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The Illuminated Myth of Mzona by Richard of Kédange (1802-1879). Part IV
Primal Catholicism / Marian Magic / Evadah / A throw of the dice Primal Catholicism As a graphic practitioner, Richard was a farmer and gardener through and through, one who furrowed lines with sigil-magical ploughs into which he spread evocative seeds, only to have them emerge in the end into a colourful talismanic sea of […]
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The Illuminated Myth of Mzona by Richard of Kédange (1802-1879). Part III
Heavenly Zo / INRI becomes ISO / Swabian and Lorraine Somnambulism Heavenly Zo Richard’s emblematic sexual symbolism originated in the theurgic Neoplatonic geometry of Alexandrian late antiquity and had found its way from there into Jewish mysticism and Hermeticism. The most famous example was the Seal of Solomon, the hexagram, which consisted in the interpenetration […]
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The Illuminated Myth of Mzona by Richard of Kédange (1802-1879). Part II
The Ichts / The Sator Arepo mechanism / Two Evas The Ichts When looking through these magic books, one is quickly confronted with the question of whether there was a system here that was comprehensible and decipherable, at least in parts, or whether it was an entirely idiosyncratic construct, a blooming nonsense, a crazy simulation […]
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The Illuminated Myth of Mzona by Richard of Kédange (1802-1879). Part I
From Alsace to Lorraine / The research / The book In 2010, three graphic grimoires from rural Lorraine popped up at a Strasbourg bookseller’s, whose peculiarity and intensity were astounding. A Richard from Kédange, today Kédange-sur-Canner, a town not far from the border with Saarland and about 30 km north of the capital of Lorraine, […]
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Buffet is back (Biography and Retrospective)
Only a few month after the publication of Nicolas Foulkes´comprehensive and well researched study Bernard Buffet: The Invention of the Modern Mega-artist a retrospective exhibition of this most hated and best forgotten popular artist of the 20th century opens in the French capital, this former lion´s den of canonisation and condemnation. Alongside his favourite subjects […]
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Hazem Alhamwi´s “From my Syrian Room” — from his German room
The Essay is based on Hazem Alhamwi´s latest documentary “From my Syrian Room”, Syria, France, Germany, Lebanon and Qatar, 2014 , 70 minutes. All images are stills taken from this film. Prima facie, there is no obvious close connection between the satirical black humour of Syrian artist Hazem Alhamwi, which is found in his cartoons, […]
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Maurice Garnier, the last artist´s gallerist
As a gallerist Maurice Garnier, who has died at the age of 93, was as unique as that artist, whom he has dedicated more than six decades of his long life, Bernard Buffet. He first had met him in 1948 by the mediation of his mentor, the renowned art dealer Emmanuel David. David had signed […]
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Never stop working – Die unübersehbare Ankunft des Mr. James Castle
Hier ist nun einer im Museum (an-)gelandet, der wohl kaum je darauf abzielt hat, dortin zu gelangen. Weil er womöglich gar nicht wirklich wusste, was ein Museum ist: der taub geborene, “self-taught artist” James Castle ( geb.1899 in Garden Valley/ Idaho – gest. Boise/Idaho 1977), von dem wir nicht wissen, ob er sprechen, lesen konnte […]