Ghislaine de Menten de Horne...... La jeune Parque

A little known Belgian artist Ghislaine de Menten de Horne and heroine of the Belgian Resistance, illustrations for an edition of La jeune Parque (The young Fate) published in 1935.

Spoken by a young woman, La jeune Parque is concerned with the battle between body and spirit; and between being and knowing.

She was born Marie Cécile Armande Ghislaine de Menten de Horne, into anaristocratic Belgian family. She attended the Académie Julian, andstudied printmaking in the studio of the engraver Paul Bornet.Subsequently she continued her artistic studies at the Académie Royaledes Beaux Arts in Brussels.

She first exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1931. The thirtieswere marked by her friendships with the philosopher Marie-Anne Cochetand the writer Paul Valéry, and by her work on La jeune Parque and theunpublished Album de vers anciens. In 1942 she exhibited in the Toisond’Or and Breughel galleries in Brussels. Swept into the maelstrom ofWWII, her work with the Luc-Marc Resistance network and the romance ofher relationship with Max Londot, she did not exhibit again until 1966,with shows at the Mont des Arts and La Licorne in Brussels. Regular shows followed in her remaining years, mostly in various Brusselsgalleries, with a posthumous exhibition in the Veilingshuis“Vanderkindere” in 1996, the year after her death. Her artistic estatewas auctioned in aid of Médecins sans frontiers.

Walerian Borowczyk > Escargot de Venus(1975) & L'Amour monstre d tous les temps(1978) ...

Two short documentaries by Borowczyk, not as powerful as his surreal animations, but the subjects are well worth a look,

Escargot de Venus

Featuring Bona Tibertelli De Pisis excellent erotic graphic works - wife of writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues ­ while working in her atelier, together with fragments of her graphic works inspired by one of Remy de Gourmont's writings.

Escargot de Venus

by svarten

L'Amour monstre d tous les temps

A portrait of Serbia's erotic surrealist painter Popovic Ljuba, with Richard Wagner's Tannhauser on the sound track.

Dolorosa ~ after Hans Sebald Beham... pencil and ink 2007

another after Hans Sebald Beham

Kleksographien, Justinus Kerner and me...

A comment by a friend on this drawing of mine, made me search for images of a favourite Justinus Kerner (1786-1862) a poet,physician and "Kleksograph" from Weinsberg, Germany.

Here’s a portrait of Kerner with a portrait of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria hanging in the background, a close friend whom he had a comprehensive correspondance with, which dealt with topics such as clairvoyance, somnambulism and occultism, which i’d love to find! in the photo there is also a copy of the book "Kleksographien" (ink blots and their interpretation, the first recorded discussion) .

Kerner created his "Klesographien"  through the numerous blots on his letters and with wine :)

"In the beginning of the 20th century Hermann Rorschach adapted them to develop a projective test, which was named after him.Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss-born physician whose first and only manuscript

about this test, Psychodiagnostik, published in June 1921, described the

Rorschach procedure that he developed between 1909 and 1913 as a psychiatric

resident at Munsterlingen Mental Hospital in Russia. His procedure for exploring

perceptual and psychological processes was influenced by, among other

things, the Word Association Test that was developed by psychoanalyst Carl

Jung. In his early studies Rorschach compared the responses of psychotic patients

on Jung’s Association Test with those on the inkblot "test" and concluded

that the two tests were tapping somewhat different psychological processes.

Rorschach did not conceive of his technique as a "test" per se but as an empirically

based tool for differentiating the responses of varied groups, including

mentally retarded, schizophrenics, and other groups with known characteristics.

He believed that perceptual processes—how people organize and structure

what they see—are closely linked to aspects of the human psyche. Since the

major symptoms demonstrated by schizophrenics, the clinical population with

which he worked, involve disorders of thought and perception, it follows that

Rorschach would explore procedures to gain better insight into this disorder.

According to Ellenberger (1954), Rorschach saw himself first and foremost

as a scientist and was most interested in pursuing a career in clinical research,

not clinical practice. His development of the inkblot technique was

empirically based. So, it is of interest to note, that some of the strongest critics

of the Rorschach are those in academia and proponents of empirically

based diagnostic and treatment techniques who view the Rorschach technique

as not empirically based."

Anyway to get back to Justinus here some images from the above book,

Ex libris... Austin Osman Spare

Unica Zürn...

A flower, for the spirit that keeps me burning. Paris, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, February 16th 2008.

Unica Zurn writer/artist 1916-1970

My space for Unica Zürn

www.myspace.com/unicazurn

new work...my drawings

Labyrinth by Jan Lenica 1963 part 1&2

"I have always liked to move at the periphery of

Art, at the crossing of genres. ... I have enjoyed ... combining

elements which were seemingly distant, if not quite foreign, blurring

the borders between adjacent areas, transplanting noble qualities to

"lower" genres, in other words - quiet diversion" J Lenica.

Reveries Fantastiques ..Joseph Apoux

Active 1880-1910 Especially renowned for his risqué and titillating etchings. His rather pornographic "alphabet" (circa 1880) is particularly noteworthy. Took part in the L'Exposition Internationale de Blanc et Noir in 1886.

This group of striking images dates to just before the turn of the century and is typical of the "fin de siecle" aesthetic preoccupations with sex, death and the bizarre.