Victor Brauner „Kochankowie”, olej na płótnie, 1947. Wystawa “Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity”, Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Wenecja 2022

“While titling the work after the sixth card of the Major Arcana in the traditional tarot deck, Brauner’s ‘Lovers’ allude to the male and female figures pictured on ‘The Magician’ and ‘The Prestess’ cards. Both have magical associations and their meeting in the painting represents the alchemical ‘Royal Wedding’, or the ideal union of the sexes. The composition is rife with further symbolism reconciling opposing forces: sun and moon (in the wand); fire and water (emitting from the man’s head); and male and female. Three vertical registers – earth, flora and sky – establish a set of processual tiers, with the words ‘destiny’, ‘magic’, and ‘liberty’ inscribed on the left, and ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’ on the right. These words evoke themes of prophecy, resonating with the work’s tarot-inspired imagery. At the bottom right, ‘1713’ references Breton, who considered these numbers a diagram of his initials. Brauner dedicated The Lovers to Breton in homage to the latter’s book Arcanum 17 (1945), much of which pivots on the tarot, alchemy, and the androgyne”. (exhibition text)

“The High Priestess is the guardian of the sacred, the subconscious, the hidden mysteries of the unknown. She allows access to the realm of dreams, while also offering earthly wisdom. She is a reminder to heed the inner voice, to sit in stillness, and to find equilibrium between opposites. She moves between shadow and light, emerging and returning, much like the cycles of season, and the spin of Sun and Moon. She sits at the entrance to the conscious and the cosmic, a stoic reminder to see beyond into a deeper place, where intuition allows for truer understanding. She is a signifier of illumination and even enlightment, demanding emotion and compassion, balance and levity. She asks one to feel, instead of think and to choose empathy and tenderness, over disorder and destruction”.

Jessica Hundley Tarot (2021)

“Wisdom and esoteric truths are passed down to us to help us to recognise ourselves. These tools provide us with a better understanding of our own minds. And Tarot, with its system of archetypes, such as the Fool, the Magician, and the High Priestess, is there to help us find our own reflection within the cards. We have all these archetypes within us, once we expand our limited sense of self. In this way, Tarot is transformational, allowing us to see the alchemy of ourselves”.

Penny Slinger in J. Hundley’s Tarot (2021)