“Colors are Forces, the Signatures of the Forces”: Esoteric Theories of Color and Modern Art
This lecture will explore the ways that esoteric understandings of color as an entity and force developed through Neoplatonic thought, Renaissance magic, the earliest sciences of optics and into modern esoteric and occult theory and practice. I will look at the role of color in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Theosophy and the work of Rudolph Steiner, perhaps providing greater insight into artists such as Hilma af Klint, Ithell Colquhoun, Ethel Le Rossignol and others who clearly saw color in a way that went far beyond symbol.
Bio:
Dr. Amy Hale is an Atlanta based writer, curator and critic. She has a PhD in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA and has written about topics as diverse as psychogeography, occult performance art, Pagan religious tourism, color theory, and extremist politics in modern Paganism. She has written widely on artist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, notably the biography Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully (Strange Attractor 2020) and is currently editing a selection of Colquhoun’s esoteric essays for Strange Attractor (2024) and an edition of Colquhoun’s erotic art and sex magic for Tate Publishing (December, 2023). She is the editor of Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses (Palgrave 2022) and has contributed essays for Tate, Ignota Press, Burlington Contemporary, Correspondences Journal, Camden Arts Centre, Art UK, Arusha Galleries, Heavenly Records and Spike Island, Bristol. She is currently a curator and host for the internationally loved Viktor Wynd’s Last Tuesday Society lecture series and is an Honorary Research Fellow with Falmouth University in Cornwall.
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