Emma Kunz - Drawing No. 12
Kunz never recieved a formal arts education, yet from 1938 she produced hundreds of geometric drawings which were first exhibited posthumously in the early 1970s. Her drawings were inspired by her holistic worldview and were constructed using radiesthesia - a technique using a pendulum to plan her compositions, each of which were completed in a single session. Kunz considered these drawings as images of energy fields from which she would formulate diagnoses for her patients or answers to questions posed to her pendulum. Engaging with these varied phenomena, Kunz's work explores philosophical themes which are rooted in her own times but have proven more relevant today; she predicted that her drawings were destined for the 21st Century.
Emma Kunz (1892-1963)
Yet another fantastic exhibition by a female healer/artist who produced an esoteric body of work created by channelling spiritual knowledge and methods, who knew that the time period in which she worked would not fully understand or appreciate her 'art'. Kunz was a healer and naturopath who used the guidance of a pendulum to create her drawings not as art, but as guides to diagnose and heal her patients' ailments. We have been here on similar territory before (here, and here), and thank goodness that the output of these pioneering women artists using spiritualist and other arcane methods are now beginning to be fully appreciated and given credence by being exhibited in renowned art galleries. The amazing Hilma Af Klint exhibition (who also employed spiritualist methods to create her art), which was also formerly exhibited here at the Serpentine, and is currently on show at New York's Guggenheim Museum, has broken visitor attendance records at that venue, so there is clearly an eager audience to see these forerunners of abstraction, created well before those of Kandinsky et al which are presenting the case for the need for the revision of art history. It is interesting to note that like Af Klint, Kunz predicted that her drawings were destined for the 21st Century. Next month will see the opening of an exhibition dedicated to the work of Madge Gill, another spiritualist artist who created art whilst under the influence and possession of her spirit guide. Believers and practitioners of spiritualism and true exponents of the creation of this type of art will be in no doubt as to its authenticity, the jury will still be out for the non-believers and sceptics. They would do well perhaps to consult a bona-fide medium or sit in a development circle themselves.
This perfect ceiling rose in the central exhibition space of the Serpentine Gallery looks as if it could have been created from the precise geometries of one of Kunz's drawings. The picture below is an installation view of the work from that central exhibition space which has an almost religious atmosphere like being in a church, temple or some other such sacred space.
An interesting detail about the exhibition is the addition of these benches created by artist Christodoulos Panayiotou from the material AION A - a rock with purported healing properties which was discovered by Emma Kunz in 1942. The rock AION A is reported to be 24 million years old, and Kunz claimed its use benefited the medical conditions of her patients in her healing treatments. Again, another claim which will have sceptics rolling their eyes claiming gobbledegook and psychobabble, but will have credence from knowledgeable practitioners and those whose health and wellbeing will have experienced positive effects from such mystical treatments.
Emma Kunz: Visionary Drawings
until 19th May
Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens
London
W2
