International Seminar
Art of Visionary Women

We are proud to present at the University of Barcelona the first International Seminar dedicated to the study of the graphic creativity – the drawings – of visionary women connected to new forms of spirituality, secular and feminist, that spread across Europe at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.
We want to recuperate the implacable and emancipating spirit of these utopian philosophies, focussing on the cultural context and its creative processes. Spiritual and political practices that weave relations between social Christianity and Eastern traditions, widely welcomed amongst the workers and the suffragettes: Modern Spiritualism, Spiritism, Theosophy and Anthroposophy, among other forms of unregulated transcendence.
The legacy of artists, like Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, Madge Gill, Nina Karasek or Josefa Tolrà, are now driving new generations towards artistic, scientific and humanist stories, instigating a new wave of feminism. In this seminar we propose to attend to the mystical origins of their creativity, their holistic working processes and the mantle of the “life mission” they took on.
We share the experiences of creators who were “Visionaries in life, artists after their death”. Amongst whom is Josefa Tolrà (Cabrils, 1880-1959), the most important medium of the first half of the 20th century in Spain and whose work forms part of the Museo Nacional del Prado, MACBA, Musée LaM de Villeneuve-d’Ascq and Centre Pompidou in París. Among other international authors, we will also offer new readings in the seminar about the life and work of the clairvoyant artists Fina Miralles (Barcelona, 1950) and Silvia Gubern (Barcelona, 1941).

Thursday, 14 October 2021
Place: Aula Magna, Faculty of Fine Art, Barcelona. Barcelona
Calle Pau Gargallo, 4 , 080028 Barcelona

10:00 Reception and hand-out of informative dossier.

10:30-11:30 Dr María José González. Universitat de Barcelona: Seminar Introduction
Dra. Pilar Bonet Julve, Universitat de Barcelona: Introduction to the research group [V¬W]:

11:30-12:30 Sara Petrucci, Université de Genève: Emma Kunz / Olga Fröebe Kapteyn. Art is a Ritual?

13:00-14:00 Dr. Maia Creus: The Drawings of Fina Miralles. Seeing the Invisible-Visible.

16:30–17:30 Presentations, research projects:
Dr Judit Vidiella (The Reception of Spiritism in Europe)
Ester G. Mecias (Artists that cure the soul, Hilma af Klint)
Dr Mapi Rivera (Artistic Creation and the Visionary Experience)
(Spanish)

17:30-18:00 Coffee break-bookshop (Table with specialised publications)

18:00-19:00 Presentations, research projects:
Dr Graciela García (The serpentine in Art Brut)
Dr Jo Milne (The representation of the invisible in science and art)
Raisa Maudit (Process of artistic research, magic and anarchism)
(Spanish)

Friday, 15 October 2021
Place: Aula Magna, Faculty of Geography and History, Universitat de Barcelona., Calle Montalegre, 6. 08001 Barcelona

9:30-10:30 Dr Pilar Bonet Julve, Universitat de Barcelona:
Medium and Artist: Josefa Tolrà (Cabrils, Barcelona 1880-1959) (Spanish)

10:30-11:30 Dr Andrea Graus, Centre Alexandre Koyré –Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique- Paris: Mediums and Doctors in the face of the Visionary Experience (1860-1910) (Spanish)

11:45-12:45 Vivienne Roberts, The College of Psychic Studies London: Britain’s Visionary Sisters in Art (English)

12:45-13:45 Assumpta Bassas, Universitat de Barcelona:
Crystallize riddles. Silvia Gubern and reverse glass drawing and painting (Spanish)

13:45-14:30 Round table discussion of the Seminar: Dr María José González, Dr Judit Vidiella, Dr Julia Ramírez, Dr Diana Padrón (Spanish)

Contact
María José González
mariajosegonzalezub.edu