Art and the Theosophical Movement

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Art as an expression of spirituality is important to the Theosophical Movement. This article summarizes the relationship between Theosophists and the visual fine arts of painting, drawing, ceramics, and sculpture. See also:

Music and the Theosophical Movement

Performing Arts and the Theosophical Movement

Literature and the Theosophical Movement

Popular Culture and the Theosophical Movement

Occult fiction

Theosophists on art

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

Thoreau pointed out that there are artists in life, persons who can change the colour of a day and make it beautiful to those with whom they come in contact. We claim that there are adepts, masters in life who make it divine, as in all other arts. Is it not the greatest art of all, this which affects the very atmosphere in which we live? That it is the most important is seen at once, when we remember that every person who draws the breath of life affects the mental and moral atmosphere of the world, and helps to colour the day for those about him. Those who do not help to elevate the thoughts and lives of others must of necessity either paralyse them by indifference, or actively drag them down. When this point is reached, then the art of life is converted into the science of death; we see the black magician at work. And no one can be quite inactive. Although many bad books and pictures are produced, still not everyone who is incapable of writing or painting well insists on doing so badly. Imagine the result if they were to! Yet so it is in life. Everyone lives, and thinks, and speaks. If all our readers who have any sympathy with [the journal] Lucifer endeavoured to learn the art of making life not only beautiful but divine, and vowed no longer to be hampered by disbelief in the possibility of this miracle, but to commence the Herculean task at once, then 1888, however unlucky a year, would have been fitly ushered in by the gleaming star.

Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich wrote:

Everything is vibration. The colors we see and the thoughts we think are all part of a cosmic symphony. To be an artist is to be a co-creator with the divine in the laboratory of the universe.

Art movements and groups associated with Theosophists

De Stijl and Neoplasticism

Piet Mondrian was a founder of the Dutch art movement called De Stijl, which was later known in English as Neoplasticism. Theosophical concepts pervaded his work. In this phase of his artistic life, he attempted to reach beyond natural appearances to reach an inner core of reality, by reducing to the simplicity of the straight line and primary colors.

Transcendental Painting Group

The Transcendental Painting Group (TPG) was a spiritualist abstract art movement founded in New Mexico in 1938. The group consisted of artists who wanted to infuse spiritual qualities in abstraction with concepts from Theosophy, Agni Yoga, and Zen Buddhism. Dane Rudhyar, Lawren Harris, and Agnes Pelton were members of the group, and were also engaged with Theosophy.

Group of Seven

Lawren Stewart Harris was an active Theosophist and a member of the Group of Seven Canadian artists, but there is no evidence that [{Theosophy]] had any significant impact on the group.

New Age art

New Age art is perhaps best known for the colorful psychelic posters and album covers that flooded popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s, along with paintings of spirit animals and mandalas. However it is broader than those images, and in many cases deeply influenced by Theosophy. Works of Twentieth-century Theosophist such as Dane Rudhyar, James S. Perkins, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, Ithell Colquhoun, Lawren Stewart Harris, Rona Scott-Abbott, and Agnes Pelton share the sensibilities of New Age art.

Artists influenced by Theosophy

Theosophical Society Founders Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and William Quan Judge were quite skilled in drawing. The arts have always been appreciated by Theosophists as a means of expressing spirituality.

• Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was a Swedish artist and mystic who painted some of the earliest abstract art.
• A. Theodore Bondy (1865-1966) was an American Theosophist known internationally as a calligrapher and illustrator.
• Claude Fayette Bragdon (1866-1946) was a Theosophist from Rochester, New York who is known for his architecture, stage sets, and writings.
• Maurice Braun (1877-1941) was a Hungarian-American artist of the Point Loma community, noted for his landscapes of California.
• Burton Callicott (1907-2003) was an art professor from Memphis, Tennessee who incorporated Theosophical concepts into his paintings and drawings.
• Jean Delville (1867–1953) was a Belgian symbolist painter, author, and teacher; he was the first General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Belgium.
• Harold E. Forgostein (1906-1990) was and American artist and teacher, and Guardian-in-Chief of the Temple of the People.
• Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn (1881-1962) was a Dutch artist and Theosophist. She is best known as the founder of the Eranos Foundation that holds annual conferences of scholars.
• Lawren Stewart Harris (1885-1970) was a Canadian painter in the Group of Seven who pioneered a distinctly Canadian painting style in the early twentieth century. He was a member of the Toronto Lodge.
• Monsieur Harrisse (unknown) was a French amateur artist who drew the first portrait of Master Morya in black and white crayons at The "Lamasery" in New York.
• Z. Vanessa Helder (1904-1968) was an American artist from the Pacific Northwest who came from a family of Theosophists.
• Johannes Itten (1888-1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus school.
• Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a Russian abstract expressionist painter who was heavily influenced by Theosophy. He wrote a hugely influential book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, and taught at the Bauhaus.
• Paul Klee (1879-1940) was a Swiss-German artist influenced by Theosophy and by the art movements of Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism.
• J. Augustus Knapp (1853-1938) was an American Theosophist and artist best known for his superb illustrations of Manly P. Hall's masterwork The Secret Teachings of All Ages and many works of science fiction and fantasy.
• Don Kruse (unknown) is an art professor at Indiana University at Fort Wayne. His paintings draw on mythological images, popular art such as comic strips, and the works of master artists, and he is a life member of the Theosophical Society in America.
• Thomas Le Clear (1818-1882) was a prominent American painter who was part of the circle of friends of Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott in New York City.
• Boleslaw Leitgeber (1900-1993) was a Polish artist, writer, and diplomat who spent several years at the Adyar campus of the Theosophical Society.
• Reginald Machell (1854-1927) was an English painter whose best-known work is The Path. He joined the Theosophical Society after meeting Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in London. Later, at the Point Loma community, he painted, wrote, and designed furniture.
• Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) was an influential Dutch painter, and one of the founders of the Dutch modern movement De Stijl.
• Louise A. Off (1864-1895) was a Theosophist and artist in California,s best known for becoming the editor of The New Californian.
• William R. O'Donovan (1844-1920) was a distinguished American sculptor and art critic who made a bronze medallion of Mme. Blavatsky, whom he visited often in New York.
• James S. Perkins (1899-1991) was a commercial artist and author of several books. He served as President of the Theosophical Society in America and as Vice President of the international Theosophical Society based in Adyar, India for ten years beginning in 1961.
• Erling Roberts (1901-19??) was an English-American painter known for his portrait of Charles Webster Leadbeater.
• Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) was a Russian painter, theatrical designer, and writer best known for his mystical paintings of the Himalayas. He and his wife Helena were members of the Theosophical Society.
• Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) was a French-American composer, writer, artist, and astrologer who was involved with the Theosophical Movement.
• George William Russell (1867-1935) was an Irish poet, painter and essayist who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (sometimes written AE or A.E.). He was a Theosophist, a political activist and a key figure in the Irish Literary Renaissance.
• Hermann Schmiechen (unknown) was a German artist who painted portraits of the Masters Koot Hoomi and Morya, and also of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. While he lived in England from 1884-1895, he was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, and painted members of the British aristocracy.
• Rona Scott-Abbott (????-2006) was a talented and prolific artist, active in the Theosophical Society in Australia and in the Theosophical Order of Service.
• Georgine Shillard-Smith (1873-1946) was an American artist and arts patron, and a member of the Theosophical Society in America. She was responsible for commissioning the Olcott murals.
• Isabelle de Steiger (1836–1927) was one of the earliest English Theosophists – an occultist, painter, and writer. Many of her paintings were occult works related to her participation in the Golden Dawn.
• Edward Wimbridge (unknown) was an engraver who became one of the earliest English members of the Theosophical Society.
• Beatrice Wood (1893-1998) was an American ceramicist and writer who was influential in the Avant Garde movement. She was a life member of the Theosophical Society in America.
• Cabot Yerxa (1883-1965) was an artist who established a colony in Desert Hot Springs, California. He was a member of the Theosophical Society (Pasadena), then based in Covina, and later of the Theosophical Society in America.
• Agnes Pelton (1881-1961) was an American modernist painter known for her desert landscapes and visionary abstract compositions, who was influenced by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Charles Webster Leadbeater, and Manly Palmer Hall.
• John Duncan (1866–1945) was a Scottish symbolist painter, Theosophist, and prominent figure in the Celtic Revival movement.
• Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) was a British surrealist, occultist, poet, and writer. She associated with G. R. S. Mead and his Quest Society.
• Melchior Lechter (1865-1937) was a German painter, graphic artist, and book designer. In 1906 he joined the Theosophical Society in Adyar, India.
• Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was an American painter of the abstract expressionist school, known best for the "drip" technique of his later paintings.
• Bertha E. Jaques (1863-1941) was an American etcher and a member of the American Theosophical Society.
• Brian Stonehouse (1918-1998) was an English painter and fashion illustrator, and member of the United Lodge of Theosophists.
• William Loftus Hare (1868-1943) was an English photo-engraver.
• Harold Edward Hare (1868-????) was an English artists and engraver.
• Charles James Ryan, Jr. (1865-1949) was an Irish painter and Theosophist who lived at Point Loma.
• Robert Vaughn (1876-1951) was a St. Louis Theosophist and a painter of murals.

Other Theosophists who were skilled amateur artists include Helena Petrovna Blavatsky; William Quan Judge; Mary Gebhard; and E. L. Thomson.

Art works significant to Theosophists

• The Path, painting by by Reginald Machell.
• The Three Objects, illuminated by calligrapher A. Theodore Bondy.
• Gutzom Borglum portrait of H. P. Blavatsky.
• Murals at Olcott by Richard Blossom Farley. These murals in the headquarters reception hall of the Theosophical Society in America depict physical and spiritual evolution.

See also

• Artists

Additional resources

Articles

• “Effective Art”: Imaginal Worlds, Fohat, and Freedom by Jeff Durham
• Beauty Is Not Optional by Kathryn Gann
• Theosophy and the Emergence of Modern Abstract Art by Kathleen Hall
• British Pre-Raphaelites and the Question of Reincarnation by Lynda Harris
• Jean Delville: Painting, Spirituality, and the Esoteric by Lynda Harris
• Concerto for Magic and Mysticism: Esotericism and Western Music by Gary Lachman
• The Symbolic Art of Charles Rennie MacKintosh by Alan Senior
• Theosophy and Art at Theosopedia
• Theosophy and the Emergence of Modern Abstract Art by Kathleen Hall
• Painting the Southern Border by Massimo Introvigne
• Theosophical Music by Kurt Leland

Video

• Buddhist Art at the Theosophical Society in America. A tour of the Buddhist art in the L. W. Rogers Building, as described by Buddhist scholar Glenn Mullin.
• "Murals at Olcott: Discover the Rich History and Symbolism of a Breathtaking Work of Art" is a video presentation of murals in the L. W. Rogers Building.

Bibliographies

• Bibliography on Arts and Music from the Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library.

Websites

• Theosophy & Arts: the Spiritual in Art from Luigi Pericle Study Center. English and Italian articles on the arts.
• Theosophical Art Facebook page.

Books and pamphlets

• Decter, Jacqueline. Nicholas Roerich, Messenger of Beauty. Vt.: Park Street Press, 1993.
• Escudero, Bing. Theosophia and Art. Summa Sophia, GdE (Group dynamics Edition) Volume 7, Series No. 6. Pamphlet issued June, 2000 as v2.1.
• Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.
• McFarlane, Jenny. Concerning the Spiritual: The Influence of the Theosophical Society On Australian Artists, 1890-1934. Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2012.
• Raine, Kathleen. "AE" in Yeats the Initiate. Mountrath: Dolmen Press, 1986, pp. 65-81.
• Tuchman, Maurice, and others. The Spiritual in Art, Abstract Painting. 1890-1985. New York: Abbeville Press, 1986.