Ithell Colquhoun: Art, Magic, Surrealism

We will open the evening with a short introduction to the modern history of esotericism by historian Dr Tanya Cheadle, Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. We will then hear from our guest speaker, Dr Amy Hale, about “Ithell Colquhoun’s Radical Normativities”.

Dr Hale has written widely on Ithell Colquhoun and served as an advisor for the retrospective at Tate St Ives and Tate Britain in 2025.

Following the talks, Hunterian Art Curator Dr Lola Sánchez-Jáuregui will explore Colquhoun’s painting 'Gouffres Amers' (1939), one of the best and most fascinating pictures in The Hunterian art collection.

We will finish the evening with a drinks reception in the Hunterian Art Gallery.

, 1939.

One of the most radical artists of her generation, Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) was a pioneering figure in the British Surrealist movement, renowned for her work as an occult artist and theorist. An innovative writer and practising occultist, Colquhoun, over her seven-decade career, explored themes deeply influenced by her spiritual journey, crafting art that seamlessly navigated between the realms of the esoteric and the surreal. Her work often explored themes of sex and gender, experimenting with automatic techniques and using a wide range of methods, including developing new ones. Her contributions, once overshadowed, are now receiving renewed scholarly and public attention.

“Ithell Colquhoun’s Radical Normativities” a lecture by Dr. Amy Hale

As Ithell Colquhoun’s work has reemerged over the past five years, she has often been cast as a radical figure, ahead of her time, and speaking presciently to the concerns of the present moment. Her feminism, interest in transcending gender, commitment to environmental preservation and her understanding that the spirit of the divine runs through all things is often interpreted as in line with progressive responses to the polycrises of the 21st century. However, Colquhoun’s worldview was steeped in the philosophical school known as Traditionalism, and she would have interpreted the perspectives we now see as novel and forward thinking as a return to a deeply ordered universe.

This lecture will explore the philosophical and spiritual frameworks of Colquhoun’s esoteric worldview, and the tensions inherent in interpreting and contextualising her work.

Dr Amy Hale (PhD Folklore UCLA) is an Atlanta based writer, curator, and critic, ethnographer and folklorist, speaking and writing about magic, art, culture, women and Cornwall in various combinations. She has written widely on the surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, and was an advisor for the Colquhoun retrospective at Tate St Ives and Tate Britain in 2025. Her biography of Colquhoun, 'Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully '(2020) is widely praised as being both erudite and readable.

Dr Tanya Cheadle is an historian of modern gender and sexuality, with a particular interest in masculinities, progressive subcultures, and esoteric beliefs in a Scottish and Global context, c1870–1920. Together with Dr Justine Bakker from Radboud University, she leads a project supported by the Glasgow-Radboud Collaboration Fund, entitled "Normative Esotericism: A New Agenda for the Critical Interrogation of Whiteness, Masculinity and Heterosexuality in Esoteric Belief and Praxis."

You can find the Hunterian Art Gallery located on Hillhead Street beside the University of Glasgow Library.

For more information on how to get here and to find out more about venue accessibility, please see the AccessAble guide.

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