Marco Pasi
I am the Director of the Centre for the History of Hermetic philosophy and related currents and an Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). I have focused my research mainly on the relationship between modern esotericism and politics, modern esotericism and art, the history of the idea of magic, and on methodological issues related to the study of western esotericism. I am the general editor of the Aries Book Series (Brill) and one of the founding members of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). I have been the General Secretary of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) and the co-chair of the Western Esotericism Group at the American Academy of Religion (AAR).
Address: UvA
Oude Turmarkt 141
1012 GC Amsterdam
Netherlands
Address: UvA
Oude Turmarkt 141
1012 GC Amsterdam
Netherlands
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Books by Marco Pasi
The birth of abstract art is typically associated with Kandinsky and others in the early 20th century. Houghton’s work, however, predates this momentous artistic breakthrough by half a century. In this respect, she anticipates the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), whose work is now appreciated for its significance in the early history of abstraction.
Houghton was a prominent figure of the early spiritualist movement in Victorian England, which played a significant role in various spheres of 19th-century culture and was later championed by such influential figures as Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Spiritualism emerged as the belief that contact with a spirit realm was possible and that such communication could bring one closer to God. Houghton, a trained artist as well as a medium, pioneered the use of drawing as a method of channelling and expressing communications with spirit entities. During the 1860s and 1870s, she produced a series of unprecedented abstract watercolours as part of her practice as a spirit medium. Houghton called these works ‘spirit drawings’. Remarkably complex, layered watercolours and technically highly accomplished, their bold colours and fluid forms have a mesmerizing and deeply absorbing effect. Detailed inscriptions on the back of the works declare that her hand was guided by various spirits, including family members, several Renaissance artists, such as Titian and Correggio, and higher angelic beings. Although produced in a very different context, Houghton’s abstract works have close connections to the ways in which 20th-century artists developed abstract languages of art to transcend the everyday realm of representation and consciousness.
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The birth of abstract art is typically associated with Kandinsky and others in the early 20th century. Houghton’s work, however, predates this momentous artistic breakthrough by half a century. In this respect, she anticipates the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), whose work is now appreciated for its significance in the early history of abstraction.
Houghton was a prominent figure of the early spiritualist movement in Victorian England, which played a significant role in various spheres of 19th-century culture and was later championed by such influential figures as Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Spiritualism emerged as the belief that contact with a spirit realm was possible and that such communication could bring one closer to God. Houghton, a trained artist as well as a medium, pioneered the use of drawing as a method of channelling and expressing communications with spirit entities. During the 1860s and 1870s, she produced a series of unprecedented abstract watercolours as part of her practice as a spirit medium. Houghton called these works ‘spirit drawings’. Remarkably complex, layered watercolours and technically highly accomplished, their bold colours and fluid forms have a mesmerizing and deeply absorbing effect. Detailed inscriptions on the back of the works declare that her hand was guided by various spirits, including family members, several Renaissance artists, such as Titian and Correggio, and higher angelic beings. Although produced in a very different context, Houghton’s abstract works have close connections to the ways in which 20th-century artists developed abstract languages of art to transcend the everyday realm of representation and consciousness.
Is Part of:
Pessoa Plural―A Journal of Fernando Pessoa Studies, Issue 8
Hermeticism and Initiation in Pessoa
[Hermetismo e Iniciação em Pessoa]
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0G15Z24
PESSOA, Fernando (2015). Hermetismo e Iniciação. Organização, prefácio e notas de Manuel J. Gandra. Sintra: Zéfiro, 426 pp.
Pessoa Plural―A Journal of Fernando Pessoa Studies, No. 3, Spring. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z09W0D0S
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z09W0D0S
The symposium is curated and organized by the Center for Comparative Studies of Civilization and Spiritualities, directed by Francesco Piraino, in collaboration with Joep Leerssen and Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam).