TORN VEIL, 1947
Ink drawing. 17¼ x 12in. (44.5 x 31cm.)
Inscribed on the reverse of the frame with the artist’s name, the title, 1947 and ‘Automatism: Stillomancy’ . With the Paul label.
Provenance
National Trust bequest.
Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery 1947, (drawings) No. 4).
Dublin, National College of Art, 1948, No. 89.
Penzance, Newlyn Orion Gallery, 1976, No. 42.
The technique is described in the Newlyn catalogue as entoptic graphomania. This is more likely to be correct than the information on the backboard as there is no evidence of the symmetry one would expect with stillomancy.
The artist has incorporated some shading, making the image softer and less austere than in other examples of entoptic graphomania.
Possibly a reference to the Biblical Veil of the Tabernacle, the veil that hung over the entrance to the inner sanctuary. It is said that after Jesus died the veil tore from top to bottom, symbolising the free access of the people into Gods’ presence.
Other, more esoteric interpretations are possible as the symbol of parting a veil can commonly mean obtaining new knowledge or new insights. The veil is a metaphor for the partition that separates the material and the spiritual worlds. In the gnostic mass of the O.T.O. the priest parts the veil of the priestess with his sacred lance. The Portal ceremony of the G.D. involved rending a veil.