Methodology

Spiritualism significantly influenced art during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the development of modernism and abstract art—this process of creating art through channeling the dead and spirit communication shaped artistic consciousness during this period.

The four main categories of Spirit art were—precipitated paintings, automatic drawing, portraying spirits, and auragraphs—each reflects different aspects of the intersection between spirituality and artistic expression. These art forms were often created under the belief that they were directly influenced or produced by spirits and contributed to the Victorian era’s cultural and creative landscape.

Precipitated paintings, for instance, were believed to be directly created by spirits during seances, bypassing human hands altogether. This concept challenged traditional notions of artistic creation and authorship, introducing new ideas about the artist’s role and the creative process.

Automatic drawing, in which mediums or practitioners of psychic arts allowed a spirit to take control of their body to create art, similarly expanded the boundaries of artistic expression. This process of relinquishing control to a spirit was seen as a way to access untapped creativity and insight, influencing the development of avant-garde artistic techniques.

Portraying spirits and auragraphs provided mediums with a means to represent their spiritual experiences and insights visually. Mediums would sketch the spirits purported to have come through during a seance, and aurographs represented a person’s past, present, and future potential as seen by the clairvoyant. These art forms often reflected the spiritual beliefs and experiences of both the mediums and their audiences, serving as tangible expressions of the spiritual realm.

These artistic practices and their embodied ideas continue to garner debate and appreciation for their historical, cultural, and spiritual significance.

From a historical perspective, the examination of Spirit Art will reflect Spiritualists’ beliefs, practices, and societal norms during the Victorian age in America, particularly during Reconstruction 1863-1877, when the country was most vulnerable. An evaluation of the context of specific religious movements that inspired Christian art during the same period, namely Christian Revivalism, will compare the two belief systems, answering the academically debated question of Spiritualism’s Christian nature. In this regard, Spirit Art is an essential component of the historical record, offering insights into the spiritual and cultural dimensions of competing ideologies and their implications for the future trajectory of both dichotomous religions and American social mores.

Moreover, an analysis of Spirit Art as a visual culture that communicated and reinforced alternative religious narratives will explain its ideological expression and transmission and how these aspects conveyed religious instruction, inspiration, and devotion during a time when numerous religious and racial groups vied to have the transformative power to redefine the country.

A thorough examination of the works produced by Spirit artists Wells and Pet Anderson, Georgiana Houghton, George Wolcutt, and 12 others will illuminate the evolution of thought from their early works through Reconstruction. Likewise, various influential Christian artists will receive the same investigative treatment. An assessment of widely circulated Spiritualist periodicals, Spiritualist lectures, investigations, and artists’ memoirs will deliver additional context regarding the beliefs, goals, and authenticity of the artist’s experience and their audiences. These sources are housed online through the International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals (IAPSOP). Christian periodicals and cartoons will make the cultural battle waged throughout Reconstruction apparent and show that Christian art was one of many tools used to combat spiritualist ideology. Many of these sources are digitized and publicly available through the Library of Congress and the HathiTrust.

The archival evidence will show cultural disparities as art depicted across different ethnicities, religions, and historical periods will vary in style, symbol, and narrative for Christians and Spiritualists. The meaning of various symbols and iconography may shift based on differing ritual practices and purposes. While the “mystical” aspects of Christianity were reserved for union with Christ, Spiritualist art often intersects with mystical and esoteric traditions, which explore spiritual knowledge and experiences beyond the realms of everyday perception coming from the “divine” – not Jesus. Encountering art associated with mystical practices, such as alchemy, astrology, and various forms of spiritual symbolism, will provide further evidence of the aesthetic heterogeneity among Spiritualist believers. 

Studying historical spirit art will reveal how contemporary artists engage with spiritual themes and incorporate them into their work. The research will examine how modern art reinterprets and reimagines traditional spiritual motifs. Modern artistic interpretations of American culture and abstract art will show a direct lineage to Victorian spirit art. By integrating insights from psychology, sociology, art, religious, and intellectual histories, scholars can comprehensively understand spirit art as a complex cultural phenomenon, shedding light on the social, artistic, and philosophical dimensions that helped shape the nation. Such interdisciplinary approaches can enrich our appreciation of the multifaceted ways in which spirit art delineated human experiential expression and the pivotal kinetic interplay between Christians and Spiritualists.