Germanics, the Frye, and the Occult

At the dawn of the 20th century, many European intellectuals were fascinated by the occult. Among them was artist Albert von Keller, whose paintings—currently on display at the Frye Art Museum—explore everything from seances to hypnosis. 

To place Keller’s work in context, the Frye Art Museum and the UW Department of Germanics are presenting a three-lecture series, “Connections and Contexts: Evenings on German Art and Culture.” The series, free and open to the public, has been offered annually since 2005, with topics each year relating to artwork on view at the time.

A collaboration between the Frye and the Department of Germanics made sense, explains Sabine Wilke, chair of the Department of Germanics, because “the Frye, particularly the founding collection, has a very strong German content component. The Fryes spent a lot of time going to Munich, the center for art dealers at the turn of the 20th century.”

Wilke credits Petra Walker, a dedicated volunteer for Germanics and a member of the Frye Art Museum, with encouraging the museum and the UW to join forces. Now staff from the two groups meet annually to plan the year’s lectures, tapping speakers from the Department of Germanics, other UW departments, and occasionally experts from other institutions. 

“We are not an art history department, so our focus is not the work itself but rather placing the work in a context and making connections—hence the name of the lecture series,” says Wilke, who co-directs the series with Heidi Tilghman, administrator and affiliate assistant professor of Germanics. “The point is to open up the material and find its connections to other areas, such as architecture, politics, history, or culture.” Past series have covered everything from the beginnings of opera to the architecture of Postwar Berlin. 

The current exhibit’s focus on the occult provides intriguing avenues for exploration. Keller, a member of the Munich Psychological Society, was intensely interested in paranormal phenomena. His paintings range from a portrait of a renowned “dream dancer” who performed while hypnotized, to a painting in which Christ is a hypnotizer. 

“Last year, the first retrospective of Keller’s work was presented in a major museum in Zurich,” says Wilke. “The curator of that show is co-curator of this one.” 

Wilke will present a November 18 lecture on the origins of modern dance, weaving in a discussion of the dream dancer, Madeleine Guipet. On December 2, Ann-Charlotte Gavel Adams, professor of Scandinavian Studies, will discuss August Strindberg and the Occult Societies of Paris in the 1890s. Professor Georg Braungart from the University of Tuebingen began the series with an October talk on the aesthetic dimension of spiritualism around 1900. 

“We really benefit from the deep expertise provided by the Department of Germanics,” says Jill Rullkoetter, senior deputy director of the Frye. “The lectures are always excellent. They are very engaging—intellectually and visually rich.” 

Both the museum and the UW find that the collaboration has broadened their audience. With lectures attracting up to 100 visitors, “it has enabled us to reach a much broader group of people,” says Rullkoetter. Adds Wilke, “That was the idea—building friends.”