Thoth Tarot 1943

Lady Frieda Harris created this Thoth Tarot card with what looks like watercolor and ink. The way she’s layered the colors makes me think about artmaking as a process of revelation. Each layer builds on the last, not unlike how we build our understanding of the world. Look at how the yellows and oranges in the central star seem to glow from within, contrasted against the cool blues and greens in the periphery. The texture is smooth, the colors are transparent, and the lines are precise. It feels like she’s trying to reveal something hidden, a secret language maybe. My eye is drawn to the little grey hand at the center of the star. What is it reaching for? What is it about to create or destroy? I see connections to Hilma af Klint, another artist who used abstraction to explore spiritual dimensions. Both embraced ambiguity, using art as a tool for inquiry rather than a declaration of certainty.