|
Breve scheda dell'autrice
|
-
Lady Frieda Harris - Inghilterra
- Artista riconosciuta come
l'esecutrice dei Tarocchi di Thoth di Aleister Crowley.
Ma se Crowley ne è stato il padre, la Harris ne è stata
la madre. I dipinti selezionati per il set finale di carte
sono stati completati nel 1941 ed attualmente conservati
al Warburg Institute di Londra. Versioni
alternative e studi preliminari delle carte che non furono
inclusi nel mazzo definitivo, sono stati conservati da Gerald
Yorke che li vendette tramite il Cecil Court bookdealer Harold Mortlake.
- Muore in India nel 1962.
|
|
|
-
Lady Frieda Harris - England
- Lady Frieda Harris is renowned as the artist who executed Aleister Crowley's Thoth
Tarot. This was, perhaps, Crowley's greated achievement. If Crowley fathered it, Harris was its
mother. It was not an easy birth. She threw herself into the painting as the bombs of the Second World War fell, as predicted in the apocalyptic Third Chapter of their scared text, the Book of the Law. Those paintings selected for the final pack were exhibited twice in 1941. After Crowley's death Harris considered selling them, but it was not to be and in the end she bequeathed them to Gerald Yorke. He placed them with the
Warburg Institute. However, Yorke retained several alternative versions of cards that were not included in the pack and some preliminary studies. These he sold through the Cecil Court bookdealer Harold Mortlake.
- She was a great admirer of Aleister Crowley and it is rumored that they were romantically connected. It is definitely known that her husband did not share her admiration for Crowley.
Harris and Crowley worked together for five years on the card design project (which was supposed to last only three months). He sent her lists of symbols to include on each card, but gave her great latitude in the actual design of the cards. The result was a magnificent collection of paintings.
Although many people associate Aleister Crowley with "black magic,"
the imagery in this beautiful Art Deco style Tarot deck does not reflect any
such associations. Crowley, in his writings, liked to "shock" his
readers. He was also self-serving and egotistical. When the cards appeared in
limited edition in 1944, Crowley pocketed all of the royalties. He did not
share a cent with the artist. The deck was not reproduced again until after
both of their deaths.
- After her husband's death in 1952, Lady Frieda Harris chose to live the last
ten years of her life in India, surviving on modest sales of her paintings,
and literary works. She died in poverty in 1962.
|
|
|
|
More about great Tarotists of Yesteryear
|
|
Edward Alexander Crowley, who called himself Aleister Crowley
|
|
){kind=link}