SERPENT OF GENESIS, 1966
Oil on paper. 34½ x 23¼in. (88.5 x 59.5cm.)
Signed with the monogram and dated lower right.
Provenance
Untraced.
Exhibited
Czechoslovakia, touring exhibition Poesie Fantasmagie, 1967 No. 12.
Newlyn, Society of Artists, 1968 No. 85.
Berlin, Kunstamt Wilmersdorf, 1969, No.15, as Schlange der Zeugung, dimensions given as 100 x 71cm.
Bristol, Bristol Arts Centre, 1970, No. 11.
Exeter, City of Exeter Art Gallery, 1972, No. 22. Illustrated in b/w in the catalogue, pl. 1.
Occultists identify several different serpents, including the one that symbolises alchemical Primal Matter, which must be destroyed before the feminine properties of Philosophical Mercury can be released, and the serpent which resides at the heart of Kundalini. This one is the Biblical one of Genesis.
The work was illustrated in b/w in the catalogue of the Fantasmagie International Exhibition, 1969 (West Berlin) although it was not listed in the catalogue as forming part of the exhibition.