Mystical landscapes : from Vincent van Gogh to Emily Carr /

An ambitious exhibition deserves an equally ambitious scholarly catalog. Lochnan (Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada) and her 18 fellow contributors--from a range of specialties including theology, psychology (i.e., Jung), and astrophysics--provide a visually stunning, intellectually engaging examination of spirituality in modern art. Lochnan's introduction establishes the various historical circumstances (for example, apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes) and philosophical influences (Catholic revival; William James) that prodded Symbolist artists and those who followed, including American and Canadian painters, to venture into the nebulous world of mystical expression. Lochnan draws extensively from English scholar of mysticism Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), as does contributor Michael Stoeber, who offers a superb analysis of Underhill's writings (1911-14) and of the Theosophists. Fleshing out the catalogue are essays focusing on a specific artist or broad theme: mysticism in France, looked at through the writings of Henri Bergson and the Catholic devotional practices of Thérèse Martin and Maurice Denis's paintings; Van Gogh's Protestant mysticism versus Gauguin's Catholic adaptations, with a compelling reading of the Brittany masterworks as an intentional triptych; Monet's late work as mystical and Buddhist; architectural landscapes; the astronomical sublime; the imagery of the axis mundi; neuroscience and mysticism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Janice Simon, University of Georgia

During the mid-1800s and into the early 1900s, scientific knowledge expanded the knowable universe: reason and the rational began to define the outer world. The questions remained, and still do, as to humankind's place in the universe and the mystical connection. Artists of this amazing period looked to the symbolic to express this connection, and in painting and poetry, philosophy and music, the insights and expressions became a map of their landscape. This catalog of an exhibition traveling from Toronto to Paris views this experience through the inner visions of artists of the period. Lochnan (senior curator of exhibitions, Art Gallery of Ontario), trained in both art and religion, has brought together an extraordinary group of works to illustrate the "spiritual content" of the art of the Symbolist movement and its followers. -VERDICT This -unusual approach to a subject that has as much of an impact upon the present as it had on the past is elegantly produced with excellent reproductions and contributions from a wide array of authorities in the field.-Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.