Monday, 3 February 2025

Pictures: Tarot – Origins & Afterlives at the Warburg

Here are some pictures I took when I went to the new Tarot exhibition at London's Warburg Institute on the morning it began.  

Tarot – Origins and Afterlives is the first exhibition in the institute's new Kythera Gallery. It was open to the public on 31 January and runs until 30 April. Although the space isn't large, the exhibition itself is really good and worth going, especially as tickets can be booked for free.

It clearly traces tarot’s journey from its beginnings as a courtly card game in Renaissance Italy to its use as a tool for divination and meditation, as well as for artistic creation and literary inspiration. This is a chance to view some rare historic decks as well as some fascinating modern-day reimaginings.

The photo at the top shows the area at the start of the exhibition. The first room displays some very early examples. Another room is dedicated to the Thoth tarot, created by Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris. You can see a photo of one display at the bottom of this page. As well as art and cards, you can see examples of books written about tarot, as you can see in the middle picture.

The Warburg Institute is at Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB. You can find out more about the exhibition and book tickets here: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/

Curators' Tour and Magical Recordings

On Thursday, 6 February at 7pm you can join Jonathan Allen, Martina Mazzotta and Bill Sherman, the curators of Tarot – Origins and Afterlives for a tour of the gallery and get some more insights into the thoughts behind the exhibition and the world of tarot. You can book tickets via the website link above, which also offers access to videos of lectures on the history of magic.

Previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2024/05/my-copy-of-austin-osman-spare-tarot-has.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2019/02/the-waste-land-tarot-drowned-phoenician.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2020/08/tales-from-witch-room-tarot-deck-shelfie.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2014/09/are-some-tarot-decks-more-genuine-than.html

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