The Fantastic Art Centre is a non profit research project founded by Christian De Boeck in 1977. The Honorary Patron Emeritus is Professor Ernst Fuchs. Other Honorary Patrons include Brigid Marlin, Professor Philip Rubinov-Jacobson, Alex Grey, Robert Venosa, Mati Klarwein, Odd Nerdrum, and Professor Werner Tübke.
The aim, mission and purpose of the Fantastic Art Centre are as follows:
- To be the definitive internationally recognised information database/resource on fantastic/surreal/visionary art. The database will eventually contain documentation on some 4000+ artists from the Renaissance to the present, whose work merits their inclusion.
- To publish a comprehensive book on fantastic art, which will include an exhaustive dictionary of artists, including a concise bio- and complete biblio-/filmography.
- To collect books, exhibition catalogues, press cuttings, photographs and slides of artwork, CD ROMs, video tapes, posters, reproductions, printed ephemera, etc. on all the artists from the Renaissance to the present who have worked in the fantastic/surreal/visionary vein.
- To establish a network of artists, collectors, art dealers, museums, publishers, etc. in order to promote all aspects of fantastic/surreal/visionary art.
- To facilitate and organise exhibitions, seminars and conferences.
All the material in the centre’s archives will eventually be donated to the Museum of Fantastic Art (in planning) or the Ernst Fuchs Museum in Vienna.
The Fantastic Art Centre is affiliated with The Museum of Fantastic Art (Vienna, Austria/Sedona, U.S.A.), Centre International de l'Actualité Fantastique et Magique (CIAFMA) (Brussels, Belgium), The Society for the Art of Imagination (Berkhampstead, Herts, UK), Labyrinthe Informationsdienst für Phantastische und Visionäre Künste (Rome, Italy), Zentrums der Phantastischen und Visionären Künste (Bonn, Germany), International Bureau of Recordist Investigation (IBRI) (Toronto, Canada), The Boston Visionary Cell (Boston, U.S.A.), Art Visionary magazine (Melbourne, Australia).
Famous quotes containing the words fantastic, art and/or centre:
“The land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false and fantastic in our culture. The continent we inhabit is to be physic and food for our mind, as well as our body. The land, with its tranquilizing, sanative influences, is to repair the errors of a scholastic and traditional education, and bring us to just relations with men and things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A witch is one who worketh by the Devil or by some curious art either healing or revealing things secret, or foretelling things to come which the Devil hath devised to ensnare men’s souls withal unto damnation. The conjurer, the enchanter, the sorcerer, the diviner, and whatever other sort there is encompassed within this circle.”
—George Gifford (16th century)
“Him, the vindictive rod of angry justice
Sent, quick and howling, to the centre headlong;
I, fed with judgements,in a fleshy tomb, am
Buried above ground.”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)