All posts by Rosie Lesso

From dusty mountaintops to well-trodden tracks beaten dry by the sun, soft shades of pink like DESERT SAND crop up time and again in Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin’s art. He coupled this warm, hazy shade with lush, tropical greens and blues, conveying far flung, idealised and paradisiacal escapes from the grey smoky haze of the increasingly…

The leading 19th century Japanese artist Utagawa Yoshitora has a particular preference for crushed violet and indigo shades like HERON, weaving them into his intricate ukiyo-e woodblock prints in the most creative and inventive ways. Sometimes they are small accents of mysterious shadow peppered across still, tranquil scenes. Other times they fill much of the…

Tourmaline’s frosty shade of pale turquoise became winter skies, icy water and crystalline, snow peaked mountain tops in the hands of Russian-born painter Nicholas Roerich. A spiritual nomad and intrepid explorer, Roerich spent much of his adult life exploring some of the farthest unchartered reaches of the world, most notably the treacherous terrain of the…

Rich, warm browns like COGNAC linen appeared again and again in Swiss artist Paul Klee’s art, colouring it with deep, dark and mysterious qualities. Klee was one of a generation of early 20th century artists who abandoned references to the real world, reaching instead for ways to represent transcendental experiences and unseen spiritual realms. He…

Torn scraps of everyday life, from old bus tickets to old newspaper pages take on a strange and spiritual magic in the hands of the great Dada collagist Kurt Schwitters, who refashioned them into richly textural, densely layered collages. His art merged quotidian existence with a higher realm, proving even the most mundane of objects…

The great Russian 20th century master Wassily Kandinsky pioneered a bold new language of abstraction, one that was firmly rooted in the spiritual world. He saw art as a bridge between the real world and another place beyond the tangible, one that can only be felt through sonic vibrations of colour, pattern and light. As…

A pioneer in early 20th century abstraction, American symbolist painter Agnes Pelton was one of the first to explore art’s transcendental, otherworldly qualities. She found a route into the unseen spiritual world through the light and wonder of nature, painting sparking fireflies, glowing auras or haloes of sunlight that become gateways into another realm beyond…

In the mystical, surreal world of Swedish painter Hilma Af Klint, eccentric shapes loop, twist and turn through space, carrying with them an energised, spiritual wonder. A pioneering painter of the early 20th century, Klint painted her unique brand of abstraction with a full spectrum of colour, but sandy, warm neutrals like MAHOGANY ROSE often…

Of all the places Henri Matisse visited in his long and prolific career, Morocco was the one that had the most lasting, enduring impact, colouring the art he made for the rest of his life. He made two trips to the ancient city of Tangier from 1912 to 1913, both of which profoundly affected him…