europe and the spirit world or the fascination with the occult, 1750

Transcription

EUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLD OR THE
FASCINATION WITH THE OCCULT,
1750-1950
MUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART OF
STRASBOURG
8TH OCTOBER 2011 / 12TH FEBRUARY 2012
In collaboration with the National University Library of Strasbourg (BNU) and the
the Garden of Science at the
University of Strasbourg,
Strasbourg,
This event is recognized by the Minister of Culture and Communication/ General Direction of National
heritage/Museum Services of France as an exhibition of “national interest”. Accordingly, it receives special financial
backing from the State.
Under the patronage of the Minister of Culture and Communication.
It also figures under the patronage of Monsieur Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the European Council.
National and International Press
Press Relations
Regional press relations
Heymann, Renoult Associated
Sarah Heymann, Laurence Gillion,
Annabelle Floriant
l.gillion@heymann-renoult.com
Tél : (+33) 01 44 61 76 76
Press release and visuals
downloadable:
www.heymann-renoult.com
The Museums Communication Services
Julie Barth
julie.barth@strasbourg.eu
Tél : 03 88 52 50 15
Press Release and visuals
downloadable:
www.musees.strasbourg.eu
PRESS KIT ‘EUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLD OR THE FASCINATION WITH THE OCCULT, 1750-1950’
MUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART OF STRASBOURG, 8TH OCTOBER 2011 – 12TH FEBRUARY 2012
1. ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
PAGE 2
2. EXHIBITION ITINERARY
PAGE 5
3. STAGING AND DESIGN
PAGE 10
4. LENDING INSTITUTIONS
PAGE 12
5. EXHIBITION PUBLICATIONS
PAGE 15
6. SERGE FAUCHEREAU
PAGE 20
7. CULTURAL AND SCHOOLS EVENTS PROGRAMME
PAGE 21
8. A CO-PRODUCTION WITH BERN’S ZENTRUM PAUL KLEE
PAGE 23
9. EXHIBITION PARTNERS
PAGE 24
10. EXHIBITIONS AWARDED FRANCE’S ‘NATIONAL IMPORTANCE’ STATUS IN 2011
PAGE 27
11. SATELLITE EXHIBITION AT STRASBOURG’S HISTORICAL MUSEUM
PAGE 28
12. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
PAGE 29
13. PRESS VISUALS
PAGE 30
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1. About the exhibition
‘Europe and the Spirit World or the Fascination with the Occult,
Occult, 17501750-1950’ is a crosscross-disciplinary
disciplinary
exhibition exploring the influence of the occult on artists, thinkers, writers and scholars throughout
Europe, at decisive moments in the history of the modern world. The exhibition is organized into three
sections:
- The
The creative arts: painting, drawing,
drawing, sculpture, printprint-making and photography, the literature of the
irrational and unexplained.
unexplained.
- The esoteric tradition revisited, with an extensive chronological survey encompassing the movement’s
foundational texts and print iconography.
- The relationship
relationship between occult phenomena and the scientific world, through key scholarly figures and
thinkers, and an examination of their experiments and scientific instruments.
With some 500 works of art, 150 scientific artefacts, 150 books and 100 documents from a host of
European countries, Europe and the Spirit World will be presented in a dedicated 25002500-m2 space at the
the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg.
Strasbourg.
Spirit realms: European literature and art
Section presented by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg.
‘There is something that comes from far beyond the realm of man, and goes so much further, too,’ wrote
André Breton. The fascination for the irrational and obscure – seemingly as old as humanity itself – finds
particular expression in art. And yet it is precisely –paradoxically – at the moment when science, in the
Age of Enlightenment, claimed to shed new and rational light on our world, that we see the first signs of
the Romantic movement, and the reactionary rise of Spiritualism. People of an inquiring mind readily
confused that which was not understood, with that which people wanted to believe: the existence of
ghosts, fairies, and demons. The poet and painter William Blake was visited by spirits, and Goethe sought
to penetrate the mysteries of living matter and colour. The German Romantic author Novalis spoke of
‘magical art’, ushering in a new concept of the artist as clairvoyant or medium.
With the emergence of spiritism in the mid-19th century, Victor Hugo was the first major creative artist to
question the spirits through séances and table-turning. Spiritism soon spread to other fields, and found its
leading theoretician in Allan Kardec, author of the Livre des Esprits (1857). Fairies, demons, vampires,
spirits, demonic possessions and communication with the dead all enjoyed renewed popularity, giving rise
to an inexhaustible vein of imagery. Symbolists and members of the Nabis group were fascinated by the
occult, under the leadership of the Strasbourg-born writer and mystic Édouard Schuré. The movement
encompassed literature, architecture, dance and music (from Mozart to Wagner, Satie to Varese),
photography and the new medium of cinema (from Méliès to Fritz Lang). At the turn of the 20th century,
the role and powers of mediums and parapsychological phenomena, were fiercely debated. European
literature and the visual arts were closely implicated. Some personalities were devout spiritists, such as
Conan Doyle and Hilma Af Klint. Theosophy attracted Czech painter František Kupka, for a time, and
found lasting devotees in Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. In Germany, the Blaue Reiter group also
drew on the tenets of theosophy, as seen in the work of Kandinsky and Arp. In France, the Surrealists –
artists like André Breton, André Masson, Victor Brauner, and Kurt Seligmann - also sought to explore the
‘realm of marvels’. This section of the exhibition, devoted to the visual arts and literature, revisits the
underlying trends that found expression in the rediscovery of dark mythologies and their bewitching
imagery, throughout this 200-year period.
Some of the 160 featured artists: Caspar David Friedrich, Francisco Goya, Henry Fuseli, Eugène Delacroix,
Gustave Doré, Victor Hugo, Akseli GallenGallen-Kallela, Edvard Munch, Ferdinand
Ferdinand Hodler, Odilon Redon, Jan
Toorop, Nicholas Roerich, M. K. Čiurlionis, František Kupka, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevitch, Piet
Mondrian, František Drtikol, Dimitrie Paciurea, Jean Hans Arp, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, André Masson,
Roberto
Roberto Matta, Wifredo Lam,
Lam, FleuryFleury-Joseph Crépin, Augustin Lesage and Hélène Smith…
The history
history and iconography of the occult:
occult: a world in words and pictures
Section presented by the National University Library of Strasbourg and the Print and Drawing room of the
Museums of Strasbourg.
The esoteric tradition has been a feature of Western civilisation since the earliest times – a tradition that
has come down to us in the form of esoteric writings, and the engraved illustrations that so often
accompany them.
The exhibition presents significant works from the collections of Strasbourg’s national and university
library (the BNU), and the prints and drawings collection of Strasbourg’s city museums, exploring the full
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range of topics featured in the Spirit realms exhibition: spiritism, esoterism, occultism, magic, witchcraft,
divination…
The BNU’s encyclopaedic holdings include a section on occultism and other beliefs, encompassing major,
foundational texts of the modern and contemporary periods.
The collections of papyri, manuscripts, incunabula, rare and fine books, and Alsatic texts, together with
texts devoted to religious science and literature, offer a revealing – but by no means exhaustive – survey
of a rich corpus.
Historic texts complement the displays of visual artworks, presenting major works in their original, first
editions, and highlighting the work of the publishers, printers, engravers and illustrators who established
the esoteric tradition and kept it alive, down to the present day. The section aims to focus on works by the
movement’s leading authors, at key moments in its long history throughout Europe, and beyond.
Complementing the scientific displays included in the main exhibition, the section also presents key
scientific works exploring spectral apparitions and other supernatural phenomena, together with an
overview of the contact between scientific, mystical and esoteric thought down the centuries.
Some of the main authors represented: Pythagoras, Plato,
Plato, Virgil, Dante, Master Eckhart, Marsile Ficin,
Cornelius Agrippa,
Agrippa, Paracelsus,
Paracelsus, Lavater,
Lavater, Milton, Swedenborg, Cagliostro, Goethe, Balzac,
Balzac, Novalis, Kardec,
Schuré, Conan Doyle, Huysmans, Ivan Goll, André Breton, Fulcanelli. The featured works are all from the
collection of the Bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasbourg.
Strasbourg.
Featured artists include:
include: Baldung Grien, Brentel, Cranach, Dürer, Schongauer, Mantegna, Jacques Callot,
Piranesi,
Piranesi, GirodetGirodet-Trioson.
Science and the spirit world
Section presented by the Zoological Museum of Strasbourg and the Garden of Science at the University of
Strasbourg
From Chevreul’s experiments with table-turning to the work of metaphysicist Charles Richet, the 19th
century was characterised by genuine scientific interest in occult and spiritist phenomena. At the turn of
the 20th century, this interest contributed to the development of a number of scientific instruments
designed to prove or disprove the possibility of the levitation of objects, the materialization of ghosts, etc.
The section takes a threefold look at the interaction between mediums and the scientific world:
- The ‘electricity fairy’, wireless telegraphy, radium, X rays, etc.: In the late 19th century, new phenomena
were discovered, and new technologies emerged, leading to the development of a variety of machines
designed to measure and exploit these new resources. The new phenomena had been observed, but they
were not yet explained. Throughout Europe, the public at large was fascinated by this new world of
possibilities, taking an ever-closer interest in science.
- At the same time, the European public showed a growing fascination with occult phenomena. This
popular movement fostered scholarly scientific interest in the activities of mediums – a field studied by
eminent figures including William Crookes, Pierre and Marie Curie, Camille Flammarion, and Jean-Martin
Charcot. Scientists applied experimental methodology in séances held with the celebrated medium
Eusapia Palladino, in an attempt to demonstrate the existence of psychic and paranormal phenomena.
Physiologist Charles Richet coined a name for this new field of scientific exploration: metaphysics.
- The Great War gave new impetus to the spiritist movement, while the scientific community distanced
itself from the latter’s explorations and ‘findings’. Most psychologists and psychiatrists rejected
metaphysics as a ‘pseudo-science’. The inter-war years were marked by the professionalization of a new
scientific community, whose practice was founded on the development of so-called fundamental,
laboratory-based research
The section presents numerous objects loaned by prestigious institutions including France’s Musée des
Arts et Métiers, the Institut Curie, and Musée de la Médecine in Lyon. The display includes a number of
items from the rich collections of the University of Strasbourg, and the Association de muséographie et
de médiation scientifique (AMUSS).
Featured original instruments include Mesmer’s baquet (the only one of its kind in the world), an X ray
tube, a Crookes tube, a telegraphic receiver, a ‘coherer’ designed by Edouard Branly, a photophone by
Bell, and more. The displays are accompanied by letters, photographs, press articles and videos.
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Curatorsurators-inin-chief :
Serge Fauchereau,
Fauchereau art historian
Joëlle PijaudierPijaudier-Cabot,
Cabot chief heritage curator and director, Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg
Associate curators :
Daniel Bornemann,
Bornemann curator, reserve collections, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg
Anny--Claire Haus,
Anny
Haus curator, Cabinet des Estampes et Dessins de Strasbourg
Estelle Pietrzyk,
Pietrzyk curator, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg
Sébastien Soubiran,
Soubiran scientific historian, director of museum policy at the Jardin des Sciences - Université
de Strasbourg
MarieMarie-Dominique Wandhammer,
Wandhammer curator, Musée Zoologique de Strasbourg
Exhibition staging
staging and design :
Benoît Grafteaux & Richard Klein, architects, d.p.l.g.
This exhibition has been awarded ‘national importance’ status by the French Ministry of Culture and
Communication / Heritage department / French museums service, and has received State financial
support in the form of an exceptional grant from the Ministry.
Exhibition organised under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and Communication.
Exhibition patron: Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
Francisco Goya, La Conjuration (Les Sorcières), 1797-1798, huile sur toile, 43 x 30 cm,
Madrid, Fundación Lázaro Galdiano. Photo : Fundación Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid
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2. Exhibition itinerary
THE SPIRIT WORLD: EUROPEAN ART AND LITERATURE
The section is is divded into four main categories exploring the Romantic era, the Symbolists, Abstraction
and other avant-garde movements, and Surrealism.
Certain key artists, like Goya, Čiurlionis, Klee or Arp are the focus of special attention, together with
specific topics such as dance, architecture or cinema.
The Romantics and the occult
Above and beyond the many different faces of the Romantic movement throughout Europe, a handful of
elements exert a powerful unifying force, including the celebration of a deliberately prophetic or heroic
brand of spirituality, the quest for a state of effusive, heightened emotion and communion with Nature,
the attraction of exotic places and the past, and a penchant for dreams, fantasy and the supernatural. The
movement’s earliest beginnings were marked by the Spiritualist reaction to the rationality of the
Enlightenment, and a marked fascination with the forces of darkness – an attraction shared by all the
creative artists represented in this section, from throughout Europe, and closely linked to the world of
literature. The itinerary begins with the world of Shakespeare, an important source of inspiration for the
English Pre-Romantics and Romantics, and their German and French counterparts: Dadd, Romney, Fuseli,
Koch and Chassériau. Shakespeare’s plays – suffused with historical, mythological and fairytale imagery
– were a major source of inspiration for Romantic dramatists, along with the Gothic world, and Celtic
legends, which in turn inspired a sombre, funereal genre of poetry, testifying to the uncertainties and dark
doubts besetting the Western consciousness in the late 18th century.
Goya was fascinated by demonic creatures and evil spirits, inspired by the world of Spanish Baroque
literature. The presiding, encyclopaedic genius of Goethe is represented in a rare collection of lively
drawings – spirited veduti of architectural ruins, and scenes of witchcraft. Some of the drawings illustrate
Goethe’s own Faust. Faust the magician – and above all Faust the visionary, driven by his insatiable quest
for the secrets of the universe and human destiny to sell his soul to the devil – is the archetype of the
Romantic hero. His legend, relayed in Goethe’s literary masterpiece, went on to inspire numerous artists,
such as Delacroix and Carus.
A group of works by Friedrich, Carus, Blommér and (later) Böcklin herald a new sensitivity to landscape as
the physical expression of inner states of being, and a support for spiritual meditation.
Spiritism first emerged in the mid-19th century. Victor Hugo – in exile on Guernesey – was one of the first
creative artists to question the spirits through séances and table-turning, taking down dictated texts and
creating automatic drawings with tremulous, quivering outlines, from which spectral blotches and figures
emerge. At the same time, wild cavalcades of evil spirits, vampires, demons, witches and monsters
people the works of Boulanger, Bresdin, Jumel de Noireterre and Welti, while classicially-inspired artists
like Bra, Hill and Josephson create strange, hallucinatory worlds of their own, following their descent into
madness.
Symbolism
Symbolism flowered in the late 19th century, in a context of profound change affecting European society
as a whole: the accelerated sweep of industrialization, and colonial expansion across the globe. Writers,
artists and thinkers rejected the materialism that accompanied the dynamic of rapid ‘progress’, and
reacted to the rise of aesthetic realism and naturalism by espousing a brand of idealism tinged with deep
pessimism, and mysticism focusing on alternative realities and the ‘world beyond’.
Spiritism found its theoretician in the person of Allan Kardec and his Livre des Esprits (1857). Its influence
quickly spread throughout European society. People everywhere were communicating with the dead.
Based on a firm belief in spirits, the Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875, sparking the
proliferation of Spiritualist groups and sects throughout the Western world, often drawing on the doctrines
of exotic or forgotten religions and occult sciences like the kabbalah and alchemy. Strasbourg writer
Edouard Schuré published an epoch-making work in 1889: Les Grands initiés.
The Symbolists and members of the Nabis group were fascinated by the occult, encouraging numerous
charlatans, but above all giving rise to works of great artistic quality, as demonstrated in this section of
the exhibition: Paul-Élie Ranson, Gustave Moreau or Rodin in France; Jean Delville in Belgium; Jan Toorop
in the Netherlands; Bergh in Scandinavia; Perle, Maggi, Somov, Vroubel, Paciurea and others in eastern
Europe. The Lithuanian painter and musician Čiurlionis features in a special presentation of an
exceptional group of works including his celebrated series of the twelve signs of the zodiac.
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Artists focused on the symbolism of mythology (Gallen Kallela, Séon, Lévy, Hermann), the visual
representation of ideas, and primordial archetypes. A popular vein of ‘fantastical Orientalism’ prompted a
flourishing of wide-ranging beliefs and mystical excesses (Biegas, Lacombe).
The atmosphere of salons held by members of the Rosicrucian movement, established in 1892 under Sâr
Péladan, is evoked in a gallery featuring works by Schwabe, Lenoir, Ranson, Rops and Filliger. The section
ends with a group of works typifying the unique, transcendental appeal of Symbolism (Delville, Roerich,
Hodler, Fidus…).
Literature, music and silent film are also represented, together with photography in the form of two
groups of works, the first featuring images attempting to capture the invisible world, and supernatural
phenomena (Buguet, Darget…); the second featuring mysterious, poetic, visionary images by figures such
as Hofmeister and Langdon-Coburn.
Abstraction and other avantavant-garde movements
Works featured at the start of this section illustrate a key moment in the transition to new forms of art.
Themes of birth (Malevitch’s Woman in childbirth, 1908; Kupka, Waterlilies, 1900-1902), flowering
(Mondrian, Chrysanthemum) or the eternal cycle of death and rebirth (Mondrian, The Windmill, circa
1903) crystallise the preoccupations of many artists and art theorists of the time. Flowers, landscapes
and figures would soon give way to abstract compositions (Van Doesburg, Heroic movement, 1916;
Kupka, Animated spaces, 1922; Kandinsky, Three elements, 1925) in which rhythmic visual motifs and
colour contrasts are the only subject-matter. A fine collection of drawings by Paul Klee (including Mobile
spirits, 1923 and Elves, 1939) concludes the first part of this section, devoted to the pioneers of
abstraction, with a particular focus on Rudolf Steiner.
The exhibition includes a number of teaching aids (‘blackboards’ and Eurythmic figurines) used by Steiner
during his lectures at the Goetheanum (the headquarters of the anthroposophical movement, which
attracted numerous artists, including the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint), and a number of ‘medium
paintings’ produced during Spiritist séances.
Dance – hailed as another means of communication with the ‘other side’ – is represented in photographs
of Loïe Fuller and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, dancing on the summit of Monte Verita. The Goetheanum is the
starting point for an exploration of the relationship between architecture and esoterism (the model for the
centre’s second building is featured in the exhibition). Featured works include Albert Trachsel’s drawings
for the Fêtes Réelles, fantastical temple domes by Hablik, and utopian schemes by the Croatian architect
Jo Klek. The following room explores another aspect of the avant-garde, bringing together Nordic
Expressionist works (Sallinen’s striking Hihhulit of 1918), and works from southern Europe (tarot designs
by Jose Gutierrez Solana). The section ends with a selection of radical, highly experimental works from the
early 20th century, notably Matyushin’s meditation on the fourth dimension (Movement in space, 1918),
and works by Herbin, striving for an ideal of ‘non-figurative, non-objective’ art (Synchromy in black, 1938).
Surrealist groupings
Visitors entering the final gallery in this section are greeted by Victor Brauner’s Chimera of 1939. The
space includes some of the Surrealist movement’s most iconic works, and an overview of its many
offshoots. A strange composition by Max Ernst (Après moi le sommeil, Hommage à Paul Éluard, 1958)
showing a geometric figure nimbed in light, hangs alongside a Crystal (1925) by Josef Sima. Further
along, Dali’s Spectral Cow (1928) resonates with Victor Brauner’s L’Animal moderne (1942) and Strigoï
(1946). This opening sequence focuses on dreams and fantasy, with works by Toyen, Styrsky and Prinner,
together with other works containing explicit references to occult practices: divination with the tarot (Jules
Perahim’s Arcana 12: the Hanged Man), intercessors with the hereafter (André Masson’s Witch of 1942)
and alchemy (Matta’s The Philospher’s Stone, 1942). A room devoted to works on paper presents an
ensemble by practitioners of so-called Art Brut. The astonishing Martian Landscapes by medium Helen
Smith compare and contrast with a large textile by Madge Gimm, ink drawings by Jeanne Tripier, pen
drawings by Laure Pigeon, and delicate watercolours by Marguerite Burnat-Provins. Some of the genre’s
most celebrated exponents are also represented: Augustin Lesage, a miner turned medium and healer
(his Untitled canvas of 1925 is a large work of Egyptian inspiration), and Fleury Joseph Crépin (his Tableau
merveilleux n°11, 15 June 1946, was part of André Breton’s private collection). The section also includes
the work of numerous photographers, including Man Ray’s double portrait of the Surrealist’s leading
patron and defender, Edward James (in which he alludes to the phenomenon of telekinesis), and the
bizarre nudes of František Drtikol, featuring his wife (a dancer) in images bordering on the unreal.
The section ends with a selection of Demeures (‘Residences’) by Georges Malkine (La Demeure de
Baudelaire, and Debussy) – imaginary architectural pieces painted in the 1960s as tributes to leading
creative artists. Visitors leave the section via the experience of Jacques Hérold’s imposing Grand
Transparent (1947). This large-scale bronze, originally made for the International Surrealist Exhibition of
the same year, presents an intriguing, complex silhouette, structured like a multi-faceted crystal. A
sculptural synthesis of many of the key concepts developed by the Surrealists, Le Grand Transparent is
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the embodiment of a mystical figure of indeterminate type, as imagined by André Breton in his
Prologomena to the Third Surrealist Manifesto, which prophesies the advent of creatures such as this,
‘manifesting themselves darkly to us, in fear and a sense of danger’
HISTORY AND ICONOGRAPHY OF THE OCCULT: A WORLD IN WORDS AND PICTURES
Section produced in collaboration with National University Library of Strasbourg (BNU) and and Drawing
room of the Museums of Strasbourg.
Arranged
Arranged in four parts, an ensemble of some 60 prints and drawings from the period 1475 to 1851
illustrates the exhibition’s central topics
topics, with a particular focus on themes of experimentation,
exploration and temptation.
Exploring the limits of knowledge
The section opens with an image of the Tiburtine Sibyl with the Emperor Augustus (a monochrome
woodcut by Antonio da Trento, 1527-1530). This portrayal of ancient Roman attempts to decipher the
arcana of existence, by consulting dark, mysterious forces thought to possess the secret of individual
destinies, is accompanied by scenes of deep meditation – Andrea Andreani’s Woman in meditation
(1591), and Salvator Rosa’s Democritus in search of the seat of the soul (1662) – and the states of
melancholy that often resulted (Dürer’s famous image of 1514, and a work by Giovanni Benedetto
Castiglione).
Exploring transgression
In Greek and Roman mythology, the quest for knowledge and omniscience – so often assimilated with a
thirst for power – led to supernatural dealings between mortal men and the gods.
The practice of magic was tolerated by the early Christians, but this peaceful coexistence of belief
systems came to an end in the 6th century, when the Church authorities forbade the consultation of
witches and soothsayers. Representations of occult practitioners in art abounded, however: artists and
writers relayed a comprehensive phantasmagoria of irrational beliefs, focused essentially on witchcraft as
a symbolic threat to the established order. Mantegna, Dürer and Baldung Grien all created significant
images of supernatural evildoers: Battle of the Seagods, c. 1475; Witch riding backwards on a goat, c.
1500; The Witches’ Sabbath, after 1514; The Bewitched Groom, 1544).
The invisible world of spirits
Ranged against this demoniacal world, in which women are seen as allies and instruments of the Devil,
the Christian saints are presented as ardent defenders of their faith, dedicated body and soul to their
divine cause, leading lives founded on purity and chastity, but nonetheless prone to moments of doubt,
temptations of the flesh, and the torments of guilt, represented by many artists in the form of monstrous
figures and nightmarish apparitions. Schongauer’s aerial Temptations of St Anthony (c. 1473) heralds a
new variation on the theme, reinterpreted by Cranach the Elder in 1506, and Callot in 1635.
A fascination with death
The legend of Orpheus and Erydice, illustrated by Baur, Brentel and Zix, deals with the transgression of
another taboo, namely death, experienced as an impenetrable mystery protected by boundaries
impregnable to the tireless assaults of human curiosity.
Death is represented sometimes as the Reaper, the arbitrary harbinger of destruction and mourning
(Bodan, 1675; Death holding an infant, by Charles Jacque), sometimes (in more Romantic mode) as an
exalted moment reuniting the living and dead (Neureuther’s Lénore, after the 1835 Ballads of Gottfried
August Bürger; Zix’s Apparition after death), and ultimately as an ineluctable rite of passage, overriding all
human schemes (Schuler’s Chariot of Death, 1851).
History and iconography of the occult: a world in words and images
Esoteric, occult and spiritist thought systems have given rise to an extensive body of writing and images
throughout history – a corpus best examined in chronological perspective. Documents down the centuries
record the images and words through which these mystical philosophies have come down to us today.
The Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian civilisations provide the earliest traces of mankind’s exploration
of the occult, in search of answers to the mysteries of life. Divination, life after death, the nature of the
soul, and the journeys of the spirits were explored by the great civilizations of Antiquity; their beliefs and
speculations were recorded and disseminated in words and pictures.
Hellenistic civilisation achieved a synthesis of these ancient belief systems, which subsequently spread
throughout the Mediterranean world through the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, Empedocles, Plato and
many others. The practice of magic, philosophical poetry, dialogues and legends forged a rich body of
material, retransmitted to and by the Romans, and through the Sibylline tradition.
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Christianity emerged at the heart of the Roman empire, which had become a breeding-ground for
increasingly diverse cults and beliefs. Greek and Latin literature had propounded the theories of
Pythagorism, classical Neo-Platonism and Hermetism, as well as other belief systems. Hebraic beliefs and
philosophy influenced exoteric religion and esoterism alike, notably through the kabbala.
But these beliefs and speculations gave rise to theurgical practices and witchcraft – as old as mankind
itself – which were in turn embraced by scholars through the science of alchemy, and other forms of
magic. Contact with Islam fostered the transmission of certain types of esoteric knowledge, and the
Catholic church was also the vehicle for the transmission of its own gnostic and kabbalistic tradition.
During the Middle Ages, esoteric speculation and theurgical practices were rejected along with all forms
of heresy. However the 14th century saw the emergence of two important movements in the history of
Western thought. In Italy, Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy, an epic journey through the realms of
Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, in the course of which Virgil and Beatrice reveal a comprehensive panorama
of the Christian afterlife. Rhineland mysticism took these explorations further, seeking contact with the
Godhead – the personification of Eternal Wisdom. Centred on Strasbourg, the movement spread
throughout much of Europe.
Neo-Platonism resurfaced during the Renaissance, through new translations of Platonic and Hermetic
texts. Across Europe, the Hermetic sciences were studied by scholars, theologians and doctors of
medicine. Strasbourg was once again the base and meeting-point for a number of secret societies, and an
important centre for the publishing of their manifestos. In Spain and England mysticism took on new
forms, adapted to each country’s national character and religious orientation. The Counter-reformation
struggled to contain pockets of disorder with methods of its own, notably a stepping-up of the practice of
witch-hunting.
The 18th century was a period of intense activity in esoteric movements: Swedenborg, Cagliostro, the
Comte de Saint-Germain, the Bavarian Illuminati, and the many different individuals and movements
claiming to possess secret knowledge, or researching the nature of the soul and the spirit world, led to the
rise of Mesmerism, and the eclipse of Enlightenment science and questioning by darker movements,
around the time of the French Revolution.
Goethe’s Faust focalizes this growing tension, accumulated since the Renaissance, and exorcises it in the
final apotheosis of its hero, a seeker after the arcane knowledge of the spirit world.
Romanticism, and subsequent movements, examined these themes as literary subject-matter,
establishing a certain distance between the mainstream, and esoteric beliefs and practices. This in turn
provoked a reaction in the mid-19th century, with the rise of spiritism and table-turning. Aided by the
advent of Positivism, it was now widely believed that the spirits could communicate with the living, and
instruct us in their truths.
Scientific progress should have shed new light on these mysteries. Ultimately, however, materialism
triumphed – until the embrace of certain aspects of spiritism and the occult by the Surrealists, in the early
20th century, eager for news from the ‘other side’, knowledge of the inner mysteries of the self, and the
practices that could reach and reveal them.
SCIENCE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD
Co-produced by the the Garden of Science at the University of Strasbourg and the city’s Zoological
Museum, this section is organised into four parts, exploring the evolving interface between the scientific
community and mediums, and the latters’ contribution to new scientific research, discoveries and
technologies.
Visitors are greeted by a unique, highly curious object – Mesmer’s baquet, used in the celebrated German
physician’s group experiments. Displays in the section take up a central theme: the encounter between
the scholarly scientific and occult worlds.
A world of possibilities
The section explores the scientific world of the late 19th century: a community in a state of frenzied
activity, as witnessed by populist publications like La nature, a bewildering array of new scientific
instruments, and the discovery of new phenomena – in particular X rays and radioactivity – together with
technologies like the telephone, the wireless telegraph or electric light bulbs. All these discoveries led to
the creation of the instruments and machines presented here. Visitors are invited to enter the
extraordinary world of 19th-century science and discover its fields of choice, such as the measurement and
exploration of the infinitely small, using Crookes tubes, X ray tubes, instruments for the measurement of
radioactivity, galvanometers, weighing scales, voltmeters, spherometers, photometers… Intriguing
scientific objects, and artworks of seductive beauty in their own right.
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The human body:
body: a new experimental field
The exhibition turns to the measurement of the human body and the infinitely small – a key
precoccupation for scientists of the period. The displays explore the rise of the new science of physiology
in the late 19th century, and the instrumentation developed by physiologists in their quest to understand
and explain the functioning of the body’s organs.
Scientists and mediums
Spiritist movements complemented the effervescent scientific scene, with celebrated mediums including
Daniel Douglas Home, Eusapia Palladino and Eva Carrère (known as ‘Eva C.’).
Their multiple ‘set pieces’ – including the levitation or displacement of objects, the emission of strange
sounds, the production of ectoplasm, and the materialisation of the dead – fascinated scientists
throughout Europe, including William Crookes, Pierre and Marie Curie, Camille Flammarion, Édouard
Branly, Oliver Lodge, Charles Richet and Cesare Lombroso.
The exhibition takes visitors into a recreation of a late 19th-century drawing room, the setting for a
spiritist séance. Against a soundtrack of a reading of an eye-witness account by Camille Flammarion,
visitors relive a séance held by medium Eusapia Palladino. The displays also feature some of the many
instruments used in the attempt to shed light on these strange phenomena, through the capture and
recording of their tiniest details.
Medium Marthe Béraud’s séances at the Villa Carmen, including the apparition of a spirit by the name of
Bien Boâ, are recalled in an amusing photograph taken by a privileged eye-witness, the physiologist
Charles Richet. Richet was the father of ‘metaphysics’ (a term he coined in 1905), and won the Nobel
prize for Physiology in 1913.
Scientific debate and affirmation
The exhibition’s last section transports visitors to a period when science began to distance itself from the
world of spiritism. Psychiatrists and psychologists rejected spiritism in the early 20th century, but the
public at large embraced the movement with renewed enthusiasm, driven by the need and desire to
communicate with the dead of the Great War.
The French daily paper Le Matin took up the affair, highlighting contemporary controversies, interviews
with scientists, and ‘medium competitions’ on its front pages.
The interwar period in Europe was marked by the professionalization of a scientific community whose
practices were founded on the development of so-called fundamental, laboratory-based research, as the
legitimate sphere for the production of scientific knowledge. From the beginnings of public funding for
laboratory research, to the creation of France’s national research organization, the CNRS, in 1939,
science played an increasingly important role in the life of the modern nation state.
France opened its first public museum of science – the Palais de la découverte – in 1937, confirming the
prominence of science in the public and official imagination.
The exhibition includes numerous photographs and illustrations testifying to these new manifestations of
scientific ‘officialdom’. Instruments built on an increasingly impressive scale enabled scientists to explore
the nature of matter, pushing back the boundaries of knowledge: a photograph by Robert Doisneau shows
French nuclear chemist Frédéric Joliot standing next to his cyclotron. The exhibition ends with Frédéric
Joliot’s reflections on the beneficial and destructive capacities of these new discoveries, and mankind’s
unquenchable desire for progress.
H. Mairet, Séance avec Eusapia Palladino, chez Camille Flammarion, rue Cassini, 25 novembre 1898,
épreuve à la gélatine argentique, 22,2 x 26,3 cm, Paris, Société Astronomique de France, Fonds Camille Flammarion.
Photo : © Rue des Archives/ The Granger Collection
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3. Staging and design
Europe and the Spirit World or the fascination with the occult, 1750-1950 is installed in two
distinct spaces, at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg. Extending over more than
2,500 m2, the displays encompass the museum’s permanent contemporary collections, and its exhibition
room. In defining these spaces, we have focused on the different disciplines represented by the 800
works on show in the exhibition’s three sections. The great diversity of featured objects and artworks
demanded a tailored approach to the installation of a chronological itinerary punctuated by striking
perspectives, set pieces, and effects of transparency.
The exhibition’s first section, focusing on the arts and literature, is installed in the museum’s four
first-floor galleries (usually home to the permanent contemporary collections). These galleries have been
cleared of their permanent displays for the duration of the exhibition.
We were commissioned to design a structured space capable of providing a unified framework
linking the section’s four chronological sequences. The section comprises some 450 works of widely
differing types and scale, arranged in four chronological periods from the Romantics to the Symbolists,
Abstraction and other avant-garde movements, and the Surrealists. Reflecting this, we have created a
colourful, ‘proliferating’ structure designed to organize the exhibition itinerary across the whole of the first
floor, guaranteeing the stylistic unity of the different galleries, and a sense of continuity between the
different chronological periods.
The structure is deliberately ‘contained’ in relation to the surrounding space, measuring 3.09
metres in height, beneath an overall ceiling height of 6.70 metres. Beyond this, an upper register of
transparent materials extends to the full height of the ceiling. The transparent, opalescent quality of the
materials used reflects the exhibition’s essential atmosphere, and was an important starting-point for our
response to the works displayed in this section of the show.
The two subsequent sections – History and iconography of the occult: a world in words and
images, and Science in the spirit world – are installed in the museum’ exhibition room. Here, too,
chronology was a key structuring factor for the exhibition synopsis. The design comprises a continuous,
unfolding sequence of display tables (for the scientific objects), and upright cases (for the literature).
Echoing the structure of the displays on the upper floor, the installations in the museum’s prints
and drawings department are designed to promote the visitor’s smooth progress through the exhibition
space, focusing attention on the works themselves.
Benoît Grafteaux & Richard Klein
architectes d.p.l.g.
Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation XIV, 1910, huile sur toile, 74 x 125,5 cm, legs de Mme Nina Kandinsky Centre Pompidou, Paris,
Musée national d'art moderne / Centre de création industrielle © Collection Centre Pompidou,
Dist. RMN / Jean-Claude Planchet, © ADAGP Paris, 2011
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“Arts and literature”
literature”, 1st floor, MAMCS
“When the science mesured the spirits “ and “History and iconography of the occult : a world of writings
writings
and
and images“
images“, temporary exhibition room,
room, ground floor, MAMCS
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4. Lending institutions
Germany
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Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, Berlin
Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf
Frankfurter Goethe Museum, Freies Deutsches Hochstift, Frankfurt-am-Main
Goethe National Museum, Klassik Stiftung, Weimar
Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene, Freiburg
Fonds du Comité d’étude de photographie transcendantale, Freiburg
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg
Wenzel Hablik Museum, Itzehoe
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe
Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden
Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, Marbach am Neckar
Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin
Austria
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Oberösterreichische Landesmuseen, Linz
France
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Archives de la Ville et de la Communauté urbaine, Strasbourg
Médiathèque de la Ville et Communauté urbaine, André-Malraux, Strasbourg
Association de culture et muséographie scientifiques (AMUSS), Strasbourg
Université de Strasbourg
Bibliothèque nationale universitaire (BNU), Strasbourg
Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Paris
Maison de Victor Hugo, Paris
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris
Musée national Eugène Delacroix, Paris
Société Historique et Littéraire Polonaise / Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris
Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, Paris
Centre Pompidou, Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris
Musée Rodin, Paris
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Musée des Beaux- Arts, Nantes
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Agen
Musées de Metz-Métropole - La Cour d'or, Metz
Musée d'art moderne, Saint-Etienne Métropole
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
Musée- Jardin Maurice Denis, Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Musée de Grenoble
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rheims
Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambresis
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes
Musée Georges-Garret, Vesoul
Donation Jacques Henri Lartigue, Ministère de la Culture, Charenton-Le-Pont
Société française de photographie, Paris
LaM, Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut, Lille-Métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq
Bibliothèque municipale Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Douai
Musée Goya, Castres
Musée des Augustins, Toulouse
Fondation Arp, Clamart
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CNAM - Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris
Bibliothèque des Arts décoratifs, Paris
Musée d'Histoire de la Médecine et de la Pharmacie, Lyon
Fonds Érik Satie- Archives de France/Archives IMEC, Saint-Germain-laBlanche Herbe
Médiathèque Victor Hugo, Fonds Yvan Goll, Saint-Dié-des-Vosges
Musée Curie, Paris
Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra, Paris
Isidore Ducasse Fine Art, collection Daniel Filipacchi, Paris
Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, Paris
Collection D. Hayter, Paris
Galerie Thessa Herold, Paris
Galerie Brimaud, Paris
Collection particulière, Paris
Collection Géraldine Galateau, Paris
Collection Alexandra Baranoff-Rossiné, Paris
Galerie Gérard Lévy, Paris
Collection Gérard Lévy, Paris
Collection Daniel Lévy, Paris
Collection Alexandre Lévy, Paris
Collection Rein, Paris
Collection Federica Matta, Paris
Collection Sirot-Angel, Paris
United Kingdom
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The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
The British Museum, London
Royal Academy of Arts, London
Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
National Media Museum, Royal Photographic Society Collection, Bradford
The Samuel Courtauld Trust, Courtauld Gallery, London
The Netherlands
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Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
Centraal Museum, Utrecht
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Belgium
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Musée provincial Félicien Rops, Namur
Musée royal de Mariemont, Morlanwelz
Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels
Triton Foundation, Gooreind-Wuustwezel
Communauté française de Belgique, Brussels
André Garitte Foundation, Antwerp-Brussels
Claudine Devoghelaere, Temse
Collection Sylvio Perlstein, Antwerp
Italy
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Musei Civici d'Arte e Storia di Brescia, Brescia
MART - Museo di Arte Moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto
Musei Civici, Treviso
Portugal
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CAM - Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon
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Spain
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Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Fundación Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid
Finland
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Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki
Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä
Sweden
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Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm
Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm
Estonia
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Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn
Latvia
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The Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga
Lithuania
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M.K Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Kaunas
Russia
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Galerie nationale Tretiakov, Moscow
Musée national Russe, Saint Petersburg
Poland
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Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, Poznań
Hungary
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Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest
Serbia
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Narodni Muzej, Belgrade
Romania
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Muzeul NaŃional de Artă al României, Bucharest
Muzeul de Artă, Braşov
Muzeul de Artă Craoiva - Mihail Jean Palatul
Greece
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State Museum of Contemporay Art, Costakis Collection, Thessalonika
Switzerland
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Kunstmuseum, Dübi-Müller-Stiftung, Solothurn
Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich
Musées d'art et d'histoire de la Ville de Genève
Kunstmuseum Basel
Goetheanum, Dornach
Rudolf Steiner Archiv, Dornach
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
Musée du Petit Palais, Musée d’art moderne, Geneva
Collection de l'Art brut, Lausanne
Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur
Sturzenegger-Stiftung. Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen
Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen
Private collection, Geneva
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5. Exhibition publications
EXHIBITION BROCHURE:
Petit journal des Esprits, 3 euros
Illustrated, 12pp colour brochure. Le Petit Journal des Esprits is a souvenir of the exhibition, and a guide
to the displays, including reproductions of the featured masterpieces, portraits of major ‘enlightened
artists’ and leading figures in the occult movement, plus background information on some of the
exhibition’s chief ‘curiosities’, and little-known or distinctive artists.
A chronological and contextual layout will give readers the keys to an understanding of the fruitful
interaction between scientific developments, spiritualist theories and artistic movements throughout the
200-year period covered.
CATALOGUE:
L’Europe des esprits ou la fascination de l’occulte, 1750-1950 (‘Europe and the Spirit World or the
Fascination with the Occult, 1750-1950’).
Éditions des Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg
c. 450 pages. Price: 48 euros
ISBN : 978-2-35125-092-1.
Diffusion / Distribution: Le Seuil / Volumen
A contributed volume edited by Serge Fauchereau
CONTENTS
Les sentiers infinis de l’imaginal, Daniel Bornemann, conservateur à la Bibliothèque nationale
universitaire de Strasbourg
L’invisible hanté, Baldung Grien – Cranach l’Ancien, Anny-Claire Haus, conservatrice du Cabinet des
Estampes et des Dessins de Strasbourg
Souvent dans l’être obscur, Daniel Payot, philosophe
I. Les romantiques et l’occulte
L’Europe de l’obscur, Serge Fauchereau
La grande lumière du monde se diffracte en mille couleurs.
Sciences, croyances et peinture dans l’Allemagne romantique, Roland Recht
Goya et la tradition noire dans la peinture espagnole, Antonio Bonet Correa
Carl Frederik Hill et Ernst Josephson, Olle Granath
II. Symbolismes
Intervention des esprits, Serge Fauchereau
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Osvaldas Daugelis
Édouard Schuré, Laurence Perry
Tout homme est un danseur, Joëlle Pijaudier-Cabot
III. Abstractions et autres expressions d’avantd’avant-garde
L’irrationnel 1900, Serge Fauchereau
Les avant-gardes et les dispositifs de l’ésotérisme, Christoph Wagner
Arp et la naturo-sophie, Estelle Pietrzyk
La métamorphose médiumnique chez Paul Klee, Osamu Okuda
IV. Constellations surréalistes
La magie moderne, Serge Fauchereau
« Cette échelle qui s’appuie au mur de l’inconnu », Annie Le Brun
« Entrée des médiums », Art brut et spiritisme ?, Joëlle Pijaudier-Cabot
Jeanne Tripier, Lucienne Peiry
Helene Smith, Savine Faupin
V. Quand la science mesurait les esprits
Quand la science mesurait les esprits, Sébastien Soubiran et Marie-Dominique Wandhammer
William Crookes. Un scientifique amoureux d’un fantôme ?, Anne Lagaisse
Camille Flammarion. À la recherche des forces inconnues, Anne Lagaisse
Pierre et Marie Curie. Rencontre entre un couple de savants et un médium, Anne Lagaisse
Photographie, sciences et occultisme : entre authentification, mystification et création, Héloïse Conésa
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EXTRACTS
Intervention des esprits,
esprits, par Serge FAUCHEREAU
La croyance en des forces occultes, bénéfiques ou maléfiques, environnant l’homme est certainement
aussi ancienne que l’humanité elle-même, et, avec elle, le désir de s’en concilier l’une ou l’autre pour en
tirer quelque avantage. On a aussi expliqué par la crainte des hommes devant des phénomènes qu’ils ne
comprenaient pas, tels que la mort ou le déchaînement des éléments, leur foi en des dieux ou des
puissances cachées comme autant de secrets que ne peut manquer de recéler la nature. Étant enfants,
avons-nous eu le gout du mystère et des cachotteries! Avons-nous joué à avoir peur avec délice ! Si tout
cela avait entièrement disparu en nous, n’aurions-nous pas perdu une précieuse part de rêve inhérente à
la condition humaine? Les diverses avancées scientifiques et technologiques n’y ont heureusement rien
changé et n’y changeront rien. La croyance qu’il existe autre chose au-delà de la mort et du monde
sensible, quelque chose qu’on craint, qu’on adore ou qu’on veut diriger, remonte loin dans le temps, dans
toutes les civilisations, sous toutes les latitudes, comme en témoignent les plus anciennes gravures
rupestres et les premiers textes sacrés. Ceux qui, par révélation ou par conviction, en savent plus long que
d’autres sur ces sujets, ont estimé que ces secrets ne pouvaient être révélés qu’avec mesure ; de là la
difficulté et l’obscurité des ouvrages mêmes qui prétendent à une certaine divulgation, mais qui sont
indispensables, car tout secret comme tout savoir ésotérique doit rester communicable à un nombre
restreint d’initiés. Si ces initiés sont suffisamment nombreux et grégaires, on les désigne peut-être
comme une secte ou une société plus ou moins secrète.
On a longtemps trouvé logique qu’au siècle classique du Roi soleil succède le siècle des Lumières. Avec le
recul du temps, on constate que ce n’était pourtant qu’une lumière lunaire et trouble, car à Voltaire et
Lavoisier répondaient Swedenborg et Cagliostro, face obscure et pourtant réelle du changeant XVIIIe siècle.
Avec ses authentiques chercheurs, ses illuminés et ses charlatans, cette époque qui commençait à
échapper au contrôle rassurant des religions en place a développé une inquiétude et une fascination pour
ce qui lui était incompréhensible et pour un au-delà depuis toujours conjectural. La science n’y suffisant
pas, que n’interrogera-t-on pas ? Les astres, la pratique alchimique, les voyants, les tarots, les tables
tournantes par lesquelles parlent les esprits… Poursuivie au siècle suivant, cette interrogation existe
encore jusqu’aujourd’hui selon d’autres modalités.
La présente exposition s’attache aux relations des arts et de la littérature avec les croyances au
surnaturel, à la magie et avec diverses formes de l’ésotérisme, de 1750 à 1950, en Europe.
Qu’il s’agisse de créations de Baldung-Grien, Goya, Victor Hugo ou Camille Flammarion, les œuvres
impliquent une curiosité, une connaissance des hypothèses et des sciences ésotériques, voire une
adhésion de leur auteur. Notre sujet n’est ni le fantastique ni la fantaisie, ni le rêve et l’inconscient, ni les
vieilles superstitions, bien qu’il les recoupe parfois. S’excluent de ce champ, quelque soit leur qualité, le
conte bleu ou édifiant (Blanche-Neige des frères Grimm), la satire (peintures carnavalesques d’Ensor), le
témoignage clinique (le Horla de Maupassant), le récit d’horreur pour l’horreur (Lovecraft, d’ailleurs
géographiquement hors sujet), les allégories conventionnelles (un squelette brandissant une faux est
moins troublant que la mort selon Malczewski)… On n’a retenu ni le merveilleux ni les miracles des
religions établies mais éventuellement ce qui en était un détournement pervers (les messes noires ou le
Golem). Faust, donc, et non Lobatchevski, Blake, et non Piranese, Brauner, et non Magritte.
Même avec plusieurs centaines d’œuvres et d’objets, il était évidemment impossible d’être exhaustif,
pour évoquer deux siècles de sujets autour desquels l’ombre et l’ambiguïté ont été voulus. Choisis à titre
d’exemples et laissés à l’appréciation du visiteur, leur présence n’implique aucun jugement de valeur […].
Les sentiers infinis de l'imaginal,
l'imaginal, par Daniel BORNEMANN
Le mythe d'Isis et d'Osiris témoigne d'une réflexion plus détaillée sur le devenir des esprits dans la mort.
Isis, fille du ciel et de la terre, issue du dieu Râ, sœur et épouse d'Osiris, donne au Nil son rythme et à
l’Égypte son existence. Assassiné et dépecé par Seth, Osiris est rendu à la vie par Isis qui devient une
maternelle déesse des soins ainsi qu'une magicienne. Isis inspirera la poésie et la fiction, sera assimilée
à Demeter et à la Vierge Marie, et ses liens avec Thoth, dieu magicien présent auprès d'elle lorsqu'elle
soigne Osiris, ses liens avec Anubis, également présent, la rapprochent du monde des morts et lui
confèrent ce rôle de détentrice des mystères postérieurs à la vie. Isis viendra par la suite habiter le monde
romain. Sa figure voilée inspire nombre d'écrivains et rêveurs occidentaux jusqu'à nos jours. Le Livre des
morts, ce texte qui guide l'âme du défunt durant la traversée de la mort qui l'amènera à « ressortir au
jour », enseigne la méthode qui permet d'éviter l'anéantissement de l'être. Ce texte peut être sculpté sur
les parois des tombeaux ou des temples, peint sur les sarcophages, ou écrit sur des rouleaux de papyrus.
Il fut en usage durant plus de seize siècles et son texte n'est pas figé. L’Égypte a engendré bien d'autres
figures fondatrices de l'ésotérisme occidental, en particulier la figure d'Hermès Trismégiste, « trois fois
grand ». Celui-ci aurait été engendré par le fils de Thoth, Agathodémon, et on lui attribue entre autres
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écrits la Table d'Émeraude. L'hermétisme est une première synthèse des apports précédents. Hermès
serait lui-même Thoth, qui est aussi le secrétaire des dieux et qui consigne par écrit les vérités divines et
les transmet. Il y a une coalescence entre Hermès Trismégiste, Hénoch, Moïse, le passé païen, mazdéen,
judéo-chrétien et même avec l'Islam par Idris, prophète qui a le privilège d'entrer vivant et en pleine
conscience au paradis, et qui n'en revient plus.
Qu'en est-il de la Table d'Émeraude ? C'est un écrit composite, dont la brièveté initiale, qui lui
permettait peut-être de tenir sur un très petit espace, peut-être gravé sur une pierre précieuse, en une
seule formule lapidaire, s'est augmentée de plusieurs traités dont le Poïmandre et l'Asclepios.
L'hermétisme est une certaine compréhension du monde qui, avec l'apport ultérieur de la kabbale
chrétienne et du rosicrucianisme, est une forme essentielle de l'ésotérisme occidental moderne. L'idée de
la nature divine de l'homme, de sa Chute, et de la possibilité de sa « réintégration » ou remontée
progressive des échelons en est l'essentiel. […]
Souvent dans l’être obscur…,
obscur…, par Daniel PAYOT
« Souvent dans l’être obscur habite un Dieu caché ;
Et comme un œil naissant couvert par ses paupières,
Un pur esprit s’accroît sous l’écorce des pierres. »
Gérard de Nerval, « Vers dorés », Les Chimères.
La deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle propose une grande alternative autour de la métaphore de la lumière.
La clarté invoquée est souvent celle de la raison, de la méthode et de l’analyse, de l’adéquation de
moyens scientifiques et techniques et de fins sociales, morales et politiques, du progrès ; elle est aussi
parfois celle de la révélation de vérités enfouies, cachées ou oubliées, celle de l’initiation conduisant à
une régénération cosmique, de la réparation d’une union mystique brisée, d’une spiritualité faisant
paradoxalement de l’occulte le lieu d’une luminosité ineffable.
Ces deux grandes versions s’opposent sur bien des points, mais elles ont aussi sans doute des
motivations communes. En pensant à des auteurs aussi différents que Jean-Jacques Rousseau, LouisClaude de Saint-Martin ou Jean-Baptiste Villermoz en France, les préromantiques, Graveyard Poets ou
romanciers du Gothic Novel en Grande-Bretagne, Lessing, Herder et le jeune Goethe et même le Schiller
des Lettres sur l’éducation esthétiques de l’homme en Allemagne, on est frappé par la proximité des
constats, même si les voies suggérées sont incontestablement dissemblables. Le motif est très fréquent
de la séparation, de la blessure d’une humanité amputée, éloignée de ses vérités ou de ses potentialités
essentielles, condamnée à une condition de finitude bornée, et cette description est porteuse, en creux ou
de façon déclarée, d’un désir ou d’une promesse de réconciliation, de complétude retrouvée ou
reconquise, voire de dépassement d’un état accidentellement ou arbitrairement mutilé et de restauration
de l’humanité dans ses droits infinis ou dans sa ressemblance ontologique avec l’être absolu.
À la fin du siècle des Lumières et de l’Aufklärung, l’idée se répand ainsi largement d’un état de scission
faisant naître, par contrecoup, une aspiration à la réunification, à la reconstitution de l’harmonie et de la
totalité brisées. C’est sur ce socle commun que se construisent des perspectives divergentes, voire
explicitement opposées ; il est frappant de constater qu’au moment même où certains penseurs
désignent les pouvoirs de la connaissance, de l’intellect et de l’analyse comme les moyens les mieux à
même de restreindre l’emprise de l’obscur, du préjugé et de l’aveuglement, d’autres voient au contraire
dans les facultés du cœur et de l’intime, sentiment et sensibilité, la disposition seule capable de
surmonter le déchirement de l’humanité moderne et d’assurer le dépassement de sa condition finie. À
l’analyse, perçue comme force de décomposition, de désagrégation, de froide, voire arbitraire dissolution,
est alors opposée l’intuition, force intérieure, immédiate, atteignant en chaque chose son essence et sa
vérité, à la fois ce en quoi elle constitue une unité et un tout et ce par quoi cette unité et ce tout répondent
au grand Un et au grand Tout du monde conçu comme cosmos, comme macrocosme. […]
La grande lumière du monde se diffracte en mille couleurs. Sciences, croyances et peinture dans
l’Allemagne romantique,
romantique, par Roland RECHT
RECHT
La prétention des Lumières d’offrir à l’humanité la liberté et l’éducation, à la faire accéder à l’âge adulte
de l’esprit humain comme le demandait Kant, va de pair avec le rejet de tout ce qui contrarie la Raison.
D’un autre côté, les progrès accomplis dans les sciences attestent de plus en plus fortement de la
perfectibilité de l’homme. Mais au fur et à mesure que le nombre de certitudes scientifiques augmente
chez le savant, chez le profane elles ont pour effet de donner libre cours aux caprices de l’imagination.
Les adeptes de l’occultisme comme du mysticisme, d’autant plus nombreux qu’ils se recrutent également
chez certains savants authentiques, sont alors en quête d’une réalité spirituelle située au-delà des
apparences sensibles. La croyance dans le supranaturel et la fuite dans l’irrationnel répondent sans doute
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à l’inquiétude que font naître les menaces pesant simultanément, au XVIIIe siècle, sur l’autorité de
l’Église, sur celle de l’État et, non la moindre, sur l’autorité de l’ancienne science.
L’esprit frappeur
Les critiques ne manquent pas à l’encontre du règne exclusif de l’imagination qui menace le « rêveur
éveillé », selon Kant. Le philosophe s’en prend plus particulièrement au suédois Emanuel Swedenborg
saisi, à la suite d’une carrière scientifique brillante, par une crise mystique. Après avoir étudié le
mouvement des planètes, le fonctionnement du cerveau ou des glandes endocrines, Swedenborg se
consacre dorénavant à la description de ses entretiens avec les esprits et les âmes défuntes. Tout en
reconnaissant que « la folie et l’entendement ont des frontières (bien) mal tracées », Kant voit cependant
dans les jeux de l’imagination dont est victime Swedenborg, l’équivalent de ce que les collectionneurs
trouvent dans les jeux de la nature, « par exemple dans le marbre veiné la Sainte Famille, ou, dans la
formation de stalagmites ou de stalactites, des moines, des fonts baptismaux et des orgues. »
Le plus acerbe de tous les savants et philosophes du XVIIIe siècle, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, estime,
tout comme Kant, que l’on peut trouver des explications rationnelles aux histoires de fantômes. Les
mystères que recèle la nature sont nombreux, mais nous ne leur accordons généralement aucune
attention : ils ne se distinguent entre eux que par des degrés, et l’homme les évalue en fonction de la plus
ou moins grande familiarité qu’il entretient avec eux. Car, en réalité, nous devrions tout aussi bien nous
étonner que la balle lancée en l’air par l’enfant retombe au lieu de poursuivre son mouvement vers le ciel.
En s’interrogeant sur l’origine de l’« esprit frappeur » (Poltergeist), Lichtenberg conclut : « Qu’est-ce
finalement qu’un esprit ? La superstition répond : une créature qui vers minuit rôde autour des hommes
pour les effrayer ; et la raison répond : quelque chose qui m’est cent fois plus incompréhensible que tout
ce qui fait du tapage et du frappage dans le monde entier. » […]
« Cette échelle qui s’appuie au mur de l’inconnu », par Annie LEBRUN
« Il se peut que la vie demande à être décryptée comme un cryptogramme », telle est l’interrogation qui
traverse Nadja d’un bout à l’autre pour en devenir la frémissante armature qui, seule, résiste à ce
splendide naufrage. Aussi, à mesure que grandit l’implication politique des surréalistes dans les années
qui suivent, il n’est pas aussi paradoxal qu’on pourrait le croire de voir se renforcer leur intérêt pour la
pensée « traditionnelle ». Si tant est, en effet, que dès 1920 André Breton se réclame du Grand-Œuvre
dans sa présentation d’Aloysius Bertrand, qu’en 1923, il a l’intention de consacrer un article à l’alchimiste
Corneille Agrippa, cité avec Nicolas Flamel, Lulle et Hermès trismégiste, parmi les références de
« Erutaréttil », qu’en 1924, avec le premier Manifeste, il reconnaît la voix surréaliste dans celle de
« Cumes, Dodone et Delphes » , sans oublier la curiosité que ses amis portent à tous les modes de penser
non rationnels, force est de le constater : quelles que soient les luttes immédiates et la nécessité évidente
de combattre l’iniquité sociale, quelque chose n’a cessé de cheminer souterrainement qui vient éclairer
de l’intérieur le Second manifeste, pour se révéler en être le noyau irradiant. À ce point que Breton insiste:
« Je demande qu’on veuille bien observer que les recherches surréalistes présentent avec les recherches
alchimiques , une remarquable analogie de but : la pierre philosophale n’est rien autre que ce qui devait
permettre à l’imagination de l’homme de prendre sur toutes choses une revanche éclatante et nous voici
de nouveau, après des siècles de domestication de l’esprit et de résignation folle, à tenter d’affranchir
définitivement cette imagination par le long, immense, raisonné dérèglement de tous les sens et le
reste. »
« Remarquable analogie » qu’au cours des années précédentes, les uns et les autres, poètes ou peintres,
Crevel, Desnos, Leiris, Naville, Masson, Ernst… , se seront émerveillés à découvrir, plus ou moins
consciemment. Et si Breton ne manque pas de se référer à l’ « alchimie du verbe » voulue par Rimbaud, en
demandant avec insistance que désormais ces mots soient pris à la lettre, il souligne, en même temps,
que ses compagnons et lui se trouvent peut-être dans la même situation que Flamel ornant ses murs de
figures « avant qu’il eût trouvé son premier agent, sa ‘‘matière’’, son ‘‘fourneau’’ », dans la mesure où ces
étranges images par leur force d’énigme ne sont pas sans évoquer, Breton y insiste, « le tableau
surréaliste ». […]
Photographie, sciences et occultisme : entre authentification, mystification et création,
création, par Héloïse
CONÉSA
[…]Le milieu du XIXe siècle marqué par le positivisme d’Auguste Comte, coexiste avec l’essor du
spiritisme théorisé par Alan Kardec. À ses côtés, de nombreux savants cherchent à établir une vision
scientifique de la communication avec les esprits. Ainsi, en 1869, lors de l’oraison funèbre à Alan Kardec,
Camille Flammarion déclare : « le spiritisme n’est pas une religion mais une science-science dont nous
connaissons à peine l’ABC ». Quant au chimiste et physicien William Crookes, il va expérimenter différents
outils d’analyse, lors des séances animées par le médium Daniel Dunglas Home.
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Dans ce contexte, la photographie joue un rôle prédominant en offrant la garantie de l’impartialité
mécanique là où l’œil humain pouvait être défaillant. C’est un auxiliaire du progrès des connaissances
dans le domaine des sciences, « la véritable rétine du savant », pour reprendre la formule de l’astronome
Jules Janssen, et l’outil par excellence de l’accès à l’invisible, ainsi que le montre Arago dans son analyse
du spectre solaire. Parlant du même spectre solaire et des rayons invisibles laissant une trace sur du
papier sensible, Talbot s’émerveille de ce que : « l’œil de l’appareil photographique verrait clairement là
où l’œil humain ne verrait que ténèbres ».
Fortes de ce constat d’une possible captation par la photographie de l’invisible, certaines sociétés
secrètes voient là l’opportunité de prouver l’existence des esprits. À Londres, dès 1872, les photographes
Frederick Hudson puis John Beattie produisent des clichés des esprits qui apparaissent sous forme de
spectres lumineux. C’est aussi ce que révèlent les images prises à Paris par Édouard Isidore Buguet,
chargé par Pierre Gaëtan Leymarie, rédacteur en chef et directeur de la Revue Spirite, d’objectiver les
indices de la présence des esprits. […]
Albrecht Dürer, Le Chevalier, la Mort et le Diable, 1513,
gravure au burin, 24,4 x 18,7 cm, Strasbourg, Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins.
Photo : M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg
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6. Serge Fauchereau
Serge Fauchereau taught American literature at New York University and the University of Texas, before
taking up a post as curator of major temporary exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (Paris-New
York, Paris-Berlin, Paris-Moscou, Les Réalismes, and others). He has also curated exhibitions in Italy, the
UK, Germany and Spain, and continues to pursue his parallel career as a writer. He has taught visual art at
the Institut des Hautes Etudes, and is a member of the European arts commission in Brussels.
He is the author of more than 40 works, with Editions Cercle d’Art and others, including twenty
monographs (mostly translated and published outside France) on artists including Braque, Arp, Kupka,
Nils Dardel, Léger, Mondrian, Chabaud, Chaissac, De Chirico and Savinio, Rancillac and Malevitch. He has
also written and/or contributed to over 100 exhibition catalogues and contributed scholarly works.
PRINCIPAL EXHIBITIONS
1977
Paris-New York, 1908-1968, Centre Georges
Pompidou
1978
Paris-Berlin. Rapports et contrastes FranceAllemagne, Centre Georges Pompidou
1979
Paris-Moscou 1900-1930, Centre Georges
Pompidou
1980
Les Réalismes, 1919-1939, Centre Georges
Pompidou
1981
Moscow-Paris, Pushkin Museum, Moscow
1983
Présences polonaises, Centre Georges
Pompidou
1986
Futurismo e Futurismi, Palazzo Grassi, Venice
1994
Europa-Europa, Kunsthalle, Bonn
19981998-1999
Forjar el espacio, CAAM Las Palmas, Ivam
Valencia, Musée de Calais
2001
Century City, Tate Modern, London
2004
Mexique-Europe, Musée d’Art moderne,
Villeneuve d’Ascq
Bruno Schulz, Musée d’Art et d’histoire du
Judaïsme, Paris
2005
German Cueto, Museo Centro de Arte Reina
Sofia, Madrid.
2006
Arp: retropectiva, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid
2007
Pierre Klossowski integral, Círculo de Bellas
Artes, Madrid
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
La fin des avant-gardes, Paris: Flammarion, 2012
Avant-gardes du XXe siècle, arts & littérature 1905-1930, Paris: Flammarion, 2010
Les petits âges, Marseille: André Dimanche, 2007
Gaston Chaissac à côté de l’Art brut, Marseille: André Dimanche, 2007
Hommes et mouvements esthétiques du XXe siècle, Paris: Cercle d’art, 2005
Le Livre idolâtre de Bruno Schulz, Paris: Denoël, 2004
Auguste Chabaud : époque fauve, Marseille: André Dimanche, 2002
L’Art abstrait, Paris: Cercle d’art, 2001
Expressionnisme, dada, surréalisme et autres ismes, Paris: Denoël, 1976, 2001
Čiurlionis, par exemple, Champigny-sur-Marne: Digraphe, 1996
Mondrian et l'utopie néo-plastique, Paris: Albin Michel, 1995
Sur les pas de Brancusi, Paris: Cercle d’art, 1995
Fernand Léger peintre dans la cité, Paris: Albin Michel, 1994
Peintures et dessins d’écrivains, Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1991
Kazimir Malévitch, Paris: Cercle d’art, 1991
Philippe Soupault, voyageur magnétique, Paris: Cercle d’art, 1988
Arp, Paris: Albin Michel, 1988
Kupka, Paris: Albin Michel, 1988
Moscou, 1900-1930, Paris: Le Seuil, 1988
Les Peintres révolutionnaires mexicains, Paris: Messidor, 1985
La révolution cubiste, Paris: Denoël, 1982, 2012
Philippe Soupault : vingt mille et un jours : entretiens avec Serge Fauchereau, Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1980
L’avant-garde russe, Paris : Pierre Belfond, 1979, éditions du murmure, 2003
Lecture de la poésie américaine, Paris: Minuit, 1968; Somogy, 1998
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7. Cultural and schools events programme
For full details (dates and times): www.musees.strasbourg.eu
GUIDED VISITS : Sunday, and during late-night opening on Thursday.
MEET THE CURATORS : Visit and discussion with the curators, Wednesday (tours are held on alternate
weeks in the following sections: History and iconography of the occult: a world in words and pictures and
Science in the spirit world.)
UNE HEURE /UNE ŒUVRE
In-depth, one-hour commentary on an individual artwork, object, artist or technique…
Friday at 12.30 p.m.
14 and 21 October, 18 and 25 November, 9 and 16 December, 13 and 20 January, 3 and 10 February
And on one Thursday and Wednesday lunchtime at the Musée Archéologique, 13 and 20 October, and at
the Musée Historique, 10 and 16 November.
LE TEMPS D’UNE RENCONTRE
The exhibition curators, curators at the Musées de Strasbourg, and their guests, share their personal
favourite works, themes, artists, galleries and techniques.
Late-night opening, Thursday
20 October, 24 November, 15 December
AUDIO GUIDE
Audio guides in three languages (French, German, English) offer extended commentary on 40 artworks
and important objects chosen and discussed by the exhibition’s chief curators (Serge Fauchereau, art
historian, and Joëlle Pijaudier-Cabot, director, Musées de Strasbourg), the scientific curators (MarieDominique Wandhammer, curator, Musée Zoologique and Sébastien Soubiran, doctor in the history of
science and director of museum policy at the Jardin des Sciences - Université de Strasbourg), and the
curators of literary works, prints and drawings (Anny-Claire Haus, curator, Cabinet des Estampes et des
Dessins and Daniel Bornemann, curator, BNU).
WORKSHOPS
Adult workshops Late-night opening, Thursday
Workshops will continue the theme of the previous Friday’s talk in the series Une heure – une œuvre.
Teatime workshops for children aged 44-6, Wednesday and Saturday
L’enfant et les sortileges – ‘Magic spells for kids’
‘Look and learn’ workshop, for children aged 77-12, Saturday
Esprit, es-tu là ? – ‘Is there anybody there?’
Savants fous ! – ‘Mad scientists!’
WORKSHOPS FOR THE SCHOOOL HOLIDAYS
October/November halfhalf-term:
term:
Teens/adults
Teens/adults Graver ses caprices – print-making workshop in association with the École des arts
décoratifs, based on Goya’s Caprichos.
7/12
7/12 years Spectres, fantômes, esprits… j’en fais mon affaire! – ‘Who’s afraid of spectres, ghosts, and
phantoms?’
Christmas holidays
Children aged 4 and up Fées et sorcières – ‘Fairies and witches’
FAMILY ACTIVITIES
Family visits (itinerary
(itinerary including all museums involved in the
the exhibition) Des mondes étranges au musée –
‘Strange worlds at the museum’
Sunday, 3 p.m.
Storytelling sessions in the section Science in the spirit world.
One Wednesday and Sunday per month.
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EVENTS:
EVENTS:
Competition: Les Mystères de l’Ill
l’Ill in association with the Festival Européen du Film Fantastique, from 11
September to 23 October: a ‘treasure trail’ through some of Strasbourg’s more unusual, off-beat
locations. Win a trip to Edinburgh, including visits to the city’s famous haunted sites!
Hallow’een
Hallow’een night,
night Thursday 27 October, an evening with Nicolas Ullman including nocturnal visits in the
company of mediums, a ‘spirit cabaret’, occult face-painting, competition prize draw, and a set by DJ
Château Flight.
Paparraz’art student night Friday 2 December, at the museum
Mardi gras Wednesday, 8 February, Petite danse macabre entre amis – ‘A little Danse Macarbre among
friends’, in association with local schools (children aged 11/12 and up).
AT THE STRASBOURG MUSEUMS AUDITORIUM:
AUDITORIUM:
A major programme of films, lectures and concerts at the Auditorium des Musées, reflecting key artistic
and scientific topics explored in the exhibition Europe and the Spirit World.
Le Cinéma des esprits: a season of 16 films including early film, and work by major directors, in
association with the Festival européen du film fantastique de Strasbourg and the Star cinema. The
programme features little-known masterpieces of occult cinema, including Henrik Galeen’s The Student of
Prague, and Viktor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage.
Echoing the exhibition’s cross-disciplinary approach, a number of films will be screened as live concerts:
DJ Château Flight will accompany Louis Feuillade’s Les Vampires, and Fritz Lang’s The Three Lights will
feature a live, electro-acoustic, surround soundtrack by Thilo Hirsch, Abril Padilla and Paul Clouvel.
Accompanying the exhibition, a programme of live concerts will feature music by major composers
including Claude Debussy, Mikolajus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and Arnold Schönberg.
Other events include lectures, literary evenings, a study day exploring myths and legends in the work of
Mircea Eliade, and more – organized in association with Vidéo les Beaux Jours, France’s national Journées
de l’architecture, the INA, the Franco-German TV channel ARTE, Opéra Studio and Elektramusic.
EUROPE AND THE SPIRIT WORLD AT AUBETTE 1928
From 10 December to 28 January, the spirit world comes to Aubette 1928, with a strange sound
installation occupying the Salle des fêtes, featuring four specially-commissioned works presented in
association with Radio en Construction. At the same time, the ciné-dancing will feature screenings of
short films on the theme of the bizarre and the occult, by a wide range of directors from Méliès to
Apichatpong Weerasetakul.
Screenings
Screenings:
9-1010-11 December The birth of cinema (Méliès 1)
1616-1717-18 December The birth of cinema (Méliès 2)
6-7 January Invitation to the dance
1414-15 January Cinema today
2020-21 January Apichatpong Weerasetakul
Radio en construction comes to L’Aubette 1928 for a special live broadcast on Sunday 11 December,
from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., devoted to the exhibition Europe and the Spirit World. The broadcast will explore
the exhibition’s key themes, featuring live performances, sound works and interviews with invited guests
from the world of contemporary art.
Paul-Elie Ranson, Les Sorcières autour du feu, 1891, huile sur toile, 38 x 65 cm,
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée Départemental Maurice Denis « Le Prieuré ». Crédit : Y. Tribes
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8. A coco-production with Bern’s
Bern’s Zentrum Paul Klee
On 20 June, 2005, the Zentrum Paul Klee opened its doors to visitors from around the world. The centre is
wholly dedicated to the life, personality and work of Paul Klee (1879–1940) – musician, educationalist,
poet, and one of the 20th century’s most important painters. Klee spent almost half his life in the city of
Bern, which is now the proud host of a renowned, influential art centre in his honour.
The centre is home to around 40 per cent of the 10,000 artworks created by Klee, including 4,000
paintings, watercolours and drawings, together with archive material and biographical documents. The
centre is widely recognized as the home of the world’s largest monographic collection of work by a
renowned international artist.
Respecting the vision of its founder, Professor Dr Maurice E. Müller, the Zentrum Paul Klee is not a
traditional art museum: it aims to become the leading international centre of expertise and research on
the personality, life and work of Paul Klee, and a seed-bed for initiatives to promote the man and his work
to the widest possible public.
Inspired by Paul Klee’s own cross-disciplinary approach, the centre functions not only as a gallery space
for paintings and works on paper, but also as a platform for a wide range of artforms and expressive
media.
The museum building – by renowned, award-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano – is equally
unconventional. Based on an initial, in-depth study, the complex structure occupies a site to the east of
the city of Bern: a vast ‘island’ of greenery incorporating a building in the form of three mounds, conceived
as an integral part of the natural topography of its setting. This extraordinary work of landscape sculpture
is a major cultural attraction in its own right.
The centre’s cross-disciplinary programme is presented inside the building’s three steel-and-glass
mounds. The museum complex features superb exhibition spaces, together with an auditorium for
concerts and other performances, with state-of-the-art audio and video equipment for the museum’s
schedule of events and musical guest appearances. The complex also includes a children’s museum for
ages 4 and up, introducing children to the world of art through creative activities and an open-space area
fitted with communications terminals. International conference facilities include a state-of-the-art
amphitheatre and seminar rooms.
The centre functions not only as a showcase for the visual arts, music, theatre, dance, literature, art
research and outreach, but also as a vibrant forum for cross-disciplinary dialogue and exchange – an
incubator for new expressive art forms, and a fascinating, lively public venue.
The 125 million CHF needed for the design and building of this exceptional cultural centre was secured
through public funding and donations from private indviduals: the Klee family, the family of the centre’s
founder – the internationally renowned orthopaedic surgeon Professor Dr Maurice E. Müller – his wife
Martha Müller-Lüthi, private collectors and sponsors.
The aim – central to the founding vision of Professor Dr Maurice E. Müller – is not to create a museum of
Paul Klee’s work, but a vibrant cultural centre reflecting the artist’s essential, cross-disciplinary approach.
The exhibition Europe and the Spirit World will be presented at the Zentrum Paul Klee from March 31st to
July 12th, 2012.
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9. Exhibition partners
THE MUSEUMS OF STRASBOURG
Strasbourg’s network of 10 public museums are a major force in the city’s status as an influential cultural
centre at the heart of Europe, upholding a 200-year tradition of access to heritage, and openness to new
forms of artistic expression. Together, they include the three museums housed in the Palais Rohan, itself
one of France’s great architectural treasures: the Museum of fine-arts, with its collection of superb Old
Master paintings, the Museum of decorative arts (decoration and 18th-century objets d’art), and the
Archeological Museum (one of the region’s most complete and representative archaeological collections).
Plus one of the finest museums of Rhineland art from the Middle Ages to the 17th century (the Museum
Œuvre de Notre-Dame), the world’s most important collection of Alsatian folk art and traditions (the
Historical Museum), the heritage collection of the City Strasbourg (the Tomi Ungerer Museum), one of
France’s finest collections of prints, from the Renaissance to the 19th century (the Print Room); toys,
drawings and artworks by and related to the work of the celebrated children’s author and illustrator Tomi
Ungerer (Musée Tomi Ungerer), the marvels of the Zoological Museum, the listed interiors of Aubette
1928, and one of Europe’s most active, vibrant museums of modern and contemporary art (the Musée
d’Art moderne et contemporain), the ultimate expression of the of the spirit of dynamism and creativity
infusing the network as a whole. Today, the combined Museums of Strasbourg welcome almost 500,000
visitors every year. The group is one of very few such networks operating under joint directorship.
Together, the ten museums of the Musées de Strasbourg are classified as national ‘Musées de France’,
funded by the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles.
The exhibition Europe and the Spirit World is based at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, but
encompasses three other museums in the group: the Zoological Museum, the Print Room, and the
Museum of Fine Arts. All three have loaned important works, and collaborated on the curatorship of the
different sections, as co-producers of the event as a whole.
Victor Brauner, Chimère, 1939, huile sur toile, 73 x 60 cm, Strasbourg,
Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain. Photo : M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg © ADAGP Paris, 2011
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The exhibition is also the result of important partnership
partnership initiatives with a number of other Strasbourg
institutions:
THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE UNIVERSITAIRE DE STRASBOURG (BNU)
Strasbourg’s national and university library (the BNU) is the second largest in France, and the country’s
biggest library in the field of higher education and research. The collections – incorporating an estimated
three million documents – are all available to the public on an open-access basis. The BNU is a unique
institution of its kind in France – a fully-fledged research library holding a major heritage collection of
documents of all kinds, tracing the entire history of the written word, from the very earliest extant texts.
The art collections (iconography, sculpture, and paintings) are a major reference resource for French,
German and European art and history.
The library is an acknowledged centre of expertise and scholarship for Germanic and Alsatian culture,
modern Europe, religious science, the arts, Antiquity, and European literature. The library also holds an
invaluable Egyptian collection (papyri, ostraca etc.), 6,700 manuscripts, 2,300 incunabula, a major
iconographical collection, and more.
The library holds over a million documents printed before 1920, directly accessible in the collections of
the BNU. As an official copyright library, it is also a vital custodian of the printed heritage of the Alsace
region.
The library’s contemporary collections cover every field of the humanities and social sciences : law, history
and geography, the history of science, economics, poltiical science, philosophy, psychology, sociology etc.
The library is currently undergoing a major restructuring programme, but remains open to the public on
two sites: no. 5 rue du Maréchal Joffre, and no. 9 rue Fischart. Throughout this period, readers can make
use of two reading rooms equipped with twenty desks each, for the consultation of documents which
cannot be printed at home. The heritage collections and digitised documents can be consulted online at
the BNU Web site: www.bnu.fr
L'Illustration journal universel. 7 et 14 mai 1853. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg. Photo : D.R.
LE JARDIN DES SCIENCES -- UNIVERSITÉ DE STRASBOURG
The Jardin des Sciences at the University of Strasbourg pursues a mission to raise public awareness of the
history, actuality and future of science, and the scientific world. The Jardin des Sciences aims to promote
awareness and teaching about science and scientific heritage, to explain and debate key advances and
issues in the world of science today, and to encourage young people to discover and develop their
scientific vocations. The organization federates the museums and other science-based activities of the
University of Strasbourg (research laboratories, for example), through a programme of events steered by
the university, and participation in nationwide intitiatives such as the Nuit des Musées (‘Nights at the
Museum’, the Journées du patrimoine (‘Heritage Open Days’), the Fête de la Science etc.
The Jardin is committed to research on the University’s heritage collections, and is currently exploring
ways to bring this rich resource to a wider public. The Jardin received official recognition from the
Académie des Sciences in 2OO2, for its effective work and commitment in this area. Based at the heart of
a nationally and internationally recognized university, the Jardin is a prominent player at the forefront of
new developments in science, thanks to the active participation and recognized quality of its teaching and
research personnel.
25
Exhibition organisers:
organisers:
With the label from:
from:
In association with:
with:
With support from:
from:
And
Cabinet Michel LEVY & Associés, Strasbourg
Exhibition partn
partners:
ers:
Partners for the related programme of cultural events:
events:
-
-
Le Star, art house cinema
Festival européen du
film
fantastique (from 11 September
to 23 October 2011)
Vidéo les Beaux Jours
Les Journées de l’architecture
INA
-
26
ARTE, Europe’s culture channel www.arte.tv
Opéra Studio
Radio En Construction
Elektramusic
Médiathèques de la Ville et de la
Communauté urbaine de
Strasbourg
10. Exhibitions awarded France’s ‘National importance’ status in 2011
Communiqué de
presse
Actions en faveur des musées de France
Seize expositions ont reçu le label d'exposition d'intérêt national
Le Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, annonce la liste des seize expositions qui ont reçu le
label d'intérêt national pour l'année 2011.
Le label « exposition d’intérêt national » récompense chaque année les manifestations, organisées par les
musées de France, les plus remarquables par leur qualité scientifique, leurs efforts en matière de médiation
culturelle et leur ouverture à un large public. Les 16 expositions retenues en 2011 sont les suivantes :
De Turner à Monet, la découverte de la Bretagne par les paysagistes au XIXème siècle
Quimper, musée des Beaux-Arts, 1er avril 2011 – 31 août 2011
Richelieu à Richelieu - Architectures et décors d’un château disparu
Tours, musée des Beaux-Arts, 12 mars 2011 – 13 juin 2011
Orléans, musée des Beaux-Arts, 12 mars 2011 – 13 juin 2011
Richelieu, musée municipal, 12 mars 2011 – 13 juin 2011
Département de l’information et de
la communication
01 40 15 80 11
service-presse@culture.gouv.fr
Direction générale des patrimoines
Attachée de presse
Ingrid Baron-Cadoret
01 40 15 36 47
ingrid.baron-cadoret@culture.gouv.fr
Des rites et des hommes. Les pratiques symboliques des Celtes, des Ibères et des Grecs en Provence, en
Languedoc et en Catalogne
Lattes, Site archéologique Lattara – musée Henri Prades, 9 juillet 2011 – 8 janvier 2012
Odilon Redon – Prince du Rêve 1840 – 1916
Montpellier, Musée Fabre, 7 juillet 2011 – 16 octobre 2011
Louis Boilly (1761-1845)
Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 4 novembre 2011 – 6 février 2012
Adolf Wölfli Univers
Villeneuve d’Ascq, LaM - Lille Métropole musée d’art moderne, art contemporain et art brut, 9 avril 2011 – 3 juillet
2011
Russie Viking, vers une autre Normandie ? Novgorod et la Russie du Nord, des migrations scandinaves à
la fin du Moyen-Age (VIIIe-XVe Siècles)
Caen, musée de Normandie, 25 juin 2011 – 31 octobre 2011
Le Théâtre des passions (1697-1759) : Cléopâtre, Médée, Iphigénie
Nantes, musée des Beaux-Arts, 11 février 2011 – 22 mai 2011
Bonnard et le Cannet dans la lumière de la Méditerranée
Le Cannet, musée Bonnard, 25 juin 2011 – 25 septembre 2011
Le génie de l’Orient. L’Occident moderne et les arts de l’Islam
Lyon, musée des Beaux-Arts, 2 avril 2011 – 4 juillet 2011
L'Europe des Esprits ou la fascination de l'occulte (1750-1950)
Strasbourg, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain, 8 octobre 2011 – 12 février 2012
Six pieds sous terre... Il y a 3000 ans : archéologie dans les Landes de Gascogne
Sabres, écomusée de Marquèze, 2 juin 2011 – 30 novembre 2011
Poussin-Moïse. Du dessin à la tapisserie
Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 30 juin 2011 – 27 septembre 2011
Bien Faire et le faire savoir, Histoire de Manufrance 1885-1985
Saint-Etienne, musée d’art et d’industrie, 14 mai 2011– 27 février 2012
Le voyage de Monsieur de Lapérouse
Saint-Denis de la Réunion, muséum d’histoire naturelle, 13 novembre 2010 – 30 octobre 2011
Ces expositions contribuent à la politique de diffusion et d’élargissement des publics des musées de France.
Chaque musée bénéficie d’une subvention exceptionnelle de 10 000 à 50 000 euros attribuée par le Ministère
de la Culture et de la Communication.
Paris, le 2 mars 2011
27
11.
11. Satellite Exhibition at Strasbourg’s Historical Museum
THE UNITED BROTHERHO
BROTHERHOOD
OD OF STRASBOURG, A DEDICATED MASONIC LODGE
LODGE
OCTOBER 14TH 20112011-FEBRUARY
FEBRUARY 5TH 2012 - HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF
OF STRASBOURG
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the founding of Strasbourg’s Lodge, the Historical Museum of
Strasbourg and the United Brotherhood have come together to familiarize the public with Freemasonry of
of
19th century Strasbourg. The exhibition “The United Brotherhood of Strasbourg, a dedicated Masonic
Lodge” will showcase a significant Masonic collection. This collection features an important array of
temple furnishings, aprons, sashes, and Masonic jewelry
jewelry in addition to patents, lodge paintings and work
published by the Freemasonry and is living testimony to the dynamic and important role of Masonic life in
Strasbourg in the 19th century. The exhibition revolves around two main questions: -what is a Masonic
Masonic
Lodge? and what has the United Brotherhood contributed to Strasbourg?
Following the initiative and input of the United Brotherhood, a Masonic temple has been recreated inside
the museum’s walls to display antique furnishings as well as several decorative elements. The Gerschel
collection rich with its garments, jewelry and diverse patents provides insight into the rituals and ranks of
Masonry.
Added to this, the visitor will discover elements of the Historical Museum’s collection and outside loans
from the city’s archives and the Malraux Multimedia Library with a number of documents evoking the
lodge’s influence on Strasbourg dating back to 1743 and certain famous figures such as La Fayette who
participated in the battle of Yorktown or Knight Pierre d’Isnard (1727-1807) the engraver turned militaryman who is renowned for his plates of lower-ranking soldiers, or again Maximilien Deux Ponts, the Mayor
of Dietrich, the Strasbourgeois printer Gustave Silbermann and illustrator and librarian Frédéric Piton etc.
The exhibit is a perfect example of the devotion the United Brotherhood had for the city and abroad as
recorded in the Masonic magazine Erwinia. Indeed, it illustrates the good deeds set in place by the
masons through assistance to widows and orphans, but also in the organization of a free school for adults
beginning in 1843 and their work creating the League of Education with Jean Macé, honorable member of
the United Brotherhood and staunch supporter of free and compulsory education for all.
For many years, largely due to Abbot Grandidier’s influence, it was believed that the Masonic lodges were
tied to the cathedral’s lodge, especially in regards to the lodge of Strasbourg’s L’Œuvre Notre-Dame. The
exhibition evokes the festivities organized in 1845 honoring Erwin de Steinbach, architect in charge of the
construction of Strasbourg’s cathedral, festivities whose objective was to call to mind the mythical ties
between speculative Masonry and operative Masonry, but also as a way to bring German and French
Freemasons together. Finally the Freemasons of Strasbourg were involved in politics, siding with
republicans and German and Polish revolutionaries in the 1930’s until 1848. Freemasons were active in
the National Guard, (which often raised its voice in opposition to the regime in Strasbourg), worked as
editors (Auguste Schneegans, Charles Boersch) of the Courrier du Bas-Rhin, quintessential republican
newspaper owned by Gustave Silbermann, or were the driving force behind the Democrate du Rhin, as
was the case for the republican Jean-Jacques Boersch.
After Alsace-Lorraine’s annexation to Germany, the United Brotherhood refused to surrender to the
authority of German lodges and went underground in 1872. After 1870 three members of the United
Brotherhood along with Jean Macé became affiliated to the Alsace-Lorraine Lodge founded in Paris. This
was intended to preserve the memory of the lost provinces and included members such as the sculptor
Bartholdi, Gambetta, Joffre, etc. Concurrently, two German lodges were created in Strasbourg and
Wilhelm II ordered the construction of the lodge situated at rue Joffre which remains a Masonic temple to
this day.
In addition to the exhibition a special visit of the permanent collection highlights a certain number of
famous Masonic figures: Kellermann, Rouget de l’Isle, de Dietrich, the bellfounder Edel, David d’Angers,
Maximilien Deux Ponts, etc..
A tour of the city organized by the Office of Tourism offers visitors an occasion to follow the traces left by
masons in Strasbourg.
A catalog will be published by ID. Edition in partnership with the United Brotherhood, the Museum of the
Freemasons of Paris and the IRDERM (Rhennish Institute of Masonic Study and Research).
Curated by: Monique Fuchs, curator of the Historical Museum of Strasbourg
28
12. Practical information
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
Address:
Address:
1 place Hans Jean Arp, Strasbourg
Tel. : +33 (0)3 88 23 31 31
Tram: Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain.
Opening hours:
hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The museum and exhibition are closed on Monday.
Special opening by arrangement for groups hosted by the museum’s educational service, or the Office du
Tourisme de Strasbourg.
Group bookings :
Compulsory advance booking for groups of 10 or more, on 03 88 88 50 50 (Monday to Friday, 8.30 a.m.
to 12.30 p.m.)
Admission:
Admission:
Standard: 10 € (concessions: 5 €). Individual tickets are valid for two people throughout the duration of
the exhibition.
EXHIBITION TICKETS
Family ticket (2 adults – 2 children): 12.00 €
Full pass: 40 € (concessions 20 €) for unlimited access to the exhibition and all related cultural events.
(Advance booking only).
Events programme pass: 30 € (concessions 15 €) (for unlimited access to the related programme of
cultural events).
Booking essential.
Free admission for:
under 18s
Carte Culture holders
Carte Atout Voir holders
Carte Museums Pass Musées holders
Carte Édu’Pass holders
Handicapped visitors
Students of art and art history
Job seekers
Benefit recipients
CUS personnel (on presentation of official badge).
Free admission for all on:
the first Sunday of each month
Hallowe’en night, Thursday 27 October, until midnight.
Mardi Gras, Wednesday, 8 February 2012.
Audio guide hire: 1.50 €
Film season: 6 € for all screenings
1-day Pass: 10 €, concessions 5 €, (access to all Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg and their temporary
exhibitions).
3-day pass: 15 € (no concessions : access to all Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg and their temporary
exhibitions).
Museums Pass Musées – 1 year, 190 museums: individual pass 71 euros, family pass 123 euros (access
to over 190 museums in Alsace, Switzerland and Germany).
29
L’EUROPE DES ESPRITS
Demande à adresser à :
OU LA FASCINATION DE L’OCCULTE, 1750-1950
MUSÉE D'ART MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAIN
8 octobre 2011 - 12 février 2012
LISTE DES VISUELS TÉLÉCHARGEABLES SUR LE SITE
WWW.MUSEES.STRASBOURG.EU
Service communication
1. Henry Fuseli, Robin Goodfellow-Puck, 1787-1790, huile sur toile, 106 x 82 cm,
Sturzenegger-Stiftung, Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen
2. Victor Brauner, Chimère, 1939, huile sur toile, 73 x 60 cm,
Strasbourg, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain.
Photo : M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg © ADAGP Paris, 2011
3. Albert Von Schrenk-Notzing, La médium Eva C. avec une matérialisation
sur une tête et une apparition lumineuse entre les mains, 17 mai 1912,
épreuve à la gélatine argentique, 24 x 18 cm,
Fribourg, Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene e.V.
Fonds du comité d’études de photographie transcendantale. Photo : D.R.
4. Martin Schongauer, Tentation de saint Antoine, vers 1473,
gravure au burin sur cuivre, 30,7 x 27,2 cm,
Strasbourg, Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins.
Photo: M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg
5. Hélène Smith (née Elise-Catherine Muller), Paysage ultramartien, 1896,
aquarelle sur papier, 23 x 30 cm, collection privée, Genève. Photo : Nicolas Spuhler
des Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg
Julie Barth
2, place du Château, Strasbourg
julie.barth@strasbourg.eu
Tél. + 33 (0)3 88 52 50 15
Fax + 33 (0)3 88 52 50 42
6. Frigander, Geschichte von einigen Gespenstern, welche sich in unterschiedlichen
Orten geäußert, und ihr Anliegen offenbart haben... M. C. N. Naumann.
Gedanken von den sichtbaren Erscheinungen der Geister. 1754,
livre, 18 x 9 cm, Francfort / Main ; Leipzig : s. n. Frontispice, Strasbourg, BNU.
Photo: Jean-Pierre Rosenkranz, © Photo et collection BNU Strasbourg
7. Jean Delville, L ’Amour des âmes, 1900, huile sur toile, 238 x 150 cm,
Bruxelles, collection du Musée d'Ixelles. Photo : Mixed media © ADAGP Paris, 2011
8. Albrecht Dürer, Le Chevalier, la Mort et le Diable, 1513,
gravure au burin, 24,4 x 18,7 cm, Strasbourg, Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins.
Photo : M. Bertola / Musées de Strasbourg
9. Carl Gustav Carus, Faust et Wagner avec le barbet, après 1851,
fusain réhaussé de blanc, gouache sur papier brun, 52,2 x 40,6 cm,
Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresde.
Photo : Hans-Peter Klut, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresde
10. Frantisek Drtikol, L’Âme, 1930,
épreuve sur papier aux encres grasses, impression en demi-ton, 29,4 x 22,7 cm
© Collection Société française de photographie. Photo : D.R.
11. Ophtalmotrope, Région Alsace, Inventaire général /
Université de Strasbourg-Jardin des Sciences / AMUSS. Photo : Christian Creutz
12. Jacques Herold, Le Grand transparent,
moulage en bronze des années 1970, d’après le plâtre réalisé en 1947,
185 x 80 x 52 cm, Courtesy Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, Paris © ADAGP Paris, 2011
13. L ’Illustration journal universel. 7 et 14 mai 1853.
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg. Photo : D.R.
14. Paul Klee, Demoiselle démoniaque, 1937,
crayon de couleur et couleur à la colle sur papier sur carton, 45,6 x 30,9 cm,
Bern, Zentrum Paul Klee. Photo : D.R.
15. Paul-Elie Ranson, Les Sorcières autour du feu, 1891,
huile sur toile, 38 x 65 cm, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée Départemental
Maurice Denis « Le Prieuré ». Crédit : Y. Tribes
16. Victor Hugo, Dentelles et spectres, fin 1855-1856,
plume et lavis d’encre brune, fusain, application de dentelle, papier vergé,
7,2 x 6,1 cm, Maison de Victor Hugo, Paris © Maisons de Victor Hugo / Roger Viollet
17. André Masson, La Sorcière, 1942, huile et tempera sur toile, 72 x 51 cm,
Paris, Comité André Masson. Photo: N. Fussler © ADAGP Paris, 2011
18. John Martin, Sadak à la recherche des eaux de l ’oubli, 1812,
huile sur toile, 76,2 x 62,4 cm, Southampton City Art Gallery.
Photo: The Bridgeman Art Library
19. H. Mairet, Séance avec Eusapia Palladino, chez Camille Flammarion, rue Cassini,
25 novembre 1898, épreuve à la gélatine argentique, 22,2 x 26,3 cm,
Paris, Société Astronomique de France, Fonds Camille Flammarion.
Photo: © Rue des Archives / The Granger Collection
20. Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation XIV, 1910, huile sur toile, 74 x 125,5 cm,
Legs de Mme Nina Kandinsky Centre Pompidou, Paris,
Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle.
© Collection Centre Pompidou, Dist. RMN / Jean-Claude Planchet © ADAGP Paris, 2011
21. Francisco Goya, La Conjuration (Les Sorcières), 1797-1798,
huile sur toile, 43 x 30 cm, Madrid, Fundación Lázaro Galdiano.
Photo : Fundación Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid

europe and the spirit world or the fascination with the occult, 1750

Transcription

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