TRANSCENDANTS
(December 14th, 2023 - January 20th, 2024)
Agatha Wojciechowsky
Untitled, 1971
Watercolor on paper
13.5 x 9.5 inches
34.3 x 24.1 cm
AW 496
Cavin-Morris is pleased to present TRANSCENDANTS, an exhibition of visionary drawings and paintings.
In the last decade we have seen well-deserved attention paid to the spiritual abstractionists and surrealists of the early to mid-twentieth century. Exhibitions, books, and articles have been written on new and current artists working within the same parameters. Shows have been staged in major museums with works by Leonora Carrington, Agnes Pelton, Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, Remedios Varo, Georgiana Houghton, and others. The other commonality between these artists is that they all came up through, or were seriously influenced by the ‘Academy’.
Agatha Wojciechowsky
Untitled, 1972
Watercolor on paper
22.75 x 20.75 inches
57.8 x 52.7 cm
AWo 31
Agatha Wojciechowsky
Untitled, n.d.
Watercolor on paper
11.7 x 9 inches
29.7 x 22.9 cm
AWo 20
Agatha Wojciechowsky
Untitled, 1967
Watercolor/paper
19.75 x 16 inches
50.2 x 40.6 cm
AWo 33
Melvin Edward Nelson
UFO, c. 1961-1965
Watercolor on Paper
11 x 16.5 inches
27.9 x 41.9 cm
Nel 157
Melvin Edward Nelson
Untitled, c. 1961-1965
Mineral Pigment on Paper
13 x 20.5 inches
33 x 52.1 cm
Nel 51
Melvin Edward Nelson
Spiritual #4, c. 1961-1965
Mineral Pigment, Watercolor on Paper
11 x 16.5 inches
27.9 x 41.9 cm
Nel 154
Cecilie Markova
Untitled, 1988
Pastel on paper
9 x 6 inches
22.9 x 15.2 cm
CMa 1
Cecilie Markova
Untitled, 1960
Pastel on paper
11 x 8 inches
27.9 x 20.3 cm
CMa 5
Cecilie Markova
Untitled, 1989
Pastel on paper
16.5 x 12 inches
41.9 x 30.5 cm
CMa 4
There has been a pithy problem with this focus. It excludes some of the most authentic visionary artists in the world. It ignores the visionary content of artists who made work as a direct animistic contact with the paranormal world, often mediumistically, and who did not make the work for any part of the art world canon, but rather for personal and/or community or cultural reasons.
Henriette Zéphir
Untitled, 1985
Watercolor, ink on paper
12.25 x 16 inches
31.1 x 40.6 cm
HZe 20
Henriette Zéphir
Untitled, 1982
India ink on paper
18.75 x 8.25 inches
47.6 x 21 cm
HZe 5
František Jaroslav Pecka
Untitled, 1921
Colored pencil and graphite on paper
20.5 x 14.5 inches
52.1 x 36.8 cm
FJP 41
František Jaroslav Pecka
Untitled, 1921
Colored pencil and graphite on paper
23 x 16.5 inches
58.4 x 41.9 cm
FJP 42
Czech Republic
Anonymous Mediumistic Drawing, 9/13/1945
Crayon on paper
8.66 x 11.81 inches
22 x 30 cm
Cze 26
Czech Republic
Anonymous Mediumistic Drawing XIV, 1942
Graphite on paper
8.75 x 11.75 inches
22.2 x 29.8 cm
Cze 15
Czech Republic
Anonymous Mediumistic Drawing LIII, 1943
Graphite on paper
8.75 x 11.75 inches
22.2 x 29.8 cm
Cze 20
Czech Republic
Anonymous Mediumistic Drawing LVIII, 1943
Graphite on paper
8.75 x 11.75 inches
22.2 x 29.8 cm
Cze 17
French writer and artist, and early collaborator with Jean Dubuffet, André Breton, was aware of these mediumistic creations. Dubuffet was also aware of them, but being more concerned with the overall concept of art brut, he chose to erase any previous label, such as spiritualist or mediumistic, to rebrand it with the words art brut. Breton preferred that the work not be pigeon-holed and this was a major cause of their diverging paths.
M'onma
Untitled, 2002
Ink on paper
24 x 17.5 inches
61 x 44.5 cm
IMo 87
M'onma
Untitled, 2005
Colored pencil on paper
13.75 x 11 inches
34.9 x 27.9 cm
IMo 83
M'onma
Untitled, 2005
Montblanc ink pen on paper
10.125 x 7.125 inches
25.7 x 18.1 cm
IMo 94
Solange Knopf
Merkabah, 2016
Colored pencil on paper
31 x 43 inches
78.7 x 109.2 cm
SoK 89
Solange Knopf
Spirit Codex No. 18, 2013
Acrylic, colored pencil, and graphite on paper
71.85 x 29.53 inches
182.5 x 75 cm
SoK 62
Solange Knopf
Sanguine Feeling Series #3, 2011
Ink on paper
9.25 x 7.25 inches
23.5 x 18.4 cm
SoK 5
Solange Knopf
Behind the Darkness No. 8, 2014
Acrylic, colored pencil on paper
11.69 x 9.41 inches
29.7 x 23.9 cm
SoK 45
Solange Knopf
Behind the Darkness II, 2013
Acrylic, colored pencil on paper
19.5 x 25.5 inches
49.5 x 64.8 cm
SoK 38
The artists in our exhibition like Anna Zemánková, Henriette Zéphir and Solange Knopf have been making abstract visionary work exclusively and concurrently with the work of the academically trained artists.
J.B. Murray
Untitled, c. 1978-1988
Tempera, ink on paper
24 x 18 inches
61 x 45.7 cm
JBM 486
J.B. Murray
Untitled , c. 1978-1988
Marker, ink on cardboard
12.5 x 9.5 inches
31.8 x 24.1 cm
JBM 676
J.B. Murray
Untitled, c. 1978-1988
Tempera and marker on paper
24 x 18 inches
61 x 45.7 cm
JBM 490
Eva Droppova
Untitled, circa 2005
Crayon, ink, pencil on paper
17.72 x 6.69 inches
45 x 17 cm
EDr 3
Eva Droppova
Untitled, circa 2005
Crayon, ink on paper
11.42 x 16.54 inches
29 x 42 cm
EDr 5
Gregory Van Maanen
Reliquary Figures, 11/1/1986
Acrylic on paper
28.5 x 22 inches
72.4 x 55.9 cm
GVM 140
Chiyuki Sakagami
Untitled, 2000
Ink on paper
5.31 x 3.15 inches
13.5 x 8 cm
SaC 2
Chiyuki Sakagami
Untitled, 2000
Ink on paper
4.75 x 2.25 inches
12.1 x 5.7 cm
SaC 3
The word ‘visionary’ is not a monolith of meaning. For this exhibition we are most interested in the works that serve as vessels of real spiritual connection, whether achieved through personal or community belief, communication with or direct and immediate presentation of a vision.
Gregory Van Maanen
Spirit Hand, 1993
Oil, enamel, acrylic on wood
66 x 48 inches
167.6 x 121.9 cm
GVM 754
Gregory Van Maanen
Untitled, 7/21/2014
Acrylic on canvas
35.5 x 23.5 inches
90.2 x 59.7 cm
GVM 2578
Helen Butler Wells
Automatic Drawing #89, 3/30/1926
Graphite on paper
6.75 x 9 inches
17.1 x 22.9 cm
HW 40
Pauline Sunfly
Mulupuku, 2022
Acrylic on linen
36 x 24.25 inches
91.4 x 61.6 cm
Sun 10
Helen Butler Wells
Spirit Drawing #60, Hernon Mosplaciados, c.1920
Graphite/paper
7.5 x 5.5 inches
19.1 x 14 cm
HW 41
This work is not so much a narrative of visionary experience as it is an actual utilization of the work as an arena of paranormal experience. For this reason also, our exhibition isn’t and cannot be encyclopedic. Though ignored by mainstream art history, its actual global presence is huge. TRANSCENDANTS could entertain and sustain a thousand variations.
Anna Zemánková
Untitled, ca. 1970s
Pastel on paper
24.25 x 17.75 inches
61.6 x 45.1 cm
AZe 410
Anna Zemánková
Untitled, Early 1960s
Pastel on paper
34.6 x 24.4 inches
87.9 x 62 cm
AZe 632