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CAMERON-PARSONS FOUNDATION/THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES
Cameron: Songs for the Witch Woman
Text by Yael Lipschutz, Philippe Vergne.
A key underground figure of Los Angeles' midcentury counterculture, Cameron (1922–95) created a body of visionary painting and drawing that won her equal esteem among the Californian assemblage artists and the occult world of that time. Her powerful personality led to a number of roles in key underground movies such as Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, and her features adorn the cover of the first issue of Wallace Berman's Semina. Today, her delicate melding of Surrealism and mysticism has been rediscovered by a younger generation of artists. This volume, published for an exhibition at MOCA LA, includes pieces formerly thought lost, ranging from early paintings to drawings, sketchbooks and poetry, as well as ephemera, collaborations and correspondence with individuals such as her husband, Jack Parsons (the rocket pioneer, cofounder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and acolyte of Aleister Crowley), and mythologist Joseph Campbell.
"Sun Horse" (1952) is reproduced from Cameron: Songs for the Witch Woman.
In her introduction to Cameron: Songs for the Witch Woman, curator Yael Lipschutz writes that, "Cameron's commitment to live her life as art itself constitutes a rare, avant-gardist approach, one that makes separating her biography from the thousands of drawings, paintings and sketchbooks she left behind a near impossibility." Luckily for us, her biography is as fascinating as they come. continue to blog
"'Rise up! I have surpassed the tomb you dreamed for me,' declared Cameron in 1956. An exhortation to her deceased husband, rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons (1914–1952), Cameron's prose implied a spiritual breakthrough and a fearless resolve to continue on the magical path Parsons had introduced to her in 1946. Originally published in Wallace Berman's avant-garde art journal Semina, today Cameron's words resonate not only as mystical poetry, but as a shot across the bow of time: that her art not be buried with her body, that we see her art undead and always alive." Excerpt from Yael Lipschutz' text and Autumn (1955) are reproduced from Cameron: Songs for the Witch Woman, one of the featured Semina-related titles in our store this week at the LAABF. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.25 x 11.75 in. / 88 pgs / 75 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $40.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $50 ISBN: 9780692289525 PUBLISHER: Cameron-Parsons Foundation/the museum of contemporary art, los angeles AVAILABLE: 1/27/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available
Published by Cameron-Parsons Foundation/the museum of contemporary art, los angeles. Text by Yael Lipschutz, Philippe Vergne.
A key underground figure of Los Angeles' midcentury counterculture, Cameron (1922–95) created a body of visionary painting and drawing that won her equal esteem among the Californian assemblage artists and the occult world of that time. Her powerful personality led to a number of roles in key underground movies such as Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, and her features adorn the cover of the first issue of Wallace Berman's Semina. Today, her delicate melding of Surrealism and mysticism has been rediscovered by a younger generation of artists. This volume, published for an exhibition at MOCA LA, includes pieces formerly thought lost, ranging from early paintings to drawings, sketchbooks and poetry, as well as ephemera, collaborations and correspondence with individuals such as her husband, Jack Parsons (the rocket pioneer, cofounder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and acolyte of Aleister Crowley), and mythologist Joseph Campbell.
