01/02/2025
Years from now, I suspect the Ithell Colquhoun exhibition that opened at Tate St Ives on Friday evening will be regarded as turning point in British occultism. Make no mistake folks… it’s a landmark event.
When she died in 1988, Colquhoun’s contribution as an artist faced exclusion from scholarship and the wider art-historical discourse primarily because the esoteric sources of inspiration that fuelled her exploration of the creative process laid beyond accepted narratives. But now, nearly forty years later… her moment has finally arrived.
Aïsha and I attended the private view on Friday evening. In preparing the exhibition the curators faced a daunting prospect; Colquhoun left a nearly intact archive of more than 3500 works, split primarily between the Tate and the National Trust. Even armed with Richard Shillitoe’s pioneering catalogue, making sense of Colquhoun’s diverse and recurring interests would be a challenge, but here the curators have performed the kind of alchemy that fascinated Colquhoun.
Following a broadly chronological narrative, the exhibition divides her output into discrete themes, commencing with her figurative work, then the impact of surrealist processes, and finally her application of those processes in exploring magical ideas.
What sets this exhibition apart from many others in recent years is the foregrounding of the esoteric texts. In most rooms, a vitrine provides the books and manuscripts that were the seeds for the flowering of her creative expression. And they are all here: Crowley, Regardie, Ouspensky… a who’s who of 20th century occultism, and moreover often her own copies, bequeathed by her in 1988 and now held by the Tate Archives.
I am told that the Tate Britain has less space, and that these texts may well be excluded from the London iteration of this important exhibition. I hope not… but if you have been meaning to visit Cornwall, now would be a good time.
Congratulations to everyone at the Tate, and the team of consultants who have contributed to this outstanding project!
