Magic & Modernism
Art from Cornwall in Context 1800-1950
Rupert White
Antenna 2023
Pb, 190pp, £10, ISBN 9798376360903
Ill-Wished
Witchcraft and Magic in 19th-Century Cornwall
Rupert White
Antenna 2023
Pb, 232pp, £9.95, ISBN 9798388351715
There is no shortage of popular and scholarly studies on Cornwall and its folklore and customs, nor indeed on its artists, both homegrown and incomers to the area. But few authors have documented the plurality of interconnections between the art scene of Cornwall and the magical and folklore traditions that serve as its inspiration.
In Magic & Modernism Rupert White has taken that leap. As he points out: “Existing narratives have tended to describe the activities of the artists as if they relate only to art-history and to æsthetic concerns that belong to an exclusive, even elitist art-world.” This work takes us on a richly illustrated and winding journey through the rediscovery by occultists and artists of a distinctly Cornish Celtic identity, already understood and appreciated by the Duchy’s native inhabitants.
Beginning with a reflection on British culture in general, White goes on to consider the mineral collectors and antiquarians, early visitors from outside, who studied Cornwall’s extensive prehistoric remains. He continues in a discussion of how research by folklorists and the reconsideration of the Arthurian Grail legend coincided synchronistically with the arrival of the railway, providing the seeds for a flourishing of interest in Cornish culture and folklore.
