Books, prints, paintings, sculptures and photographs are combined in six themed sections exploring how artists have depicted witches over the past five hundred years.
- Witches’ Sabbaths and Devilish Rituals
- Unnatural Acts of Flying
- Magic Circles, Incantations and Raising the Dead
- Hideous Hags and Beautiful Witches
- Unholy Trinities and The Weird Sisters from Macbeth
- The Persistence of Witches
Witches and Wicked Bodies at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art
“There have been some exhibitions looking at witchcraft in Italy and France in the past, but there has been nothing which has specifically looked at how women have been portrayed, like this exhibition does, and certainly nothing like this at all in Britain… In a way, it is really an exhibition on the suppressed history of how women have been represented by artists throughout European history… There have been a huge number of historians looking at witchcraft over the years, but not that many people have looked at how it has been represented by artists. I think it’s an incredibly relevant exhibition, with men’s representation of women.”
Deanna Petherbridge, curator of the exhibition and author of the accompanying catalogue.
Gallery of images at the Guardian
The exhibition contains works by:
John Bellany, William Blake, Bruegel, Edward Burra, Lucas Cranach, Alan Davie, Paul Delvaux, Albrecht Dürer, John Faed, Frans Francken II, Henry Fuseli, Jacob de Gheyn, Hans Baldung Grien, Francisco de Goya, Markéta Luskacová, John Martin, John Hamilton Mortimer,Paula Rego, Salvator Rosa, Alexander Runciman, John Runciman, Paul Sandby, Cindy Sherman, John Raphael Smith, Kiki Smith and John William Waterhouse.
“From the late 15th century onwards, artists focused on the most sensational aspects of witches’ activities, such as their supposed attendance at sabbaths and their engagement in ‘diabolical pacts’, both of which were thought to have involved lascivious sexual practices.” Patricia Allerston, deputy director of the Scottish National Gallery.
Reviews:
Financial Times
Culture 24
Artfund
Observer