works August Rodin and the Belgian artist Félicien Rops. Two artist I admire as well.
I’ve read all essays only once, and I need to do it again and take more notes. Compare the three tarot studies in the book, with the works by Frieda Harris etc.
This is a catalogue that will pass my hands many times more.

For more information on this subject I would like to refer to the blog by Peregrin Wildoak : Magic of the Ordinary, especially his interview with Robert Buratti.

I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog in English and if it is well received I will certainly write more blogs entries in English.

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  1. round-haze-0427@round-haze-0427
    #137748
    Crowley is best zielig: aan drugs en seks verslaafd, geslachtsziekten en lekker tegen het christendom ingaan. Uiteindelijk eindigde hij in de goot. Een beetje de voorloper van de jaren '60 revolutie.