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The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World
The first major work of art history to focus on women artists and their engagement with the spirit world, by the author of The Mirror and the Palette.
It's not so long ago that a woman's expressed interest in other realms would have ruined her reputation, or even killed her. And yet spiritualism, in various incarnations, has influenced numerous men—including lauded modernist artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Paul Klee—without repercussion. The fact that so many radical female artists of their generation—and earlier—also drank deeply from the same spiritual well has been sorely neglected for too long.
In The Other Side, we explore the lives and work of a group of extraordinary women, from the twelfth-century mystic, composer, and artist Hildegard of Bingen to the nineteenth-century English spiritualist Georgiana Houghton, whose paintings swirl like a cosmic Jackson Pollock; the early twentieth-century Swedish artist, Hilma af Klint, who painted with the help of her spirit guides and whose recent exhibition at New York's Guggenheim broke all attendance records to the 'Desert Transcendentalist', Agnes Pelton, who painted her visions beneath the vast skies of California. We also learn about the Swiss healer, Emma Kunz, who used geometric drawings to treat her patients and the British surrealist and occultist, Ithell Colquhoun, whose estate of more than 5,000 works recently entered the Tate gallery collection. While the individual work of these artists is unique, the women loosely shared the same to communicate with, and learn from, other dimensions.
Weaving in and out of these myriad lives while sharing her own memories of otherworldly experiences, Jennifer Higgie discusses the solace of ritual, the gender exclusions of art history, the contemporary relevance of myth, the boom in alternative ways of understanding the world and the impact of spiritualism on feminism and contemporary art. A radical reappraisal of a marginalized group of artists, The Other Side is an intoxicating blend of memoir, biography, and art history.
It's not so long ago that a woman's expressed interest in other realms would have ruined her reputation, or even killed her. And yet spiritualism, in various incarnations, has influenced numerous men—including lauded modernist artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Paul Klee—without repercussion. The fact that so many radical female artists of their generation—and earlier—also drank deeply from the same spiritual well has been sorely neglected for too long.
In The Other Side, we explore the lives and work of a group of extraordinary women, from the twelfth-century mystic, composer, and artist Hildegard of Bingen to the nineteenth-century English spiritualist Georgiana Houghton, whose paintings swirl like a cosmic Jackson Pollock; the early twentieth-century Swedish artist, Hilma af Klint, who painted with the help of her spirit guides and whose recent exhibition at New York's Guggenheim broke all attendance records to the 'Desert Transcendentalist', Agnes Pelton, who painted her visions beneath the vast skies of California. We also learn about the Swiss healer, Emma Kunz, who used geometric drawings to treat her patients and the British surrealist and occultist, Ithell Colquhoun, whose estate of more than 5,000 works recently entered the Tate gallery collection. While the individual work of these artists is unique, the women loosely shared the same to communicate with, and learn from, other dimensions.
Weaving in and out of these myriad lives while sharing her own memories of otherworldly experiences, Jennifer Higgie discusses the solace of ritual, the gender exclusions of art history, the contemporary relevance of myth, the boom in alternative ways of understanding the world and the impact of spiritualism on feminism and contemporary art. A radical reappraisal of a marginalized group of artists, The Other Side is an intoxicating blend of memoir, biography, and art history.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 2, 2024
216 people are currently reading
3500 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
May 3, 2024
With 35 pages to go, I exasperatingly had to put this book down. While I love the challenge of a hard read, I considered this difficult for all the wrong reasons. Not only did I find the wispy tone of the author substantially lacking any real content, I simply could not hold my attention to the page except in rage, as there were almost no nuanced takes or meaningful contributions towards the conversation of women's struggles and efforts in the community of the Arts in a dominating culture of White-Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.
Between endless citations of artists and tone deaf dribble of what could or could not be real, the blatant classist and racial irony I think got me the hardest. How Higgie can flesh out a 264 page stream of consciousness essay (excluding the 41 pages of references to those citations) critiquing mens privilege and power of influence in that domain, baffles me. Stressing how important it is culturally to include women, she loudly and obviously paints the portrait of a white woman oblivious to how she herself excludes such important recognition of people of colour, of WOMEN of colour. Considering her topic I do not understand how you can claim to be writing a book on feminism and how radical it is to engage in spiritual practice, while completely ignoring an entire group of marginalised and oppressed people who have played the vital and integral part of BEING the foundations of a field of work which you are now so nonchalantly benefitting off of. I do not see how we can have any progressive discussion on such a weighted subject without more than a tokenistic footnote for understanding that art criticism based on white history perpetuates the exclusion of Black and POC artists which, therefore, will keep you operating in that same oppressive system. Anyway! Noa out.
Between endless citations of artists and tone deaf dribble of what could or could not be real, the blatant classist and racial irony I think got me the hardest. How Higgie can flesh out a 264 page stream of consciousness essay (excluding the 41 pages of references to those citations) critiquing mens privilege and power of influence in that domain, baffles me. Stressing how important it is culturally to include women, she loudly and obviously paints the portrait of a white woman oblivious to how she herself excludes such important recognition of people of colour, of WOMEN of colour. Considering her topic I do not understand how you can claim to be writing a book on feminism and how radical it is to engage in spiritual practice, while completely ignoring an entire group of marginalised and oppressed people who have played the vital and integral part of BEING the foundations of a field of work which you are now so nonchalantly benefitting off of. I do not see how we can have any progressive discussion on such a weighted subject without more than a tokenistic footnote for understanding that art criticism based on white history perpetuates the exclusion of Black and POC artists which, therefore, will keep you operating in that same oppressive system. Anyway! Noa out.
March 22, 2023
I have mixed feelings about this book. It introduced me to several incredible artists but I found it to be superficial. It is challenging content to write about.
Would have been nice to see the images referenced with page numbers + more images in general. The art history is strong but the personal anecdotes don’t add anything. I’m also curious if the author has a spiritual practice, it remains unclear.
I was surprised when in the final chapter Higgie writes:
“… the Cuban American artist, Ana Mendietta, who died in 1985 at the age of thirty-six after falling from the window of her 34th floor apartment following and argument with her husband, the artist Carl Andre.”
The comment is made in passing. It’s confusing to me why she would bring up something so controversial and so clearly take the side of Andre (the institution) after writing a book about radical women artists.
Then again.. it isn’t confusing.. you can take the writer out of Frieze but you can’t take Frieze out of the writer.
Would have been nice to see the images referenced with page numbers + more images in general. The art history is strong but the personal anecdotes don’t add anything. I’m also curious if the author has a spiritual practice, it remains unclear.
I was surprised when in the final chapter Higgie writes:
“… the Cuban American artist, Ana Mendietta, who died in 1985 at the age of thirty-six after falling from the window of her 34th floor apartment following and argument with her husband, the artist Carl Andre.”
The comment is made in passing. It’s confusing to me why she would bring up something so controversial and so clearly take the side of Andre (the institution) after writing a book about radical women artists.
Then again.. it isn’t confusing.. you can take the writer out of Frieze but you can’t take Frieze out of the writer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2024
Honestly, I find whatever Jennifer Higgie writes to be fascinating. This was no exception. Her study of female artists using spirituality in their work is engaging, entertaining and enlightening. Once again I found myself googling like a bugger to look up artists and pieces of work that I'd never come across. I like that Higgie provides a bit of her own personal history in this book too, and some of her experiences during the pandemic (which obviously made most of us a little more introspective and reflective). The colour photographs of the artworks referenced are absolutely stunning, really vivid and high quality on glossy paper.
I love this book, it's definitely a keeper and it's going right on my feminism shelf with Higgie's other book The Mirror and the Palette. An inspirational read from start to finish.
I love this book, it's definitely a keeper and it's going right on my feminism shelf with Higgie's other book The Mirror and the Palette. An inspirational read from start to finish.
August 8, 2023
"'However fragmentary its condition, any work of art is actually a portion of arrested happening, or an emanation of past time. It is a graph of an activity now stilled, but a graph made visible like an astronomical body, by a light that originated with the activity'" (Kubler quoted by Higgie, 245).
One of the best releases of 2023, an insightful art historical text with the welcoming authorial voice of memoir. I secured this gem (on sale!) from a feminist bookshop that was closing in Edinburgh (RIP, Blunt Knife) and began The Other Side excited to think more about art as the intersection of the visible and invisible... but I was also admitedly guarded; I was unsure how such a text could ever hope to range between sacred figures like Hildegard van Bingen and occultism.
It's difficult to know where to begin, but I found this book beneficially picked up many loose threads I had been considering after recent museum visits: Ithell Colquhoun seen in London and Paris, the role of Theosophy for the modernists after time at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and Hilma af Klint's dense secret language from the Tate Modern's massive exhibition with Mondrian.
There is an incredible amount to absorb: the craze of Victorian fairy paintings and the seduction of new photography, the relationship of the surge of Spiritualism in the US to a) the grief after the bloodbath of the Civil War and b) emancipatory politics in terms of abolition and women's suffrage, the Pre-Raphaelites to the Freudian dreams of Surrealism, automatic drawing to weaving to Niki de Saint Phalle's livable sculptures. Women step out of the shadows: Emma Kunz, Georgiana Houghton, Anna Mary Howitt, Agnes Pelton, Lenore Tawney, and many more.
There are certainly areas in which I disagree, such as the discussion of the Virgin Mary as an essentially "disempowered" figure on page 258, but I remain rooted in the value of mystery.
One of the best releases of 2023, an insightful art historical text with the welcoming authorial voice of memoir. I secured this gem (on sale!) from a feminist bookshop that was closing in Edinburgh (RIP, Blunt Knife) and began The Other Side excited to think more about art as the intersection of the visible and invisible... but I was also admitedly guarded; I was unsure how such a text could ever hope to range between sacred figures like Hildegard van Bingen and occultism.
It's difficult to know where to begin, but I found this book beneficially picked up many loose threads I had been considering after recent museum visits: Ithell Colquhoun seen in London and Paris, the role of Theosophy for the modernists after time at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and Hilma af Klint's dense secret language from the Tate Modern's massive exhibition with Mondrian.
There is an incredible amount to absorb: the craze of Victorian fairy paintings and the seduction of new photography, the relationship of the surge of Spiritualism in the US to a) the grief after the bloodbath of the Civil War and b) emancipatory politics in terms of abolition and women's suffrage, the Pre-Raphaelites to the Freudian dreams of Surrealism, automatic drawing to weaving to Niki de Saint Phalle's livable sculptures. Women step out of the shadows: Emma Kunz, Georgiana Houghton, Anna Mary Howitt, Agnes Pelton, Lenore Tawney, and many more.
There are certainly areas in which I disagree, such as the discussion of the Virgin Mary as an essentially "disempowered" figure on page 258, but I remain rooted in the value of mystery.
June 12, 2024
this was more so a list of artists and their biographies than a meaningful discussion of the topics mentioned in the title. more disappointing is the complete focus on western women which considering the content of the book… how is ur book so focused on the themes of exclusion and prejudice and then u go on and largely disregard non white artists
August 5, 2024
Maybe I went into reading this book with the wrong expectations or maybe I’m not enough of an art history nerd but I would have found this book a lot more enjoyable had there been more of a red thread throughout / had the writer placed slightly more emphasis on the memoir part as opposed to the art history part.
May 14, 2023
I cannot recommend this highly enough. A book I will return to again and again. The chapter on weaving was a particular highlight and just the start of a whole world to explore. I look back on years at art school and wish I had had these stories to affirm my practice.
October 26, 2023
This book gratefully found me at the right time, much like the art highlighted. I loved the amalgamation of artists stories and the authors lived experiences. It was beautifully written and heroes women in a space saturated by men.
October 12, 2023
4.5 ⭐️!
This book was so so interesting. I really enjoyed reading it, it wasn’t bland or disengaging like some non fiction / reference / essay pieces are. I liked the author’s personal anecdotes throughout the book too. Overall it was well researched and fun to whiz through. My only criticism would be more art pages would have been great.
This book was so so interesting. I really enjoyed reading it, it wasn’t bland or disengaging like some non fiction / reference / essay pieces are. I liked the author’s personal anecdotes throughout the book too. Overall it was well researched and fun to whiz through. My only criticism would be more art pages would have been great.
August 13, 2023
Such a good intro to art and spiritualism. Will definitely be referencing in future
January 13, 2025
Yes... Yes I get large parts of this book, and dare to say even agree to some of them.
The book describes different spiritual women who paint their spiritual experiences. The term spiritual is difficult to render, whereas in this book it seems to pertain to the energies of the universe which direct us to express oneself through our creativeness. In the same way we know that the waves have energy, the moon controls the tides, gravity keeps us floating steadily in the solar system, yes, unseen energies do have sway over us. This is not a new theory, indeed Plato was talking about 'outside' the universe, and the ancients discussing the different 'airs' and 'ethers' in the universe. Indeed the Medievals believed the saints spirits walked amongst them.
The book explores different women artists who 'channel' these energies into art, usually through seances, tarot, meditation, kabbalah, etc. Whilst I personally agree this is probable, what is omitted in the book is that not all the energies from the universe are necessarily benevolent. As one priest put it 'God's not the only one broadcasting on that frequency'. The statue of lileth mentioned, as well as the blasphemies by various artists, seems leads me to think that someone else is working within them.
Looking at the lives of these different artists, and indeed the art they create, I can't help feeling that it reflects a self-centred view of the universe. The artist expounds the feelings of 'one' and 'self' whilst taking the energies from the greater (whether that be the universe, the Urmutter, etc). The art they create isn't to elevate others, but to drag down the cosmos to human levels we can never hope to appreciate. Rather than acknowledging the enormity of the task, it feels trite that one can hope to bind cosmic energies into a piece of canvas.
As in my own discipline of music, one can certainly create 'harmonies of the universe' when singing or playing, which reverberate with the different planetary and cosmic harmonies (which I truly believe), because there is a living tangible energy from the music. Art doesn't have quite the same ease as which music does (and indeed music is mentioned often in the book in this way).
The art created and displayed throughout the book was dragging down the universe to earthly levels and keeping it as a slave to be viewed in front of humans, whereas art which lifts up humans to heaven doesn't really seem to feature.
What I mainly gained from this book was that the feminism described seems to be intrinsically linked with the demonic, and as such demonic grotesque art comes from it.
This is a new venture into a feminist book for me, but it ended up leaving me cold, rather than helping the search for the higher, it rather led me to despair that we're left with mediums and tarot readers to interpret the universe for us.
I gave it three stars, as the writer has a really nice to read style, and what was said was interesting in parts, but I feel it fell short of the mark in truly understanding what the 'spiritual' is; perhaps to me growing up Catholic, it doesn't surprise me that there are other 'forces' at work around us which we cannot see.
Also, Hildegard of Bingen was not a feminist.
The book describes different spiritual women who paint their spiritual experiences. The term spiritual is difficult to render, whereas in this book it seems to pertain to the energies of the universe which direct us to express oneself through our creativeness. In the same way we know that the waves have energy, the moon controls the tides, gravity keeps us floating steadily in the solar system, yes, unseen energies do have sway over us. This is not a new theory, indeed Plato was talking about 'outside' the universe, and the ancients discussing the different 'airs' and 'ethers' in the universe. Indeed the Medievals believed the saints spirits walked amongst them.
The book explores different women artists who 'channel' these energies into art, usually through seances, tarot, meditation, kabbalah, etc. Whilst I personally agree this is probable, what is omitted in the book is that not all the energies from the universe are necessarily benevolent. As one priest put it 'God's not the only one broadcasting on that frequency'. The statue of lileth mentioned, as well as the blasphemies by various artists, seems leads me to think that someone else is working within them.
Looking at the lives of these different artists, and indeed the art they create, I can't help feeling that it reflects a self-centred view of the universe. The artist expounds the feelings of 'one' and 'self' whilst taking the energies from the greater (whether that be the universe, the Urmutter, etc). The art they create isn't to elevate others, but to drag down the cosmos to human levels we can never hope to appreciate. Rather than acknowledging the enormity of the task, it feels trite that one can hope to bind cosmic energies into a piece of canvas.
As in my own discipline of music, one can certainly create 'harmonies of the universe' when singing or playing, which reverberate with the different planetary and cosmic harmonies (which I truly believe), because there is a living tangible energy from the music. Art doesn't have quite the same ease as which music does (and indeed music is mentioned often in the book in this way).
The art created and displayed throughout the book was dragging down the universe to earthly levels and keeping it as a slave to be viewed in front of humans, whereas art which lifts up humans to heaven doesn't really seem to feature.
What I mainly gained from this book was that the feminism described seems to be intrinsically linked with the demonic, and as such demonic grotesque art comes from it.
This is a new venture into a feminist book for me, but it ended up leaving me cold, rather than helping the search for the higher, it rather led me to despair that we're left with mediums and tarot readers to interpret the universe for us.
I gave it three stars, as the writer has a really nice to read style, and what was said was interesting in parts, but I feel it fell short of the mark in truly understanding what the 'spiritual' is; perhaps to me growing up Catholic, it doesn't surprise me that there are other 'forces' at work around us which we cannot see.
Also, Hildegard of Bingen was not a feminist.
April 2, 2025
Jennifer Higgie's The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World is absolutely brimming with information and insight about women artists connected to spiritualism and the occult. I found myself constantly pausing to look up artworks, exhibitions, and quotes mentioned throughout - from familiar figures like Hildegard of Bingen and Hilma af Klint to fascinating spiritualist artists I'd never encountered before. The memoir elements woven throughout added so much to my reading experience, despite some reviewers apparently hating this approach. When a book's subject fascinates me this much, I naturally want to know about the person behind the words! Higgie's personal reflections give the historical accounts a warmth and resonance that purely academic writing would miss. What made this book particularly special for me was experiencing so many "literary synchronicities" while reading - those magical moments when Higgie's explorations seemed to be in direct conversation with other texts I've been thinking about or concepts I've been mulling over. As for the complaints about not enough images - this was never marketed as an art book in the first place, so I don't understand that criticism at all. The rich descriptions and historical context Higgie provides created vivid mental images that sent me on numerous research rabbit holes, which is exactly what I want from this kind of book.
December 22, 2024
Very my-mum…
White feminist quasi-spiritualist hippy/occultist artist.
Introduced me to some very cool artists I didn’t know about, great art history and little biopics, these parts quite engaging.
Less engaging and cool were her drawn out anecdotes about travelling around Greece or gardening in the pandemic. Really just boring. I think meant to be deep? Not deep.
The history was broadly focused on white women (mainly from the late 1700’s-early 1900’s) interested in occultism and spirits, generally wealthy women, presenting interest in a suspiciously popular, public and commercial witchy-woo-woo way.
Only touched on any women of colour in a very passing way. Especially disappointed that as an Australian, Higgies had such an apparent Eurocentrism and yearning for the romantic image of Europe and the near east, and so little connection to place (or effort to create a connection) to the continent she was born to. The continent, one might note, with communities holding the longest unbroken cultures, including traditions of spiritualism and women in art.
Overall, as other reviews have noted - very shallow book, especially for a purportedly deep theme.
Still just kind of a cool read. Is ok I suppose.
Not as feminist as the author thinks. Not as controversial, or actually spiritual, as the author thinks.
White feminist quasi-spiritualist hippy/occultist artist.
Introduced me to some very cool artists I didn’t know about, great art history and little biopics, these parts quite engaging.
Less engaging and cool were her drawn out anecdotes about travelling around Greece or gardening in the pandemic. Really just boring. I think meant to be deep? Not deep.
The history was broadly focused on white women (mainly from the late 1700’s-early 1900’s) interested in occultism and spirits, generally wealthy women, presenting interest in a suspiciously popular, public and commercial witchy-woo-woo way.
Only touched on any women of colour in a very passing way. Especially disappointed that as an Australian, Higgies had such an apparent Eurocentrism and yearning for the romantic image of Europe and the near east, and so little connection to place (or effort to create a connection) to the continent she was born to. The continent, one might note, with communities holding the longest unbroken cultures, including traditions of spiritualism and women in art.
Overall, as other reviews have noted - very shallow book, especially for a purportedly deep theme.
Still just kind of a cool read. Is ok I suppose.
Not as feminist as the author thinks. Not as controversial, or actually spiritual, as the author thinks.
February 25, 2025
i love spirituality in art and this was a great intro into some incredibly talented artists whose stories and work deserve to be shared but i felt it was too surface level to have a deep impact on me. i wanted to get into the weeds but it was more of an HOA-approved lawn you know??
June 17, 2024
This book was an amazing dive into spiritualist art & artists. I have so many more threads to pull on this topic - I can't wait to learn more!
Read
December 11, 2024you were good, I‘m waiting for you to be great
April 26, 2024
This book is one I’d like to keep and refer to forever. Love it!
August 10, 2024
This is a credulous woo-woo mess with Didn’t-Need-to-Be-a-Memoiritis and that bums me out because it’s genuinely a cool idea. This is awful execution though, full of the ‘feminism needs spirituality’ viewpoint I loathe, gender essentialism, and bad history. I long for a decent, pop-accessible look at theosophy and its influence on arts and culture that maybe occasionally mines the inherent comedy of late 19th/early 20th century occultism, is critical when it needs to be and appreciative when such a thing is due, but this book is not it. It’s weirdly credulous about, of all things, the Cottingley Fairies and spirit photography. It’s way too positive about the decidedly mixed legacy of theosophy, anthroposophy, and spiritualism. And for a book about the importance of keeping the spiritual dimension of art in the study of that art, I can’t believe that the whole section on Hildegard of Bingen doesn’t talk at all about how deeply Christian her work is (or the fact that it’s recognisably biblical prophecy. Or that it’s deeply apocalyptic). Oh, no, I actually can. New Age Hildegard is gonna be the death of me one of these days because I will split my head open from banging it against my desk.
May 4, 2025
I wish this book was presented as a visual essay. I had to get my phone out every 2 minutes to look up the mentioned artists ( which was still worth it, because all of them were astonishing ). It rather felt like a continuous list of biographies of great women artists influenced by the spirit world than a nicely flowing storyline. Really missed the images, could have added a whole different dimension to this book, still happy I read it
January 31, 2024
I loved this book and found it so intriguing. It ponders the connection between art and the spirit world. I love how she reveals great female artists such as Hilma Klint had long been practising abstract art before their male counterparts claimed authenticity of the genre. I love how inclusive it is spanning a lifetime of indigenous artists across many spectrums.
December 15, 2023
Read to learn a bit more about the theosophical spiritualism that my great grandmother believed in, but got a lot more out of it than I expected.
March 31, 2024
I was kinda disappointed by this book, though it's not bad. I think I expected more from it in terms of memoir - perhaps I was expecting something like the exquisite Olivia Laing books "The Lonely City" and "To The River" which masterfully blend memoir with art history in a really compelling way.
This one is more like a list of names, a quick biography of each artist forced in, and tiny anecdotes from the author's life that don't really make us feel like we got to know her very well, nor did they feel particularly relevant to the other content.
I think this would have been MUCH better as a big fat visual coffee table art book. I would have loved to have SEEN every piece of art as it was being mentioned. I was doing my best to google them as I went, but it wasn't great.
As far as a book which is a list of names goes, it's a good list of names. Obviously there are a HUGE number of wonderful female artists one could acknowledge in this context and by doing so, the book itself had to be quite superficial. It also, as another reviewer has noted, quite white-and-western-centric, and while a lot of its language pays lip service to political correctness and minorities of various kinds, it doesn't own its own bias or directional lens.
As someone interested in deepening my own spiritual practice and fascinated with that of others, I was left disappointed, getting only the superficial level of detail about each artist, and almost nothing from the author herself.
Another way I might have enjoyed this book better is if it was a much shorter list of artists but went much more into depth into the lives & practices of a few artists; perhaps with a "see also" list of their influences & contemporaries at the end of each chapter so one could research further if so inclined.
The overall intention & message is here - bringing more awareness to the discrimination in the art world and the challenges many female artists faced, shining a light on the spiritual connections of this list of wonderful artists (and some of their male contemporaries, for contrast), and it is a decent invitation to look into each of the artists further. But it's not the revelation a friend described to me after reading it, it's not the book I thought it was when I picked it up and gasped in a bookshop, thinking this was EXACTLY what I was looking for.
At the back of the book there's an extensive index, list of illustration credits, select bibliography, and "notes" which seems to be mostly URL references... but what I was most hoping for is not here which has me despairing - I want a list of every artist mentioned, their name and the pieces which were mentioned, so I could look them each up now, see the works, and figure out who I'd like to study further. For a book about visual art which has so little visuals in it, this seems essential and I'm very upset it's not included.
This one is more like a list of names, a quick biography of each artist forced in, and tiny anecdotes from the author's life that don't really make us feel like we got to know her very well, nor did they feel particularly relevant to the other content.
I think this would have been MUCH better as a big fat visual coffee table art book. I would have loved to have SEEN every piece of art as it was being mentioned. I was doing my best to google them as I went, but it wasn't great.
As far as a book which is a list of names goes, it's a good list of names. Obviously there are a HUGE number of wonderful female artists one could acknowledge in this context and by doing so, the book itself had to be quite superficial. It also, as another reviewer has noted, quite white-and-western-centric, and while a lot of its language pays lip service to political correctness and minorities of various kinds, it doesn't own its own bias or directional lens.
As someone interested in deepening my own spiritual practice and fascinated with that of others, I was left disappointed, getting only the superficial level of detail about each artist, and almost nothing from the author herself.
Another way I might have enjoyed this book better is if it was a much shorter list of artists but went much more into depth into the lives & practices of a few artists; perhaps with a "see also" list of their influences & contemporaries at the end of each chapter so one could research further if so inclined.
The overall intention & message is here - bringing more awareness to the discrimination in the art world and the challenges many female artists faced, shining a light on the spiritual connections of this list of wonderful artists (and some of their male contemporaries, for contrast), and it is a decent invitation to look into each of the artists further. But it's not the revelation a friend described to me after reading it, it's not the book I thought it was when I picked it up and gasped in a bookshop, thinking this was EXACTLY what I was looking for.
At the back of the book there's an extensive index, list of illustration credits, select bibliography, and "notes" which seems to be mostly URL references... but what I was most hoping for is not here which has me despairing - I want a list of every artist mentioned, their name and the pieces which were mentioned, so I could look them each up now, see the works, and figure out who I'd like to study further. For a book about visual art which has so little visuals in it, this seems essential and I'm very upset it's not included.
May 4, 2024
--- "Abstraction did not mean absence of meaning: quite the opposite." (Higgie: 18)
--- "Acknowledging that there are ways of living that are not always constrained by reason is not necessarily a call to be apolitical or divorced from the very real problems the planet is facing – rather, it’s about embracing fresh, more nuanced ways of governing that are sensitive to difference; about seeing alternatives to tired or outdated structures and of finding other ways to reconnect with and heal ourselves and the environment." (Higgie: 29)
--- "it’s undeniable that Spiritualism – aptly, a movement started by two girls – encouraged female visibility and supported universal suffrage. It gave women a voice, allowed them to perform in public, to earn a living and to travel; an unusual state of affairs in the nineteenth century." (Higgie: 50)
--- "when a male artist explored spirituality it didn’t necessarily harm his career, but when a woman followed the same path, she was dismissed as, at best, eccentric, at worst, a maverick." (Higgie: 130)
--- "After all, it was conscious minds and governments that had agreed to the mass slaughter: Why should they be trusted?" (Higgie: 146)
--- "Piet Mondrian joined the Dutch branch of the Theosophical Society in 1909." (Higgie: 102)
This book is about Spiritualism and how it influenced artists or how it has been studied. The book focuses on women, including those that created Spiritualism or followed it. The author also narrates her own life, which I think was not necessary. Having read the ebook version of the book I wish pictures had come next to the text rather than at the end. The author has a tendency to describe the artist's life, which I very often found irrelevant although descriptions weren't that long. The book has helped me understand Die Blue Reiter or Surrealism better and that is something I will always be grateful for to this book. This is why I rated it 4 stars instead of my first 3.
--- "Acknowledging that there are ways of living that are not always constrained by reason is not necessarily a call to be apolitical or divorced from the very real problems the planet is facing – rather, it’s about embracing fresh, more nuanced ways of governing that are sensitive to difference; about seeing alternatives to tired or outdated structures and of finding other ways to reconnect with and heal ourselves and the environment." (Higgie: 29)
--- "it’s undeniable that Spiritualism – aptly, a movement started by two girls – encouraged female visibility and supported universal suffrage. It gave women a voice, allowed them to perform in public, to earn a living and to travel; an unusual state of affairs in the nineteenth century." (Higgie: 50)
--- "when a male artist explored spirituality it didn’t necessarily harm his career, but when a woman followed the same path, she was dismissed as, at best, eccentric, at worst, a maverick." (Higgie: 130)
--- "After all, it was conscious minds and governments that had agreed to the mass slaughter: Why should they be trusted?" (Higgie: 146)
--- "Piet Mondrian joined the Dutch branch of the Theosophical Society in 1909." (Higgie: 102)
This book is about Spiritualism and how it influenced artists or how it has been studied. The book focuses on women, including those that created Spiritualism or followed it. The author also narrates her own life, which I think was not necessary. Having read the ebook version of the book I wish pictures had come next to the text rather than at the end. The author has a tendency to describe the artist's life, which I very often found irrelevant although descriptions weren't that long. The book has helped me understand Die Blue Reiter or Surrealism better and that is something I will always be grateful for to this book. This is why I rated it 4 stars instead of my first 3.
April 5, 2025
Take a walk into the world of female occult artistic trends and influence…
The Other Side: A Journey Into Women, Art and the Spirit World by Jennifer Higgie is part mini-biography of the Australian artist author but mostly an anthology of influence women artists that had annikpact on her own development…
This book covers multiple artistic genres and elements as it takes you through a leapfrog history from the early 19th century to late 20th century….
The artists draw from the surrealist to the abstract to the symbolist to dada and beyond…and yeah there are probably some movements I should name but can’t remember because it covered a lot…
Meanwhile many of these women were also spiritualists, theosophists, mediums, fortune tellers, probably crazy…among other things. Don’t get me wrong, some of these ladies (specifically the Fox sisters and Madame Blavatsky) were total con artists but it doesn’t mean they weren’t talented…
Some even dip into the political as you’ll find one or two of these artists involved in the suffrage movement of the 19th century…
Peppered throughout are the author’s own first encounters (from her own private artist learning journey) with the names she covers.
A wealth of art and photos of the subjects involved also helps illuminate their artistic story (though there’s also plenty you don’t have pics of)…
If anything, the chapter length coverage of many of the figures in this book will likely leave you wanting more…directing you to begin your own journey in training down their history and pics of their various art. One particular notable one for me was a kate 20th century artist that did an abstract taro gallery showing with a “new form” of tarot cards, and I really wanna find a full gallery of what the art looked like and find out what happened to those pieces.
The back matter includes footnotes that might be a good start if you decide to do further research on your own…
The Other Side: A Journey Into Women, Art and the Spirit World by Jennifer Higgie is part mini-biography of the Australian artist author but mostly an anthology of influence women artists that had annikpact on her own development…
This book covers multiple artistic genres and elements as it takes you through a leapfrog history from the early 19th century to late 20th century….
The artists draw from the surrealist to the abstract to the symbolist to dada and beyond…and yeah there are probably some movements I should name but can’t remember because it covered a lot…
Meanwhile many of these women were also spiritualists, theosophists, mediums, fortune tellers, probably crazy…among other things. Don’t get me wrong, some of these ladies (specifically the Fox sisters and Madame Blavatsky) were total con artists but it doesn’t mean they weren’t talented…
Some even dip into the political as you’ll find one or two of these artists involved in the suffrage movement of the 19th century…
Peppered throughout are the author’s own first encounters (from her own private artist learning journey) with the names she covers.
A wealth of art and photos of the subjects involved also helps illuminate their artistic story (though there’s also plenty you don’t have pics of)…
If anything, the chapter length coverage of many of the figures in this book will likely leave you wanting more…directing you to begin your own journey in training down their history and pics of their various art. One particular notable one for me was a kate 20th century artist that did an abstract taro gallery showing with a “new form” of tarot cards, and I really wanna find a full gallery of what the art looked like and find out what happened to those pieces.
The back matter includes footnotes that might be a good start if you decide to do further research on your own…
January 6, 2025
“Her experience convinced her that death was not the end; it was more like moving into a different room and talking through a wall.” Really loved Jennifer Higgie’s The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World, in which Higgie charts the history of spiritualism through its prominent (and in some cases overlooked) women acolytes and pioneers, and considers its overlap in the history of art, through such figures as Georgiana Houghton, Annie Bessant and CW Leadbeatter, Suzanne Duchamp, Madame Blavatsky, the Fox sisters, the famous Hilma af Klint, and Palestinian artist Vivien Sansour. Higgie makes it wondrously clear that these two histories are inextricably linked, and that “If spirituality was the escape route, art was the vehicle.” She also makes a convincing case for the rise of spiritualism being proportionally tied to the rise of technology and science, and through this and other angles considers how and why spiritualism is more important now than ever, as we experience such a “hunger for new ways of inhabiting the planet”, and “a groundswell of interest in ways of understanding the world, and our place in it that, at best, honours the complexities of the past as it accommodates natural, even cosmic, rhythms”. I also really admired Higgie’s desire to write something inconclusive, “a collection of reflections and memories exploring this particular historical moment from a personal perspective […] while the artists who interest me are linked by their openness to different realms, the similarity ends there: each has her own story to tell. As do I” — a fitting tribute to the open questioning that the spiritualism movement represents. (I’m also now quite desperate to source a copy of Higgie’s novel Bedlam after reading about Richard Dadd in this book — anyone who might know where to look please hit me up!)
August 7, 2024
Given how passionate I am about the intersection of topics this book purports to be about, I was expecting to enjoy it more. Instead, the book was interesting in a kind of vague way that many books written during the pandemic turned out to be — you can almost hear the author’s stressed-out distraction as she wanders somewhat listlessly from memory to memory, thought to thought, trying to draw connections but then losing the focus or willpower to think too long or hard about anything in particular. This is perfectly summed up in her concluding chapter, in which she lists a collection of random free-associative thoughts in response to a colleague’s question, and then ends limply with, “It’s complicated.”
The most interesting chapters explore the biographies of particular women artists, and there is a lot to like about these explorations. Unfortunately, this becomes increasingly less riveting as we approach contemporary times — partly, I think, because it’s harder to overlook the somewhat superficial and culturally appropriative grab-bag approach many of these contemporary artists seem to take towards spiritual traditions not their own.
This book also suffers from the all-too-common expectation of female writers these days that you can’t just write an interesting nonfiction book on a given topic, all books have to also be memoirs now, padded with references to personal details that may or may not add any clarity or depth. The author’s nostalgia for her Greek island vacation was very nice, and I’m sure served her well getting her through lockdown, but it was boring to read about.
The most interesting chapters explore the biographies of particular women artists, and there is a lot to like about these explorations. Unfortunately, this becomes increasingly less riveting as we approach contemporary times — partly, I think, because it’s harder to overlook the somewhat superficial and culturally appropriative grab-bag approach many of these contemporary artists seem to take towards spiritual traditions not their own.
This book also suffers from the all-too-common expectation of female writers these days that you can’t just write an interesting nonfiction book on a given topic, all books have to also be memoirs now, padded with references to personal details that may or may not add any clarity or depth. The author’s nostalgia for her Greek island vacation was very nice, and I’m sure served her well getting her through lockdown, but it was boring to read about.
August 29, 2023
Nicely written and very interesting book. Loved learning about an often-overlooked aspect of the history of art in tandem with learning about the developments in western spiritualism. I feel though that I can’t give it more than 2.5 stars because it is far too Eurocentric and focused on westerners in the western world. If the book was titled “the other side: a journey into art, women, and the spirit world of the west” I would be inclined to give it more stars. But Higgie doesn’t proclaim to be leaving out extremely important history of spiritualism originating outside of Europe which lent ideas to the people she discusses in The Other Side. Perhaps (probably), that is a different book, but it at least needs to acknowledge often how much the westerners owe to eastern and indigenous religion and belief. I rolled my eyes when I read: “…they were also influenced by H.P.B’s ‘auratic egg’ — the idea that a life force or prana flows through the body via seven chakras, each of which corresponds to a different vibration or colour, that can be seen by clairvoyants.” The word choice implies that the idea of chakras—and not just the name “auratic egg”—was H.P.B’s. Even if she didn’t use language that implied HPB owned the idea of chakras, I dont see how this sentence alone wouldn’t call for a bit of background, or at least a disclaimer… also was disappointed by the Ana Mendieta bit. Made me wonder if the book contained info I took for granted as truth because I was not independently familiar with the topic….
May 2, 2024
Jennifer Higgie's 'The Other Side' paints a dull, pastel portrait on A Journey into White Women, White Art and the White Spirit World. I was not a fan and will disclose that I could not finish it.
This book was chosen for book club and I was admittedly hesitant going in; I rarely enjoy reads on art but spirtuality is always fascinating. Unfortunately, this book only fueled my criticism for ghost sightings and well-to-do creatives who spend too much time pondering on Greek islands. Higgie's writing, although well-researched, read like a wordy high-school presentation on a chosen historical suffragette figure. I am not sure why there was such a heavy focus on white women of the 19th century; however, Higgie includes some interesting notes on ancient Greek society.
Unfortunately, the little references to Indigenous Women and their connection to land, spirituality and art across centuries was rarely touched on within the first half and instead, felt tokenistic. I would have expected more from an Australian woman who grew up on Stolen Land.
Nevertheless, the art included was beautiful and Higgie certainly endeavoured to supply fascinating snippets on art history. In particular, I enjoyed Higgie's descriptions on life in the Greek Mediterranean as her ability to intricately document the colours and textures was admirable.
Overall, this book would be better suited to women with an established knowledge on 19th-20th century art and an appreciation for haunted houses.
This book was chosen for book club and I was admittedly hesitant going in; I rarely enjoy reads on art but spirtuality is always fascinating. Unfortunately, this book only fueled my criticism for ghost sightings and well-to-do creatives who spend too much time pondering on Greek islands. Higgie's writing, although well-researched, read like a wordy high-school presentation on a chosen historical suffragette figure. I am not sure why there was such a heavy focus on white women of the 19th century; however, Higgie includes some interesting notes on ancient Greek society.
Unfortunately, the little references to Indigenous Women and their connection to land, spirituality and art across centuries was rarely touched on within the first half and instead, felt tokenistic. I would have expected more from an Australian woman who grew up on Stolen Land.
Nevertheless, the art included was beautiful and Higgie certainly endeavoured to supply fascinating snippets on art history. In particular, I enjoyed Higgie's descriptions on life in the Greek Mediterranean as her ability to intricately document the colours and textures was admirable.
Overall, this book would be better suited to women with an established knowledge on 19th-20th century art and an appreciation for haunted houses.
June 18, 2024
very interesting read. not something i would normally pick up, but jodie comer mentioned it in an interview i read and it sounded interesting so i decided to give it a go.
totally up my alley as far as content goes. spirituality, mysticism, esoteric teachings, women, art, sign me up!!
learned some super cool stuff that i had no idea about, specifically what was going on in the 1800s. cool to read about the spiritualism movement, automatic writing, seances, channeling, theosophy, spirit photography, etc etc.
spent a ton of time having to pause and google around to look at images or just dive deeper into the topics presented. would’ve preferred more of a deep dive in the novel i think, especially in place of the endless references to collections she’s been to and honestly even the little personal anecdotes. they were cool and i do think they added something to an extent, but dude every book written in the early 2020s just HAS to mention the pandemic. and i get it. i do. that was a huge part of our life and culture etc. but also. i read as a form of escapism and when it had little to do with the content of the book, i would rather it be skipped personally.
anyways. all that being said: i feel like i learned a lot, i wanna go to an art museum now, this was super interesting, id be down to own this and re-read some day, but i do wish she would’ve dived a little deeper into some of the subjects and fleshed it out a bit more.
totally up my alley as far as content goes. spirituality, mysticism, esoteric teachings, women, art, sign me up!!
learned some super cool stuff that i had no idea about, specifically what was going on in the 1800s. cool to read about the spiritualism movement, automatic writing, seances, channeling, theosophy, spirit photography, etc etc.
spent a ton of time having to pause and google around to look at images or just dive deeper into the topics presented. would’ve preferred more of a deep dive in the novel i think, especially in place of the endless references to collections she’s been to and honestly even the little personal anecdotes. they were cool and i do think they added something to an extent, but dude every book written in the early 2020s just HAS to mention the pandemic. and i get it. i do. that was a huge part of our life and culture etc. but also. i read as a form of escapism and when it had little to do with the content of the book, i would rather it be skipped personally.
anyways. all that being said: i feel like i learned a lot, i wanna go to an art museum now, this was super interesting, id be down to own this and re-read some day, but i do wish she would’ve dived a little deeper into some of the subjects and fleshed it out a bit more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2024
This book was a really great dive into the realms of spirituality and its intertwining with femininity and art. Higgie does a great job of crafting her narrative to fit more of a casual and conversational tone whilst really putting out a lot of information. I enjoyed her anecdotes on her personal life, I felt that it emphasized the passion behind this project. Furthermore, as someone interested in embarking on a similar path of study, it's comforting to see someone's lived research experience. Overall, this is a really great intro into this particular niche of art history since it provides so many names, works, and practices that are pinnacle to the study of the spiritual within art.
I will say, a lot have critiqued her lack of images and/or efficient references, but Higgie does handle the job of tackling visual analysis on pieces that really do drive her point on the matter home. Images through publishing houses can be a major headache, so while I had to stop and google often, I do appreciate her personal interpretations on the visual facets.
I will say, a lot have critiqued her lack of images and/or efficient references, but Higgie does handle the job of tackling visual analysis on pieces that really do drive her point on the matter home. Images through publishing houses can be a major headache, so while I had to stop and google often, I do appreciate her personal interpretations on the visual facets.
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