Thoth Tarot 1943

Editor: Here we have Lady Frieda Harris’s “Thoth Tarot,” painted around 1943 using mixed media including acrylic and pen. I’m struck by how dynamic the composition feels, with all these swirling, almost dreamlike, images contained within that central oval. What do you see in this piece, especially considering it's meant to be a tarot card? Curator: Well, aren’t tarot cards always such delicious little portals to alternate realities? When I look at Harris's work, I don’t just see a symbolic representation of a tarot archetype; I feel like I’m glimpsing a vibrant, pulsing moment of creation. The snake, for instance, that spirals around the figure – is it a force of temptation, wisdom, or simply pure, unbridled energy? Perhaps all of the above! And those somewhat menacing figures framing the central image… are they guardians? Traps? What do you make of them? Editor: They give me the feeling that accessing that central vision, the figure and the snake, requires confronting something potentially scary or unknown. Like there's a hidden element you can’t see until you face the images framing them. Curator: Exactly! Harris is playing with that very idea. It's that threshold, the boundary between the known and unknown that she so poetically captured. I'm not certain, but I find that Harris seems to be suggesting our realities, though bounded by limitations and the unseen, allow free flowing expression to arise with unlimited potential. Editor: I've never thought of tarot as modern art until now. Seeing those familiar symbols twisted in this abstract way has shown me a new way of interpretation. Curator: It is a marvelous lens, isn’t it? It really shifts your understanding doesn't it? Every time, I'm reminded that art, much like life, is ultimately what we choose to project onto it.