Read the Abstract and Full-Text of my Thesis here.
Thesis Abstract:
Little known but highly deserving of recognition, healer Emma Kunz (1892-1963) defined herself primarily as a researcher into the depiction of forces that interact with the body. Her unorthodox experiments comprised a prolific corpus of abstract drawings, which she used in her healing practice in rural Switzerland, the country where she was born and spent most of her life. Her works have been described as maps of the forces of energy that work upon and within the body, energy that Kunz was sensitive to and that she visually recorded by drawing. My research analyzes Kunz’s drawings in relationship to perception, mathematics, and Modern Art in order to show how artists use the power of perception to capture and transmit meaning in their work.
While belonging to the field of art criticism, this project also lends itself to scientific thought on consciousness and the role art plays in cognition. It acknowledges the work of a woman artist who remains on the fringes of discourse on Modern Art, if not for her radical theories and aesthetic, then simply for the fact that she was a woman working in relative isolation of the main stream artistic movements of her time. My research lends new insight into her work’s relevance by showing how it can open a dialogue among art, philosophy, and science in our contemporary culture. Lastly, it speaks to the value of art as a form of knowledge, and not only as a form of expression.
