The spiritual realities of Ithell Colquhoun

Words by Lizzy Jones

Edited by Myfanwy Greene

Ithell Colquhoun was involved with the British Surrealist movement in the 1930s and 1940s, but she soon carved out a place in the art world which was uniquely and radically her own. Colquhoun was a practicing occultist, employing these practices in both her art and her writing to create multi-dimensional universes which engaged with themes of myth, magic, sexual identity, and ecology. The Tate Britain is currently hosting the first major exhibition of her work, ‘Between Worlds’, which traces her development from her early work and initial engagements with surrealism to the culmination of the fusion of her artistic and occult practices in her Tarot deck.

Ithell Colquhoun, ‘Dance of the Nine Opals’, 1942. Image taken at the Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds exhibition, Tate Britain.

In the collection of Colquhoun’s work spells and tesseracts form as much a part of her artistic endeavours as drawings and paintings. Colquhoun was heavily influenced by The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, The Quest Society (which she joined in 1928) and various other magical societies she participated in throughout her life. She sought to construct her own reality and interrogate higher dimensions of reality through esoteric investigations which intertwined creative practices, such as painting and writing. Her art was an aid to her quest for spiritual discovery, as she sought to surpass the physical boundaries of the material world. 

Ithell Colquhoun, ‘Diagrams of Love: The Bird or the Egg?’, 1940-41. Image taken at the Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds exhibition, Tate Britain.

Colquhoun was born in India in 1906 but moved back to England at an early age. She saw herself as occupying a transitional spiritual space between Eastern and Western cultures. Growing up, Colquhoun was surrounded by colonial families who were seeking to reconnect with their English heritage. However, she spent a great deal of her time without the presence of her parents to guide her acclimation. This led her to research the spiritual customs of India, while also growing increasingly interested in how to depict the natural environment through a lens of esoteric philosophies. She was influenced by Eastern mysticism and religious practices such as Hinduism, Christian mysticism, Tantra, Tarot, and blended them with Celtic lore, Christian mysticism, and alchemy. In 1931 in Paris she encountered Surrealism for the first time, and enthusiastically engaged with the movement. She was invited to join the British Surrealists in 1939. However, she later broke away to forge her own path due to her refusal to relinquish her interest in the occult. In the 1950s, she became associated with the Ordo Templi Orientis and New Isis Lodge, and further involved herself throughout the 1960s with organisations such as the Druid Order and the Ancient Celtic Church, which led to her ordination as a Priestess of Isis by 1977. The piece above was part of her Diagrams of Love series 1940-42, in which she explored and reflected kabbalistic, tantric and alchemical ideas. The blue-winged androgynous figure emerges from a red chalice, the vulvic and phallic symbolisms present fusing energies: male and female, birth and death. 

Ithell Colquhoun, ‘Alcove I and II’, 1946-48. Image taken at the Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds exhibition, Tate Britain.

Fumage (using smoke from a flame), decalcomania (transferring images from one surface to another), and parsemage (using water to transfer charcoal power to paper), were all important automatism techniques which Colquhoun used in her work. These techniques were key to surrealist practices, as it allowed the relinquishing of conscious control to access their unconscious mind. Colquhoun took these techniques a step further, using them also to focus on the active translation of external mystical forces. This was strongly bound up in the hermetic philosophy, ‘as above, so below’, which can be used to describe much of Colquhoun’s complex practices and views. This posits that fundamental unity structures the universe, and higher spiritual forces are integrally bound up with the material conditions of our earthly realm. She believed that these automatism techniques were comparable to divination, with the artist acting as a medium to access these higher and external forces.

Ithell Colquhoun, ‘Scylla’, 1938. Image taken at the Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds exhibition, Tate Britain.

Her use of automatism techniques often resulted in vulvic imagery embedded in natural landscapes, which to Colquhoun was symbolic of powerful sacred femininity. She saw art as both an aid to spiritual participation, as well as a vital means of female expression and rejection of traditional power structures at a time when opportunities for women’s liberation were limited. Magic allowed her to navigate the social and political discourses of the 20th century, as she believed that unseen mystical forces had a rejuvenating power which would result in self-fulfillment and could be harnessed for the restoration of human civilisation. Her well-known work ‘Scylla’ plays with the surrealist idea of a double image while presenting an image of female power and sexuality. It initially presents a seascape, but upon closer examination the two outcrops of rocks appear to lean together to form legs, while the seaweed gathered at their base forms the pubic region. The phallic form of the boat makes reference to the Greek myth after which this piece is named, Scylla being a reference to the ancient monster who ate passing sailors. 

Ithell Colquhoun, ‘Tarot Deck’, 1977. Image taken at the Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds exhibition, Tate Britain.

Due to Colquhoun’s non-association with major art groups in Britain, she has been neglected in the dominant art historical discourse. Only recently has she started to receive proper attention marking her out as an autonomous creative agent. The exhibition Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds at Tate Britain builds on the work of leading scholars Amy Hale and Richard Shillitoe. The name itself, ‘Between Worlds,’ marks the connection between art and magic as the framework to investigate how Colquhoun groundbreakingly straddled different modes of existence. It chronologically maps her artistic and spiritual development, visually exploring the influence of esoteric and surrealist concepts. Key themes are identified as emerging in her body of work, namely philosophies of divine androgyne and animism. For the first time, the counterparts for her decalcomania work were displayed alongside their final form, giving insight into how Colquhoun’s artistic process was inherent and fundamental to her spiritual development. The exhibition culminated in her ‘Tarot Deck’, 1977. This embodies her lifetime development of the intertwining of surrealist and esoteric thought. The deck was created through automatic techniques, allowing the natural rhythms of the universe to speak, and the colour symbolism follows the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. 

Ithell Colquhoun, ‘Gorgon’, 1946. Images courtesy of Tate Britain.

With this inspiring and eye-opening exhibition, I have hope that Ithell Colquhoun will continue to gain the recognition she deserves. A groundbreaking practitioner of combined artistic and occult practices, may she prompt a deeper exploration into similar pioneering artists who have slipped between the cracks of major art historical movements to pursue their own independent and unique paths.

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Sources:

Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds, Tate exhibition catalogue, 2025. Edited by Katy Morris. 

https://www.artbasel.com/stories/ithell-colquhoun-surrealism-centenary-pompidou-paris?lang=en

https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/ithell-colquhoun

https://www.frieze.com/article/mystical-symbolism-ithell-colquhouns-tarot-deck