Changes

4,917 bytes added ,  20:20, 15 August 2008
New page: Image:lighterstill.jpg Defined narrowly, a '''visionary''' is one who experiences a vision or apparition connected to the supernatural. At times this involve...
[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]]

Defined narrowly, a '''visionary''' is one who experiences a [[vision (religion)|vision]] or [[apparition]] connected to the supernatural. At times this involves seeing into the future. Certain people are capable of going into the visionary state via meditation, drugs, lucid dreams, day dreams, or art. One such example is [[Hildegard of Bingen]], a 12 century artist/visionary.[http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/247.html Hildegard of Bingen, Visionary]

== Extended meanings ==

A '''vision''' can be political, religious, environmental, social, or technological in nature. By extension, a '''visionary''' can also be a person with a clear, distinctive and specific (in some details) vision of the future, usually connected with advances in [[technology]] or social/political arrangements. For example, [[Ted Nelson]] is referred to as a visionary in connection with the [[Internet]] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1581891.stm BBC News]

Other visionaries simply imagine what does not yet exist, but might some day, as some forms of '''visioning''' (or gazing) provide a glimpse into the possible future. Therefore, visioning can mean seeing in a [[utopian]] way what does not yet exist on earth - but might exist in another realm - such as the [[ideal]] or perfect realm as imagined or thought. Examples are [[Buckminster Fuller]] in [[architecture]] and [[design]], and some of the pioneers of [[personal computing]] such as [[Steve Jobs]]. Some people use [[mathematics]] to make visionary discoveries in the nature of the [[universe]]. In that sense, a visionary may also function as a secular [[prophet]]. Some visionaries emphasize [[communication]], and some assume a figurehead role in organizing a social group.

== In art ==

Artists may produce work loosely categorized as '''visionary art''' for its [[luminous]] content and/or for its use of artistic techniques that call for the use of extended powers of [[perception]] in the viewer: (e.g. [[Gustave Moreau]], [[Samuel Palmer]], [[Jean Delville]], [[Ernst Fuchs]], the French [[Symbolist]] [[Odilon Redon]], [[Brion Gysin]], [[Max Ernst]], [[Stanley Spencer]], [[Edward Burne Jones]], [[Adolf Wolfli]], [[Fred Sandback]], [[William Blake]], [[Hieronymus Bosch]] and [[Henry Darger]]).

[[Visionary art]] can be incorrectly defined as a category of [[primitive art]] (art of those not formally trained) rather than describing people who have used their visions (or [[dreams]]) to create their paintings. [[Salvador Dali]] is one artist who would exemplify visionary art that is neither religious nor primitive. << I believe that the previous statement is an oversimplification of [[Salvador Dali]]'s art. He became obsessed with [[Christianity]] and his paintings became very much religious, with depictions of Christ on the cross, saints, and the Madonna. Perhaps "religious art" is too vague of a concept as it can mean art pertaining to religion or refer specifically to art created for the purposes of adorning places of worship etc. [[User:Electrique|Electrique]] ([[User talk:Electrique|talk]]) 00:07, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

== Notes ==
#[http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/247.html Hildegard of Bingen, Visionary]
#[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1581891.stm BBC News | SCI/TECH | Visionary lays into the web]

== References ==
* ''Celestial Visitations The Art of Gilbert Williams'' (Pomegranate Artbooks) ISBN 0-517539-00-4, 1979
* Carlo McCormick '' Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of [[Alex Grey]]", Inner Traditions International, 1990
* [[Joseph Nechvatal]] [http://www.eyewithwings.net/nechvatal/Blake/BlakeVisionWWW.htm William Blakeand Visionary Art]
* Metamorphosis: 50 Contemporary Surreal, Fantastic and Visionary Artists (beinArt) ISBN 978-0-9803231-0-8
* John Maizels,''Raw Creation: Outsider Art and Beyond'' (1996). ISBN 0714831492
* Elka Spoerri, Daniel Baumann and E. M. Gomez, ''The Art of [[Adolf Wolfli]]'' (2003). ISBN 0691114986
* Geiger, John (2005). Nothing Is True - Everything Is Permitted: The Life of [[Brion Gysin]]. The Disinformation Company, 130. ISBN 19328571251.
* ''Fantastic Art'' (Taschen) ( Schurian, Prof. Dr. Walter) ISBN 978-3-8228-2954-7 (English edition), 2005
* ''Metamorphosis'' (beinArt) ISBN 978-0-9803231-0-8, 2007
* ''Cosmic Art'' Ramond & Lila Piper (Hawthorne Books) ISBN 0-8015-1774-5, 1975
== External links ==
* [http://www.art.org Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art]
* [http://www.folkartmuseum.org American Folk Art Museum official website]
* [http://www.alexgrey.com/ information on Alex Gray]
* [http://www.sublimatrix.com/html/jean_delville.html information on Jean Delville]
* [http://www.eyewithwings.net/nechvatal/Blake/BlakeVisionWWW.htm ''William Blake and Visionary Art'' by Joseph Nechvatal]

[[Category: General Reference]]
[[Category: Languages and Literature]]
[[Category: The Arts]]