15: Susan Aberth on Spiritual Artwork

Susan Aberth, the Edith C. Blum Professor of Art History at Bard College, joins me on this month's FolkArtwork and Friends podcast to discuss spiritual artwork, tarot cards, ghosts, women surrealists, and the exhibit she recently curated at Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York City titled “Conduits of the Unseen: Women Artists Imagine Other Worlds”, open now until October 31st.

We talk about the incredible artwork of Paulina Peavy, who would create artwork with the help of an extraterrestrial named Lacamo, the differences between the reception of the artwork of Hilma af Klint and the spiritual artists that followed her, as well as the creative hub and retreat for artists in Mexico following World War II.

If you have the chance, go see Susan’s show, “Conduits of the Unseen: Women Artists Imagine Other Worlds.”

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Chapters

• (00:00:00) - Introduction and podcast updates
• (00:02:36) - Introducing Susan Aberth and the show preview
• (00:04:06) - Welcoming Susan Aberth, tarot cards discussion
• (00:07:52) - Hilma af Klint and the origins of abstraction
• (00:10:19) - Spirit mediums and early abstract artists
• (00:11:55) - Hilma af Klint's secret collective and anonymity
• (00:14:52) - Paulina Peavey and her extraterrestrial contact
• (00:16:40) - Masks, costumes, and spiritual reception
• (00:19:09) - UFOs, archives of the impossible, and belief
• (00:20:48) - Ghosts, mediums, and the afterlife
• (00:23:55) - Why surrealists flocked to Mexico
• (00:25:07) - Leonora Carrington and occult circles in Mexico City
• (00:26:43) - Gertrude Abercrombie and women surrealists
• (00:29:00) - Renaissance of interest in women surrealists
• (00:33:29) - Art history teaching philosophy
• (00:35:48) - Museums, benches, and viewer experience
• (00:37:17) - Conduits of the Unseen exhibit origins
• (00:39:18) - First outsider art fair memories
• (00:40:54) - Discovering outsider art and visual culture
• (00:46:36) - Closing thanks and farewell