Spiritual transcendence and androgyny within Swedish and Finnish transnational SymbolismBirte Bruchmüller. Spiritual transcendence and androgyny within Swedish and Finnish transnational Symbolism , Möklinta, Gidlunds Förlag, 2022. 344 pp, ISBN 978 91 7844 495 3

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1 Riikka Stewen, “Circles of Love: The mythologies of Magnus Enckell”, in Magnus Enckell 1870-1925, ed. by Jari Björklöv and Juha-Heikki Tihinen, transl. by Tomi Snellman, Helsinki, Helsinki City Art Museum, 2000, pp. 40–65.2 For example, the exhibitions Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 12 October 2018–23 April 2019; and Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life, Tate Modern, London, 20 April – 3 September 2023.3 See, for example, Karin Ström Lehander, “Tyra Kleen Artist and Spiritual Seeker”, Approaching Religion Vol. 11, No 1, 2021, pp. 174–183.4 The exhibition Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose + Croix in Paris, 1892–1897, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 30 June – 4 October 2017, was the first ever museum presentation of the Salons de la Rose + Croix. Unfortunately, the exhibition and the essays in the accompanying catalogue reflect an outdated view of the relationship between esotericism and modern art, hence missing the opportunity for a truly critical reflection of Péladan’s role in this context. See Michel Ferut and Elizabeth Franzen, eds., Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de La Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892-1897, New York, Guggenheim, 2017; see also Chaitow’s criticism of the exhibition in Son of Prometheus: The Life and Work of Joséphin Péladan, Munich, Theion Publishing, 2023, pp. 60–64.5 Chaitow’s extensive book on Péladan’s life and work (2023) did not appear until after the publication of Bruchmüller’s thesis, but other contributions by her would have been available. See for example, Sasha Chaitow, “Return from Oblivion: Joséphin Péladan’s Literary Esotericism”, in The Occult in Modernist Art, Literature, and Cinema, ed. by Tessel M. Bauduin and Henrik Johnsson, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 113–136.6 Chaitow 2018; Chaitow 2023.7 See my analysis of Thesleff’s self-portrait in Marja Lahelma, Ideal and Disintegration: Dynamics of the Self and Art at the Fin-de-Siècle, PhD diss., Helsinki, University of Helsinki, 2014, pp. 148–179.8 See, for example, Michelle Facos, Symbolist Art in Context, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2009; Rodolphe Rapetti, Symbolism, transl. by Deke Dusinberre, Paris, Flammarion, 2005.