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Western Esoteric Art
The best truth is secret truth
Art is a perfect vessel for containing secrets. While written information can be hidden in a cypher, hinted at in metaphor, or implied through conspicuous absence, a painting can encode meaning in the colors used, the composition of elements, the expression and gestures of the figures it contains, and in an endless catalog of esoteric visual symbols only understood by those initiated into the mysteries. read more
Western Esoteric Art, Age of Exploration
The Etruscans, 400BCE
Chimera of Arezzo
This is an undeniably modern interpretation. The chimera, like most beasts of antiquity, was the bad guy. Child of the giant serpent Typhon and the half woman half snake Echidna (you know her from the Starbucks logo) the Chimera was an abominable thing, unnatural combination of lion and goat, with the head of a snake for a tail. Her brothers and sisters live in legend. read more
Chimera of Arezzo, The Etruscans
Toyen
What's in a name?
Names are assigned to us before we are aware of their meaning, and we grow into them as much as they come to reflect us. In Japan artists often changed names after milestones in their lives, but in the west, once you've been given a name, you're usually stuck with it—a rigidity that makes claiming a new name even more powerful magic. read more
Toyen, The Artists
Sascha Schneider, 1904
Hypnosis
To Sascha Schneider the male body was perfection, and the world its antagonist. Schneider worked in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the development of Freikörperkultur, free body culture, also called the Health and Hygiene movement. Freikörperkultur aimed to counteract the restraint and stress of industrialization with a restorative mix of open air nudity, exercise, and healthy diet. read more
Hypnosis, Sascha Schneider
Born on January 30
Amrita Sher-Gil, The ArtistsPortrait of Amrita Sher-Gil

Amrita Sher-Gil

The truncated lives of women

1913 – 1941
Chéri Samba, The ArtistsPortrait of Chéri Samba

Chéri Samba

...and now we go to Samba, live in Kinshasa

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