“The creative work of the artist is perhaps also a magic act, whose purpose is to recognize the soul of the world and to create through this knowledge in the same manner as a magician who creates disturbance by means of a few scribbled signs.”
— Kurt Seligmann [1900 - 1962] as quoted by Judith Noble in Visions of Enchantment: Occultism, Magic and Visual Culture [2018]
“The notion of making art as being akin to a magical act has probably been central to most cultures and periods of human history, with the ‘disenchantment’ of the last two centuries almost certainly being a rare exception.”
— Judith Noble, Visions of Enchantment: Occultism, Magic and Visual Culture [2018]
“In many ways, the idea of the symbolic is just as important as the role of the material within magical operations — be it in the form of alchemical symbolism or in the use of image and text in talismans or occult iconography. You find that across cultures of magic, ritual and occult belief often need visualization to function and it is the importance attributed to established modes of symbolism that has resulted in the often highly codified use of specific iconographic conventions.”
— Daniel Zamani, Visions of Enchantment: Occultism, Magic and Visual Culture [2018]
“An interesting thing happens when women wield the creative wands, whether in the form of pencils or paintbrushes: they materialize their own magic, and become witches of a sort themselves.”
— Pam Grossman, Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power [2019]
IMAGE: Hans Baldung Grien, The Witches’ Sabbath, 1510. Woodcut, 37.5 x 25.9 cm. British Museum, London.