Psychedelic Botanist II (Carl Linnaeus)

Psychedelic Botanist II (Carl Linnaeus) belongs to a group of, in total, four paintings relating to extraordinary, and internationally renowned, practitioners of theology, theosophy, philosophy, mysticism, science, biology and agriculture: Psychedelic Botanist I (Annie Besant) (2023, oil, acrylics, plant pigments, pen and pencil on canvas, 237 x 163 cm), Psychedelic Botanist III (Eva Ekeblad) (2023, oil, acrylics, plant pigments, pen and pencil on canvas, 285 x 200 cm) and Psychedelic Botanist IV (Emanuel Swedenborg) (2023, oil, acrylics, plant pigments, pen and pencil on canvas, 237 x 163 cm).

These paintings were first exhibited publicly in conjunction with the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the spring of 2023. An important part of the official program, aimed at promoting Swedish culture in Europe that year, was the remarkable art exhibition Swedish Ecstasy: Hilma af Klint, August Strindberg and Other Visionaries at Bozar – Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (17 February – 21 May 2023), where Christine Ödlund was included in a group of five contemporary artists shown side by side with legendary forerunners such as Hilma af Klint (1862 - 1944), August Strindberg (1849 – 1912), Carl Fredrik Hill (1849 – 1911) and Ernst Josephson (1851 - 1906). The exhibition sought to ‘reveal a less familiar yearning for meaning and spirituality, for all that is astounding and extraordinary’, or as Bozar put it on the back of the exhibition catalogue:

Sweden may be seen as a Protestant nation of great engineers and entrepreneurs, but the nation’s spiritual life has long been influenced by a less official current, visible in its art and literature. Mysticism and esoteric speculation runs through the writings of some of Sweden’s most important figures, from the 18th-century scientist, theologian and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg to the turn of the 20th century with August Strindberg, known primarily as a novelist and playwright. He was also involved in alchemical experiments, occult photography and proto-expressionist paintings that verge on abstraction. In the same period we find art by visionaries such as Carl Fredrik Hill, Ernst Josephson and Hilma af Klint. These visions continue to inspire contemporary artists such as Cecilia Edefalk, Carsten Höller, Christine Ödlund, Daniel Youssef and Lars Olof Loeld.

The title of the present work, obviously, refers to Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778, also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné). Linnaeus was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalized binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the ‘father of modern taxonomy’. Many of his writings were in Latin (his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as Carolus a Linné), but were, early on, translated into other languages like, for example, English, where the Systema Vegetabilium, translated from Latin by the Lichfield Botanical Society, was published in 1783 – 1785 under the title A System of Vegetables.

Linnaeus, sometimes referred to as Princeps botanicorum (Prince of Botanists) and ‘The Pliny of the North’, is considered one of the founders of modern ecology, and by the time of his death, in 1778, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. Linnaeus contemporary philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) sent him the message: ‘Tell him I know no greater man on Earth’ and Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) wrote: ‘With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly.’ Maybe Swedish author August Strindberg (1849 – 1912) came up with the best description when he wrote: ‘Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist.’

Provenance

CFHILL, Stockholm, Fyra Dimensioner av ett Träsk / Four Dimensions of a Swamp, 24 October – 24 November 2023.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired from the above).

Exhibitions

Bozar – Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Swedish Ecstasy: Hilma af Klint, August Strindberg and Other Visionaries, 17 February – 21 May 2023.

CFHILL, Stockholm, Fyra Dimensioner av ett Träsk / Four Dimensions of a Swamp, 24 October – 24 November 2023.

The Nordic Watercolor Museum, Skärhamn, Sweden, This Garden and its Spirits, 13 October 2024 – 2 February 2025.

Copyright Firestorm Foundation