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Ohstarting from the community of bohemians like Pamela Colman Smith – close friend of William Butler Yeats whose art attracted the attention of Alfred Stieglitz – and miracles like Aleister Crowley (among other things, the founder of his religion), tarot has now advanced. Searches for how to read tarot readings skyrocketed during the pandemic, and decks are proliferating at an astonishing rate—your local independent store is probably selling at least a dozen of them.
It’s never been easier to get a reading – or draw cards faster – and The Morgan Library & Museum’s new exhibit, Tarot!, helps the practice’s popularity attract attention and knowledge alike. Tarot! begins by documenting the evolution of the cards from Renaissance Italy to the 21st century, then presents the tarot work of more than a dozen artists – among them Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, as well as new works by the famous British artist Chris Ofili.
According to Claire Gilman, who curated the show’s Modern Visions segment, tarot originated in Italy in the 15th century not as a fortune-telling tool, but as a card game. It was only when it moved to France in the 18th century that it began to take on the occult, and from there it moved to the UK and eventually spread throughout the world in the 20th century.
Gilman believes that tarot’s ability to be old and new is key to its enduring popularity. She said: “One of the most interesting things about tarot readings is that there are many things that go on, but there are also many changes and changes.
When tarot first appeared, long before mass-produced decks, it was only used by those lucky enough to collect hand-drawn cards, created by artists in meticulous detail. Tarot! it offers a rare opportunity to see a large part of the oldest surviving ship – named Visconti-Sforza, of the family that built it – since Morgan’s collection of amazingly beautiful places has been combined with that held by the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy. “They are hand-painted masterpieces and stand at the very beginning of tarot painting,” said Joshua O’Driscoll, who contributed to the Symbols of Rebirth section with Francisco H Trujillo.
These first steps are visual, fascinating art that requires a lot of knowledge about different systems. Trujillo said: “In order to create the art, Bonifacio Bembo and his workshop had to have the skills of different types of art, painting, painting on the wall, and illuminating manuscripts.”
According to O’Driscoll, apart from the art, the Renaissance papers are not very different from ours today. If you are familiar with the modern train, you will be able to find your way around Visconti-Sforza. “This is one of the things that amazes me,” said O’Driscoll. “Despite being nearly 600 years old, the Renaissance deck at the center of the show will be recognizable to anyone familiar with tarot.”
When Tarot originated in Italy, its main inspiration was Petrarch’s poem Triumphs, which describes life’s path from sin to redemption. However, by the time of the Rider-Waite-Smith train, which was introduced in 1909 and is widely used around the world, attractions had grown significantly. In presenting the deck, Smith was given free reign to pour out his thoughts on the minor arcana, and used various sources such as the Bible, his friends, the Art-Nouveau movement and the British classical movement, to name a few.
One of the great works of Rider-Waite-Smith was to explain the minor arcana, which until then were not often given their corresponding pictures. Gilman sees this as the secret to the ship’s great success. He said: “It adds to the mystery that is in these cards, and to make it easier for people to find because you can see these cards and write this story in every corner.”
Later decks come from Crowley, although his Thoth Tarot was not produced much in his lifetime, and David Palladini’s Aquarian Deck, which brings an Art Deco touch to the old paintings. Those who took off in the 1960s and 70s, respectively, at the time when the flood of tarots began to open up, put a big jump in the decks at the turn of the century. “Even with these desks, the number that was printed in the 60s and 70s was small compared to today,” Gilman said. There are hundreds and hundreds.
Artists found ready inspiration in the tarot because it gave them something to build on – a foundation of established creative traditions and pre-existing ideas, yet the images and archetypes presented by the tarot were open enough not to distort their imaginations. “Success comes when you have a starting point,” Gilman said. “A blank slate is hard on the road.”
Some of the most artistic pleasures offered in Tarot! it is a selection from the British Surrealist Ithell Colquhoun’s ship, which Gilman described as the first mysterious ship. “It’s called ‘Tarot As Color’ and each suit is assigned a color. It’s so beautiful.” Then there’s Xul Solar, an Argentinian artist, inventor of imaginative languages, and close friend of Jorge Luis Borges, whose tarot decks are hand-painted. “He met Crowley on a trip to Europe, and his tarot brings many references, including Mesoamerican writings.”
Carrington is represented by a group of works inspired by the great arcana he created. Gilman explained that Surrealist artists such as Carrington and Varo were not interested in creating themselves and using the mysteries of the tarot for their own artistic purposes. “With the Surrealists, it’s not just about making more and more about how these tarots are, in a way, everything they’re doing,” he said. “There is a fascination with the Surrealists in how these things challenge our understanding of the world.”
Gilman believes that tarot changed dramatically somewhere around the end of 2019 – when the cards started to move everywhere – and the huge support from the pandemic helped them to enter their meteoric trend. He sees in the tarot a kind of universal language that can cross cultural barriers and speak to anyone who wants a little help on their life journey. “Arcana is universal,” he said, “the world, justice, self-control, lovers – all these are things that happen in every ceremony, so that people can relate to them, and change them and put them according to what they mean in their community.
