Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation examines the phenomenon of "visionary art"--artwork created by individuals who have been inspired by extraordinary encounters attributed to a supranormal agency such as a deity, a spirit, a divine force, or a sacred realm. Such revelatory experiences exist cross-culturally and the exploration of visionary art and related material culture provides insights that expand our understanding of these realms of human experience.

Paper Abstract:

This presentation, illustrated with visual examples, examines the phenomenon of "visionary art"--artwork created by individuals who have been inspired by extraordinary encounters attributed to a supranormal agency such as a deity, a spirit, a divine force, or a sacred realm. The revelatory experiences that motivate such art are prevalent cross-culturally and historically, as seen in the divinely-inspired creations of shamans, prophets, sages, mystics, and other visionaries. This paper surveys such experiences and then interrogates common characterizations of the loosely defined category of "visionary art." I attempt to offer a more precise definition of the term, while highlighting the importance of contextualizing such art in terms of specific religious traditions and the pervasiveness such encounters, which include trance states, dreams, otherworldly journeys, out-of-body travel, near death experiences, mediumship, clairvoyance, divinely acquired prophetic or healing abilities, and other numinous events. I then explore the relationship between extraordinary numinous experiences and specific individuals who began to create art in response to trauma, loss, or personal crisis.

In some cases, verbalizing visionary experiences, as well as traumatic events, and the emotions that are evoked, is difficult or impossible. But through the materialization of memory and metaphor in art, people may create things that attempt to represent extraordinary encounters that cannot be easily expressed in words. In contrast to the pervasive disciplinary preoccupation with verbal expression and performance, the awareness of tangible materialized artistic expression provides insights that expand our understanding of the marginalized realm of human experiences of the extraordinary.