Intention to Know

Intention to Know: The Thought Forms of Annie Besant is a new exhibition that opens in Chicago at Stony Island Arts Bank.

This exhibition is organized on the occasion of the recent discovery in October of this year, of 21 original gouaches painted between 1896 and 1904 by four unknown artists of Annie Besant’s time (including Lady MacFarlane, Mr Prince and Mr John Varley) as illustrations for Theosophists and visionaries Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater’s book Thought Forms, which was published by The Theosophical Publishing Society, London and Benares in 1905. Following the presentation of Thought Forms prints and Danish artist Lea Porsager’s watercolors at the 14th Istanbul Biennial earlier this year, this exhibition provides Chicago audiences with insights into the ground-breaking visions of Annie Besant (1847-1933) and develops some of the ideas that Christov-Bakargiev finds particularly topical and relevant to our times. It also presents new works by Erin Hayden and Cauleen Smith and rare documents and books related to Besant, both as a political activist and as a researcher into the invisible vibrations and patterns on the world. Read more.

Event website