The Lost Bohemians #1: Ithell Colquhoun
In a new regular, we delve into the lives of bohemians past. First up, it's the forgotten British surrealist and occultist who's having their Hilma Af Klint moment
Ithell is the perfect person to kick off our new series, being the subject of a major exhibition in the UK this year…
Hello, hi there. How are you? This post is impossibly long so save it for your tea break. Bookmark me for later. It does have sex magic in it, though!
This week, I’m very much looking forward to the new Linder exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. It’s a major retrospective of her work and features the footage of her performing with her late-70s Manchester post-punk band Ludus, where she whips off her skirt to reveal a massive strap-on. She’s our kinda gal, basically.
As is Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988). This is the first in a new series I’m playing around with called The Lost Bohemians. I’ve wanted to do something like this for ages, about the kinds of eccentrics and radicals that I would have interviewed for the series if they were still alive. And Ithell is the perfect person to begin with, being the subject of a major exhibition in the UK this year.
Funnily enough, the book that goes with that exhibition has a chapter by Linder, who has admired Ithell (rhymes with Eiffel) for decades. She even designed a circular rug inspired by Ithell’s essay about automatic (ie subsconscious) methods of painting – called rather gothily – Children of the Mantic Stain. Linder then used the rug in a ballet of the same name and it’s all part of her Hayward show. (She also has one of Ithell’s 5ft paintings hanging in her house, of which I am wildly jealous).
Ithell Colquhoun is the next overlooked artist to have her Frida Kahlo / Hilma AF Klint / Leonora Carrington moment – an exceptional artist who, like them, had been fairly disregarded by the art world until recent years. In the past decade, Ithell has had a few biographies about her published and her books are back in print – and so was her vivid, ink blot-style tarot deck. I first heard about her through the latter, via esoteric publisher Fulgur Press, who printed the Leonora Carrington tarot deck – currently going for the bargain price of £7000 on eBay – and who reissued Ithell’s one too (also long sold out).
But now it’s possible to see those incredible cards up close. Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds is open until 5 May 2025 at Tate St Ives and it’ll be heading to London’s Tate Modern afterwards in June. The double billing says a lot about how major the museum – who acquired 5000 of Ithell’s paintings and sketches in 2019 – thinks she is.
You can see why they snapped them up:
I got to see the exhibition in Cornwall on the day it opened and marvelled for hours at her work – like one, above, a Dalí-inspired impression of rocks jutting out of the sea, or is it her lower body in the bath? Like all of the women surrealists I’ve seen, Ithell’s style stands completely alone. A number of themed rooms connect her various interests – Surrealism, eco-feminism, magic, the mythology of Cornwall, where she moved after her marriage broke down in the late 40s – charting the multi-faceted life of an artist who completely lived outside the norm.
I’m no art writer, but I’d never seen anything like it: luminous, sensuous plants; colourful diagrams that attempted to unlock the secret to the universe or were preoccupied with things like, say, sex magic; a Surrealist film storyboard for a lesbian love affair; myth and legend imbued in dramatic landscapes; genderless drawings; an entire room showcasing that taro(t); stuff to do with earth energies and erotic energies. It’s complex, for sure – and I’d argue that despite their thoughtful treatment, she remains still somehow mysterious – but many of these themes resonate today. And though I’m using broad strokes here, many of them still seem fairly radical.
Little to no footage of Ithell exists, sadly. I would have loved to have heard her in her own words. But clearly this was a woman with limitless imagination beyond the realm of us mere mortals. Even if you have no interest in the occult or Druids or ritual or, indeed, sex magic, it seems that she wanted to draw on ancient practices to help build promising new futures, free from fascist regimes and rigid societal expectations.
There’s certainly magic in that.
Below are eight key things to know about Ithell Colquhoun and why she’s the ultimate first lost bohemian. Plus, a reading list! If you haven’t subscribed yet then go ahead, enter the portal…
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