Hidden Modernism: Fascination with the Occult Around 1900 (Leopold Museum)
Matthias Dusini, Ivan Ristić, Hans-Peter Wipplinger (Eds.)
Buchhandlung Walther König, 2025
€39,90
Around 1900, occultism had reached parts of viennese culture and society. Spiritualism, imported from the US, as well as Theosophy, informed by Far-Eastern doctrines of salvation, inspired many people to strive for a ‘better self’. Artists and scientists sought to explore the fourth dimension, which promised access to cosmic spheres and new levels of consciousness. This desire for self-development went hand in hand with social criticism. Exponents of mife reform celebrated nature as an antidote to the sense of alienation that accompanied urban life. The aim of this holistoc movement was to achieve a harmony of body, soul and spirit.
Vegetarian salons frequented by Vienna’s intellectuals became a conduit for modern theosophy, influenced by Eastern thought. Marie Lang, a women’s rights activist and advocate of the social reformist settlement movement, also hailed from a theosophical milieu; her son, Erwin Lang, captured the expressive dance of the Wiesenthal sisters in his paintings. Spiritualism offered further niches for women: Gertrude Honzatko-Mediz created mediumistic drawings. In neighboring countries, trance states were documented by established painters such as Albert von Keller and Gabriel von Max. The writer August Strindberg, deeply inclined toward esotericism, painted dark landscape visions. His friend Edvard Munch, along with the belief in life-giving invisible rays, inspired new artistic impulses. Artists such as Richard Gerstl, Arnold Schönberg, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and Max Oppenheimer saw their models as auratic presences. Modern psychology fused with dreamlike revelations, and the emergence of abstract painting would scarcely have been conceivable without the influence of occult literature.
ISBN: 9783753308807
