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Visionary art is art that purports to transcend the physical world and portray a wider vision of awareness including spiritual or mystical themes, or is based in such experiences. [1]
The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, first established in 1946, is considered to be an important technical and philosophical catalyst in its strong influence upon contemporary visionary art. [2] [3] Its artists included Ernst Fuchs, Rudolf Hausner, Arik Brauer, Wolfgang Hutter and Anton Lehmden among others. Several artists who would later work in visionary art trained under Fuchs, including Mati Klarwein, Robert Venosa, [4] and De Es Schwertberger.
Visionary art often carries themes of spiritual, mystical or inner awareness. [1] Despite this broad definition, there does seem to be emerging some definition to what constitutes the contemporary visionary art 'scene' and which artists can be considered especially influential. Symbolism, Cubism, Surrealism and Psychedelic art are also direct precursors to contemporary visionary art. Notable visionary artists count Hilma af Klint, Hieronymous Bosch, William Blake, Morris Graves (of the Pacific Northwest School of Visionary Art), Emil Bisttram, and Gustave Moreau amongst their antecedents.
The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, which includes Ernst Fuchs and Arik Brauer, is also a strong influence on visionary culture. It may also be considered the European version, with the names being interchangeable.[ citation needed ]
The Society for the Art of Imagination, founded by Brigid Marlin serves as an important portal for visionary art events. More recently, a new wave of visionary artists collaborate to function as modern cooperatives involved in self-publishing and promotion of visionary artists through the internet and via festivals such as Burning Man and Boom Festival, and exhibition/ritual spaces such as Temple of Visions and the Interdimensional Art Movement.[ citation needed ]
The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, is a museum devoted entirely to visionary art.
Outsider art is art made by self-taught individuals who are untrained and untutored in the traditional arts with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds.
The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism is a group of artists founded in Vienna in 1946. The group's name was coined in the 1950s by Johann Muskik, and the first exhibition was in 1959 at the Vienna Belvedere. This Austrian movement has similarities to Surrealism in its use of religious and esoteric symbolism and also the choice of a naturalistic style, countering the prevalence of abstract art movements at the time.
Ernst Fuchs was an Austrian painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, architect, stage designer, composer, poet, and one of the founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. In 1972, he acquired the derelict Otto Wagner Villa in Hütteldorf, which he restored and transformed. The villa was inaugurated as the Ernst Fuchs Museum in 1988.
A visionary, defined broadly, is one who can envision the future. For some groups, visioning can involve the supernatural.
The Society for Art of Imagination (AOI) is an international artists' society whose stated mission is to promote art of vision and craftsmanship. It has branches all over the world, and the American branch is a registered charity. AOI is affiliated with many other visionary art groups, including the Fantastic Art Centre in South Africa
Psychedelic art is art, graphics or visual displays related to or inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations known to follow the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT. Coined by British psychologist Humphry Osmond, the term "psychedelic" means "mind manifesting". By that definition, all artistic efforts to depict the inner world of the psyche may be considered "psychedelic".
Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, is an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California area in the late 1960s. It is a populist art movement with its cultural roots in underground comix, punk music, tiki culture, graffiti, and hot-rod cultures of the street. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor – sometimes the humor is gleeful, impish, or a sarcastic comment.
Anton Lehmden was an Austrian painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.
Biomorphism models artistic design elements on naturally occurring patterns or shapes reminiscent of nature and living organisms. Taken to its extreme it attempts to force naturally occurring shapes onto functional devices. In his search for architectural reform the French architecte Viollet le Duc is the first to express this idea clearly : Like a botanist, Viollet le Duc analyzes details of nature in his books, subsequently making them undergo metamorphoses.
Fantastic art is a broad and loosely defined art genre. It is not restricted to a specific school of artists, geographical location or historical period. It can be characterised by subject matter – which portrays non-realistic, mystical, mythical or folkloric subjects or events – and style, which is representational and naturalistic, rather than abstract – or in the case of magazine illustrations and similar, in the style of graphic novel art such as manga.
Arik Brauer was an Austrian painter, printmaker, poet, dancer, singer-songwriter, stage designer, architect, and academic teacher.
Brigid Marlin is an American artist based in Hertfordshire, UK. She studied in Dublin, Montreal, New York, Paris and Vienna where, under the guidance of the Austrian artist Ernst Fuchs, she learned the oil and egg tempera technique (Mischtechnik) of the Flemish and Italian Renaissance painters Jan van Eyck and Giovanni Bellini. In 1961 she founded the ins-cape group, which subsequently became the Society for Art of Imagination.
Robert Venosa was an American painter of fantastic realist and visionary paintings.
Amanda Sage is an American painter who has studied and worked in Vienna, Austria and Los Angeles, California. She trained and worked with Ernst and Michael Fuchs, a classical artist who taught her Mischtechnik. Through Fuchs she came to know other Visionary artists with whom she has worked, exhibited and co-founded the Academy of Visionary Art in Vienna and the Colorado Alliance for Visionary Art. Sage is a lecturer, teacher, and live artist with works in international galleries and museums.
The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM) is a transdenominational church and nonprofit organization dedicated to the realization of a shared 1985 vision of the American artists Alex and Allyson Grey to build a contemporary public chapel as "a sanctuary for spiritual renewal through contemplation of transformative art".
Peter Gric, or Petr Gric, is an Austrian painter, drawer, and illustrator originally from the Czech Republic. Motifs of futuristic landscapes and architecture, biomechanical surrealism, and fantastic realism can be found in his work. Gric is a member of the art groups Libellule and Labyrinthe.
Arik Moonhawk Roper is an illustrator and painter based in New York City. Roper grew up in Richmond, Virginia. His parents both being artists, his creativity was encouraged and he spent a great deal of time during childhood drawing. After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 1995 specializing in cartooning, illustration, and silk-screening, he began working as a freelance illustrator and storyboard artist for advertising agencies in New York City. In 1998 he was hired as a storyboard revisionist at MTV Animation for the series Downtown. Later he directed his creativity toward more personal interests while shifting into the world of music-related visual art and packaging. After creating album art in the 1990s for bands such as Buzzoven, Weedeater, and Nebula, and working often for Tee Pee Records, his reputation grew within the underground rock and metal scene. In the early 2000s he reconnected with Matt Pike of Sleep and created several album covers for the band High on Fire. He later went on to become closely associated with the band Sleep, having created several album covers for them, including the "bootleg" version of Jerusalem and two versions of the legendary Dopesmoker.
Laurence Caruana is a Maltese artist, writer, and lecturer noted for his contribution to the contemporary visionary art movement, particularly through his Manifesto of Visionary Art.
Art-Club was an association of artists during the postwar period in Vienna, Austria, in 1946–1959.
Suzzan Blac is an English surreal painter whose work depicts physical, mental and sexual abuse based on personal experience.
