Tender Alchemy

Lauren R. O'Connell

ISBN 10: 3777446874 / ISBN 13: 9783777446875

Published by Hirmer Verlag, DE, 2026

About this Item

Two generations of esoteric exploration and material transmutation: The first examination of Beth Ames Swartz and Julianne Swartz's intergenerational investigation of ethereal systems and the transcendent potential of art, highlighting the alignments within the artistic practices of mother and daughter.Tender Alchemy demonstrates the intergenerational dialogue between the artistic practices of Beth Ames Swartz and Julianne Swartz. As mother and daughter, the artists maintain distinct aesthetics while sharing an affinity for investigating the ethereal and spiritual potential of art. The essays and illustrations featured underscore art's interconnection with alchemy, spiritualism, physics, animism, and psychology, and contextualize the contemporary artists within the lineage of art movements such as transcendentalism, phenomenology, and participatory art.

Seller Inventory # LU-9783777446875

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Tender Alchemy
• Publisher: Hirmer Verlag, DE
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3777446874
• ISBN 13: 9783777446875
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 860 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Two generations of esoteric exploration and material transmutation: The first examination of Beth Ames Swartz and Julianne Swartz’s intergenerational investigation of ethereal systems and the transcendent potential of art, highlighting the alignments within the artistic practices of mother and daughter.

Tender Alchemy demonstrates art’s interconnection with alchemy, spiritualism, physics, animism, and psychology in the intergenerational dialogue between the artistic practices of Beth Ames Swartz and Julianne Swartz. As mother and daughter, the artists maintain distinct aesthetics while sharing an affinity for investigating the ethereal and spiritual potential of art. The essays and illustrations collected underscore art’s interconnection with alchemy, spiritualism, physics, animism, and psychology, and contextualize the contemporary artists within the lineage of art movements such as transcendentalism, phenomenology, and participatory art.
 

About the Authors

Lauren R. O’Connell is a curator, writer, and educator focused on contemporary art, visual critical culture, and the ethics of cultural production. She is the author of Language in Times of Miscommunication and Dorothy Fratt, and a contributor to Kristin Bauer: This Is Like That.

Nancy Princenthal is a Brooklyn-based writer whose book Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art received the 2016 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. She is also the author of Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art, and Sexual Violence in the 1970s and Hannah Wilke. Princenthal has taught at Bard, Princeton, Yale, the School of Visual Arts, NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, and elsewhere.