In honour of one of her first major exhibitions at the Tate St Ives, we thought we’d show off a selection of books by the late artist and writer Ithell Colquhoun!
The Living Stones Cornwall – Ithell Colquhoun
Painter Ithell Colquhoun arrives in Cornwall in the late 1940s, searching for a studio and a refuge from bombed-out London. So begins a profound lifelong relationship with Britain’s westernmost county, a land surrounded by sea and steeped in myth, where the ancient Celtic past reaches into the present.
Sacred and beautiful, wild and weird, Colquhoun’s Cornwall is a living landscape, where every tree, standing stone and holy well is a palimpsest of folklore – and a place where everyday reality speaks to the world beyond.
Ithell Colquhoun – Emma Sharples
ITHELL COLQUHOUN (1906–1988) was an artist and occultist whose work encompassed figurative painting; collage; automatic or ‘mantic’ staining; costume, stage and mural designs; poetry, imaginative prose and critical writing.
Contributing to Surrealism in Britain as well as to the wider movement, Colquhoun’s life and art were shaped by her occult worldview: a confluence of beauty, transformation and mythic landscapes governed by a vast, living system of magical connections.
The MODERN WOMEN ARTISTS series of collectable books reveal an alternative history of art, telling the stories of important female artists whose work might otherwise be overlooked, overshadowed or forgotten. Read together, these books begin to redress the untold history of modern art.
Ithell Colquhoun – Between Worlds
One of the most radical artists of her generation, Colquhoun was an important figure in British Surrealism during the 1930s and 1940s. An innovative writer and practicing occultist, Colquhoun charted her own course, investigating surrealist methods of unconscious picture-making and fearlessly delving into the realms of myth and magic.
Colquhoun explored the possibilities of a divine feminine power as a path to personal fulfilment and societal transformation. Her understanding of the world as a connected spiritual cosmos brought her to Cornwall, where she deepened her creative explorations, inspired by the region’s ancient landscape, Celtic traditions, and sacred sites. This landmark exhibition and publication of over 200 artworks and archival materials traces Colquhoun’s evolution, from her early student work and engagement with the surrealist movement, to her fascination with the intertwining realms of art, sexual identity, ecology and occultism.
It culminates in a room dedicated to Colquhoun’s interpretation of the Taro deck – her most accomplished fusion of her artistic and magical practice. Explore Colquhoun’s enthralling, multi-layered universe through writings, drawings, paintings, early theatre projects and mural designs, many of which have never been shown publicly before.
