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Inventory of The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art, 1800 to the Present Research Collection
GTU 2016-10-01
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Title:
The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art, 1800 to the Present research collection
Dates: 1890-2011
Collection number: GTU 2016-10-01
Collector:
Spretnak, Charlene, 1946 -
Collection Size:
9.2 linear feet (9 record boxes and one 2" box)
Repository:
The
Graduate Theological Union Library.
Berkeley, CA 94709
Abstract:
The collection consists of working files for Charlene Spretnak's book, The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art: Art History Reconsidered,
1800 to the Present, along with exhibition catalogs and artists monographs.
Physical location: 6/J/top-6
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union
as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must
also be obtained by the reader.
The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art, 1800 to the Present research collection, GTU 2016-10-01. Graduate Theological Union Archives,
Berkeley, CA.
The collection was donated by Charlene Spretnak and received on 1/27/2017.
Biography / Administrative History
Charlene Spretnak (1946- ) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Spretnak earned her B.A. at
St. Louis University, and an M.A. in English and American Literature from the University of California, Berkeley (1981). Beginning
her pioneering work in the 1970s, Spretnak is known for her theorizing, scholarship, and activism in the areas of feminism
(including women's spirituality), ecological thought (including Green politics), cultural history (including the history of
modern art), social criticism, and dynamic interrelatedness.
She is author of two works on the women's spirituality movement:
Lost Goddesses of Early Greece
(1978) and
The Politics of Women's Spirituality
(editor, 1982). Later books include: coauthor with Fritjof Capra,
Green Politics: The Global Promise
(1984); author of
The Spiritual Dimension of Green Politics
(l986);
States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age
(1991);
The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature, and Place in a Hypermodern World
(1997);
Missing Mary: The Queen of Heaven and Her Re-Emergence in the Modern Church
(2004); and
Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World
(2011). This collection is based on her research for her 2014 book
The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art: Art History Reconsidered, 1800 to the Present
.
She is Professor Emerita in the Philosophy and Religion Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco,
California, and a research fellow at The Green Institute, a center for research and policy of the Green Movement, which she
helped found in August 1984. She was inducted in 1989 into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in recognition of her writings on
spirituality and social justice. In 2006, she was named by the British government's Environment Department as one of the "100
Eco-Heroes of All Time."
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of working files, clippings, articles, interviews, exhibition catalogs and artist's monographs used
to write the book,
The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art
.
The original order created by Charlene Spretnak was maintained. The order is a combination of chronological and alphabetical.
Prominent historical modern artists are in the front of a series; contemporary artists are then listed alphabetically. Series:
1, Modern Artists Engaged with the Abrahamic Traditions (predominately Christianity); 2, Modern Artists Engaged with Esoteric
Spirituality (1885-1920); 3, Modern Artists Engaged with Allusive Spirituality (subtle, abstract art; often Buddhist-inflected);
4, Modern Artists Engaged with the Spirituality of Immanance (body and nature as sacred); 5, Photographers and Videographers
Engaged with Spirituality; 6, Modern Architects Engaged with Spirituality; 7, Art Historians on spirituality in Modern Art;
and 8, Videos (VHS).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Spirituality in art.
Art, Modern.
Artists--Religious life.
GTU 2006-7-01, Charlene Spretnak: Early Feminist Spirituality Collection, 1971 - 2006; GTU 2008-1-01, Doug Adams Collection;
GTU 2000-9-02, Board of Trustees, Art Exhibits.
Books donated with these materials to be added to GTU Library circulation collection.