by mathismondhut
published in communion with VisionaryArtists

What has been called visionary art (a very unrepresentative declaration) was and is ignored in the contemporary art world. For example: I was rejected from galleries because my art "feels so timeless," or is "too exciting" (seriously). I heard from others that their visionary creations are too beautiful!

We could start by questioning what the hell is wrong with our culture, but I hope we all do this, as being a visionary artist (to me) means also being a creative cultural activist - an agent of change.

I have felt that I have to educate the world about the deeper meanings of art and the possibilities of what it can be and do. I am not just a single organism that creates art; for me, for my fame and name, this would be a mission too small for my heart and soul's capacities and desires.

Some time has passed and thanks to one of our loving creators, Ernst Fuchs, visionary art is slowly, very slowly, getting recognition in the modern art world. It happens so slowly because the shift in consciousness is not fully activated and working, and yet this creative spirit of change is not dead, it is alive and kicking. You can see this impersonalized in the work of Ken Wilber, Andrew Cohen, and other cultural visionaries. There is a whole movement, not a renaissance (the money is missing, the Medici are dead) but a (r)evolution of the mind. The art we are creating is a part and expression of this massive cultural shift. We are in fact agents of this change, as the contemporary artist defines the future culture. We all see that this movement is growing, metamorphing - flowering, if you like.

The fact is that there are some recognized visionary artists who are merely enjoying their bath in publicity and recognition and are not willing to work for the movement as a whole. This is partly why all of this is moving very slowly. But it is moving; it is still a movement.

I first saw the growing recognition and acceptance of visionary art in the "Summer of Love" exhibition in the Museums Quarter in Vienna. It was a retrospective (yes, something about a dead thing, but at least something about our forefathers) about the wild summer of love. It contained works by Mati Klarwein, Ernst Fuchs, and Isaac Abrahams (the father of psychedelic painting) as well as lots of psychedelic poster art, installation, and videos. For me, it was a nice exhibition, (nothing compared to the Fuchs Museum in Vienna) and the place had incredible energy. The painting by Mati Klarwein, “A Grain of Sand,” was in bad condition, and worst of all, they hung it in a place without proper lighting. Paintings in the “misch-technique” (oil glazes over white tempera under buildings - used by many visionaries) need the best light to vibrate and gloom like they can. This exhibition toured the big museums all around the world (e.g. the Tate, Whitney, etc.)

Now, the exhibition is expanded, and called "Traces du Sacre" ("Ways of the Spirit"), and is showing at the Centre Pampidou in Paris:

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The Lower Belvedere in Vienna is showing another retrospective about fantastic realism, but the only visionary work there is from Ernst Fuchs, including “Anti-Laocoon,” a large-scale pencil drawing, “Green Malach,” a portrait of a crystalline Angelic being, “The Psalm 69,” one of the finest works in misch-technique today, and the mind-expanding “Moses and the Burning Bush,” a miniature so delicate, fine, and perfectly executed that you start to question your senses. But again, it is a retrospective, something about a dead thing, yet it is at least something about our forefathers.

What is more contemporary and showing that there is a visionary art scene alive and growing, the “living” spirit of visionary art, is the following. I recommend that you read about this event:

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Another example of this is the Boom-Festival (the Burning Man of Europe) in Portugal. A whole pavilion opened showing a wide range of established and not so established visionary painters:

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The visionary art movement needs participation and dedication, in a communal sense that transcends egoic desires for fame, name, money, etc. These are all things of the old paradigm of artistic creation, and in our time it is about uniting with the greater good (the platonic ideals of the true, the good and the beautiful), with the thing that is bigger than the ego. It is about participating in this evolution of the mind, a building of a new culture.

Now I should ask you this one question: What can you do to participate in this movement?

One thing that made me really proud of the possibilities inherent in a plattform like DA is this project:

[link]