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Spiritualist art or spirit art or mediumistic art or psychic painting is a form of art, mainly painting, influenced by

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (w ...

. Spiritualism influenced art, having an influence on artistic consciousness, with spiritual art having a huge impact on what became modernism and therefore art today. Famous spiritual artists include Georgiana Houghton and

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being ...

. Spiritualism also inspired the pioneering

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

Vasily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...

and

František Kupka František Kupka (23 September 1871 – 24 June 1957), also known as ''Frank Kupka'' or ''François Kupka,'' was a Czech Republic, Czech Painting, painter and graphic artist. He was a pioneer and co-founder of the early phases of the Abstract ...

Precipitated paintings

"Precipitation" is works of art that appeared on canvas, ostensibly without the use of human hands, during a Spiritualist seance. In this case, the mediums claimed that the spirits produced the paintings directly, rather than by guiding the hands of a human artist.Spiritualism and the Mystery of Modern Art
Massimo Introvigne, July 28, 2017

Automatic drawing

Automatic drawings (distinguished from

surrealist automatism Surrealist automatism is a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the making process, allowing the unconscious mind to have great sway. Early 20th-century Dadaists, such as Hans Arp, made some use of this metho ...

), a term thought to originate with

Anna Mary Howitt Anna Mary Howitt, Mrs Watts (15 January 1824 – 23 July 1884) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter, writer, feminist and spiritualist. Following a health crisis in 1856, she ceased exhibiting professionally and became a pioneering drawing med ...

, were produced by

mediums Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

and practitioners of the psychic arts. It was thought by Spiritualists to be a spirit control that was producing the drawing while physically taking control of the medium’s body. An alternative term for this is ''psychic painting''. In Brazil, among the various alleged mediums that stand out in this particular area, the names of , , and , among others.

Portraying the spirits

In the heyday of Spiritualism, it became very common for mediums to sketch portraits of spirits who they claimed were present during the seances.

Auragraphs

Auragraphs, which represent a person’s past, present, and potential as seen by a medium or clairvoyant. The name was coined, and the technique developed, by British medium Harold Sharp (1890-1980).

Spirit architecture

The

Iulia Hasdeu Castle The Iulia Hașdeu Castle is a folly built in the form of small castle by historian and politician Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu in the city of Câmpina, Romania. Work on it began in 1893, after Hasdeu's daughter, Iulia Hasdeu, died at the age of 1 ...

is a folly built in the form of a small castle by historian and politician

Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Life He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi ...

in the city of Câmpina, Romania. He claimed that his dead daughter,

Iulia Hasdeu Iulia Hasdeu (; 14 November 1869 – 29 September 1888) was a Romanian poet, the daughter of writer and philologist Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu. From a very young age, Hasdeu wrote poems and prose in both Romanian and French, taught herself forei ...

, provided the plans for building the castle during sessions of

spiritism Spiritism (French: ''spiritisme''; Portuguese: ''espiritismo'') is a spiritualist, religious, and philosophical doctrine established in France in the 1850s by the French teacher, educational writer, and translator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Riv ...

. In the 1880s, Senator Federico Rosazza (1813-1899), an Italian politician connected with Masonic and spiritualist circles, commissioned the painter and architect Giuseppe Maffei (1821-1901), to convert a pre-existing village into a new town with his name,

Rosazza Rosazza is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italy, Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Biella. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 89 and an area of .All demograp ...

. Maffei, a spiritualist, claimed that he received messages on how to build Rosazza from the spirits, including

Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

References

External links

Spirituality Has Long Been Erased From Art History. Here's Why It's Having a Resurgence Today
* {{cite journal, last1=Cardinal, first1=Roger, title=European Mediumistic Art in the Outsider Domain, journal=Raw Vision, volume=Winter 1989/90, issue=2, page=26, url=http://www.gallevery.com/assets/dynamic/documents/AZ_Roger_Cardinal_Article_-_Raw_Vision_1989.pdf, accessdate=27 March 2016
Spiritualism and the Visual Arts – WRSP
* http://www.spiritual-healing-artwork-4u.com/precipitated-spirit-painting.html Art movements Spiritualism