Blurred Lines: Gender Identity and Characterization in the Paintings of Aleister Crowley

The aim of the presentation will be devoted to a particular aspect of Crowley’s art: after a brief introduction on the artistic circles he moved on in the early Twentieth century and the description of some incidents which determined his artistic career. Chris Guidice will analyse gender characterization and gender identity in Crowley´s works . The two main questions that are poses, and provided with a tentative answer,  to be developed in further studies are: why do Crowley’s portraits represent the women who posed for him in an ugly, almost animalesque fashion? And what can these portraits tell us about Crowley’s own concerns with gender identity?

Christian Giudice is a scholar of Western esotericism and New Religious Movements at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has published several articles and book chapters on the history of Occultism and New Religious Movements and has also focused his research within the field of Traditionalism and Occultism. He is the editor of the newsletter for the European Society for the Study of Western esotericism and chair of the network WEAVE: Western Esotericism and the Visual Arts.

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