‘Lecture: As Above, So Below’

     
Bruce Lee Webb, co-author of the book As Above, So Below: Art of the American Fraternal Society, 1850-1930, will appear at Morbid Anatomy next month to present a lecture on the subject of the material culture of fraternal orders. (He is in town for his exhibit at Metropolitan Pavilion.) From the publicity:

As Above, So Below: Art

of the American Fraternal Society, 1850-1930

Illustrated Lecture with Bruce Lee Webb

and Lynne Adele

Wednesday, January 20 at 8 p.m.

Admission: $8—tickets here

Morbid Anatomy Museum

424 Third Avenue, Brooklyn

Featuring more than 200 outstanding objects and historical photographs from the collection of co-author Bruce Lee Webb and his wife Julie, augmented by key examples gathered from other important private and public collections, the newly released book As Above, So Below (University of Texas Press) provides the first comprehensive survey of the rich vein of art created during the Golden Age of the American fraternal society.

By the turn of the twentieth century, an estimated 70,000 local lodges affiliated with hundreds of distinct American fraternal societies claimed a combined 5.5 million members. It has been estimated that at least 20 percent of the American adult male population belonged to one or more fraternal orders, including the two largest groups, the Freemasons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The esoteric knowledge, visual symbols, and moral teachings revealed to lodge brothers during secret rituals inspired an abundant and expressive body of objects that form an important, but largely overlooked and often misunderstood, facet of American visual culture. Co-authors Lynne Adele and Bruce Lee Webb will introduce the audience to fraternal societies and explore the functions and meanings of some of their favorite objects, selecting from paintings and banners, costumes and ceremonial regalia, ritual objects, and an array of idiosyncratic objects that represent a grassroots response to fraternalism. As Above, So Below will be available for purchase at the museum, and the authors will be on hand to answer questions and sign books following their talk.

Lynne Adele, an independent art historian, has specialized in the work of self-taught artists for more than 25 years. She has a lengthy art museum and commercial art gallery background, has curated exhibitions, lectured widely, and written and contributed to numerous exhibition catalogs, books, and journals on American folk art. Her exhibition catalog Spirited Journeys: Self-Taught Texas Artists of the Twentieth Century (1997) has become a standard reference in the field. She lives in Maryville, Tennessee.

Bruce Lee Webb has been a collector and dealer of fraternal objects for more than 25 years. He is a Scottish Rite Mason, Royal Arch Mason, Cryptic Mason, and Knight Templar; he is also an Odd Fellow, and is a Royal Purple member of the Odd Fellows Encampment. He has been initiated into the Order of the Eastern Star, Rebekah, and Knights of Pythias. With his wife, Julie, he founded Webb Gallery in Waxahachie, Texas, in 1987, specializing in the work of self-taught and folk artists.

Tickets are non-refundable unless the event is canceled.
     

‘Cults and Secret Societies in Brooklyn’

     
Sorry, I had meant to post this earlier, but on Wednesday night, Morbid Anatomy Museum will host author Julie Tibbott for a lecture on “Cults and Secret Societies: A to Z, an Illustrated Lecture” beginning at eight o’clock. The author will return Wednesday the 23rd for a second lecture titled “Secret New York Exposed.”

Morbid Anatomy is located at 424A Third Avenue in Brooklyn. The cost of admission is $8 for Wednesday, or $13 for both lectures, and can be purchased here.

From the publicity:

Join Julie Tibbott, author of the book Members Only: Secret Societies, Sects, and Cults Exposed, for a strange storybook journey through the world of cults, secret societies, and other exclusive groups. In this slideshow presentation, stylized to mimic a twisted alphabet book for grown-ups, A is for All-Seeing Eye, B is for Brainwashing, C is for Costumes…and so on! We’ll visit exotic locales, from the spiritualist hamlet of Lily Dale, New York, to the Jonestown commune deep in the jungle of Guyana; encounter larger-than-life personalities, such as Patty Hearst and Aleister Crowley; learn about secret initiation rites, magical rituals, reptilian humanoids, and much, much more! It’s a lighthearted look at some of the darker corners of history, sure to spark the imagination and make you feel like a curious kid who just found some very creepy reading material.

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session and book signing. It is part of the “Secret Societies, Sects, and Cults Exposed” lecture series with Julie Tibbott. “Secret New York Exposed” will be presented on the 23rd of September.


I guess we’re not talking Rose Circle caliber revelation here, but it sounds like fun. You can’t go wrong for eight bucks. You can’t even see a movie in Brooklyn for eight bucks.
     

‘Bebergal at Morbid Anatomy on Friday’

     

Season of the Witch author Peter Bebergal will appear at The Morbid Anatomy Museum Friday night to present findings that seem not to have made it into his new book. From the publicity:

Friday at 8 p.m.

$10 tickets available here

The Morbid Anatomy Museum

424A Third Avenue in Brooklyn

Presented by Phantasmaphile

and The Morbid

Anatomy Museum

Drawn largely from research and ideas related to his new book Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll, author Peter Bebergal will present a multi-media presentation of the ways in which the aesthetics and mythos of rock and roll have been deeply influenced by the painters, writers, and composers of the 19th century. Bebergal will narrate a secret occult history of rock that owes its mystique to people like Aubrey Beardsley, Austin Osman Spare, Alphonse Mucha, Alexander Scriabin, and others, as well as the pomp and circumstance of the magic fraternities of that century’s Occult Revival.

Peter Bebergal is the author of Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll, Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood, and The Faith between Us: A Jew and a Catholic Search for the Meaning of God (with Scott Korb). He writes widely on music and books, with special emphasis on the speculative and slightly fringe. His recent essays and reviews have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Quietus, BoingBoing, and The Believer. Bebergal studied religion and culture at Harvard Divinity School, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


In the meantime, I hope to see you Wednesday night at St. Cecile Masonic Lodge’s annual holiday party. Grand Lodge Room at Masonic Hall, located at 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan. This is the lodge of show business folk, so there will be live music. Details here:

     

‘Words and wishes of the gods’

     
Morbid Anatomy will continue its Death and the Occult in the Ancient World lecture series next month with another illustrated presentation. This one will be in Manhattan, rather than Observatory’s Brooklyn location. From the publicity:

Possession and Prophets

Illustrated Lecture

with Ava Forte Vitali

of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thursday, June 12 at 8 p.m.

Morbid Anatomy Museum

424A Third Avenue (at Seventh Street)

$8 per person—click here

The new year festival of Opet.

On the ancient Mediterranean, the words and wishes of the gods were handed down through a number of different conduits – some human and some not. What were the vehicles for prophecy and how were they interpreted in ancient Egyptian society? From omens to offerings to the ancient equivalent of ‘phone a friend,’ the manner in which the living communicated with their deities varied, across economic levels and with the development of time. We often see instances of both godly and demonic possession, and will discuss the different vehicles through which the gods could speak, including statues, smells, wind, light, and humans and animals, briefly expanding our dialogue to include neighboring Greece and Rome.

Ava Forte Vitali

Ava Forte Vitali completed her Master’s Degree in Art History and Archaeology, with a specialization in the Egyptian and Classical World, at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Her research interests include the interaction of the physical and spirit world in Ancient Egypt, archaeology of the household, and Ancient Egyptian domestic and ancestor cults, on which her Master’s focused. She has excavated at sites in Egypt and Turkey, and is a Collections Manager for Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum. She is currently writing a contribution on the Arts and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, for an upcoming textbook on the introduction to Art History.

Death and the Occult

in the Ancient World Series

Death and the Occult in the Ancient World is a new series of monthly lectures, workshops, and tours that aim to examine the way people along the ancient Mediterranean interacted with the unseen forces in the world. While many basic ancient myths and mortuary traditions are known to most people with a casual interest, often this barely scrapes the top of a rich wealth of information and long history of interesting, engaging, and surprisingly weird traditions and beliefs. Through illustrated lectures, guided tours, and occasional workshops, we will strive to understand the different approaches that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans had to explain the world around them and challenge popular misconceptions held by the public today.

Through this series we hope to bridge the gap that often exists between academic disciplines and the public audience, bringing the two together in an approachable forum. Led by a trained archaeologist and art historian Ava Forte Vitali of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this series will expand on topics including religion, art, archaeology, and texts, to further our understanding of both our world and theirs.