October 14 - November 18, 2026

Wednesdays 1-3 pm

Bower's Museum, Kershaw Auditorium

Lecturer: Annalee Andres

Cost: $210

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In this six-week session, Annalee Andres explores the work of artists who understood their creative practice as a spiritual search—one that sought to give visual form to realities beyond the material world. Across six centuries, from the luminous devotional paintings of Fra Angelico and El Greco to the transcendent color fields of Mark Rothko, we will examine artists who believed that creativity could serve as a bridge between the visible and the invisible. Visionaries such as Marc Chagall, Hilma af Klint, and James Turrell attribute their artistic innovations to inspiration drawn from mystical experience, spiritual conviction, or a profound sense of connection to something greater than themselves. 

 

As ever, we will contextualize these movements into the historical timeframe  in which they emerge.  While some of the artists we will encounter were deeply rooted in established religious traditions, others pursued more personal or unconventional paths, influenced by mysticism, philosophy, Theosophy, or the search for universal truths.  Through close study of extraordinary works of art, this course considers how artists across time have sought not merely to represent the world as it appears, but to illuminate the unseen and invite us into experiences of wonder, contemplation, and transcendence.

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