Emma Kunz, An Afterlife Researcher

In the mid-1970s, a strange and mysterious character joined the ranks of an (already thick) list of relevant names in Art History. Her name was Emma Kunz and, as has always been the case with many artists ahead of her time, she had been buried for more than a decade.  A fact that, perhaps, gives even more interest to his work.

And is not for less. The figure of this Swiss has been a source of controversy and controversy since its inception in the world of healing. Because something that many people ignore is that Emma Kunz’s drawings were not made by chance: she got the ideas thanks to some (supposed) extrasensory gifts.

Who was really Emma Kunz?

This contemporary species of William Blake was born in German Switzerland in 1892. He grew up and grew up in rural areas, where his parents worked as weavers. Neither of them had any influence on her daughter’s artistic development, which makes Kunz’s creative sensibilities all the more extraordinary.

From a very young age, Emma claimed to have the ability to predict future events and to possess healing and telepathic abilities. Throughout her life she was a well-known and reputed healer, all based on natural remedies with minerals and a variety of plants.

He never considered himself someone special. In her view, any human being had the potential to do the same as her, but industrialization and savage materialism had crippled the powers of the majority. Being in constant contact with the countryside and nature, she had been one of the lucky few to retain that primal communion with Mother Earth.

Very interested in spiritualism, philosophy and its currents, she preferred to call herself a researcher. He studied his environment, plants, rocks and different natural elements with the precision of the best scientist of the time.

She analyzed its properties, experimented with them, and then made herself available to those who needed her. Therefore, it is not strange to imagine that, in addition to being a healer, she also had the ability to predict certain events.

The drawings of Emma Kunz: fraud or miracle?

One of the techniques that characterized his divinatory processes was drawing. With a pendulum, a paper and a pencil, she tried to find answers to the many questions that everyone (and even herself) asked her.

She claimed that by recording the geometric strokes of the pendulum, she could find out a great deal about the world around her. From the topics discussed in a government meeting, to questions of a more personal and particular nature, such as variations in a disease.

Only in this way could he channel all his energy elsewhere than his mind and, incidentally, share it with everyone else.

Currently the guide that he used to decipher the geometric figures that he drew is not preserved. It is also not known for sure what number of drawings exist, since they are not dated or signed: Emma did not consider it relevant that her name appeared on them.

He could spend up to 24 hours working on a single piece, glimpsing the thickness, shape, size and pressure of energy fields. He took his work very seriously and, in fact, it is believed that during World War II he tried to depolarize negative energies from Adolf Hitler himself.

He also attached great importance to the colors of his creations, which allowed him to visualize the state of mind and the situation of the person who had come for his help.

It has been claimed that he even  predicted the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, in addition to global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer.

The legacy of an immortal artist

Prophet or not, Kunz’s legacy has survived to this day thanks to the countless global exhibitions he has been a part of. The artist, who never knew this kind of fame during her life (she died in 1963), never would have thought that her drawings would nowadays be analyzed by art critics, museum curators and researchers.

His connection to spirituality, mathematics, medicine, and biology are just some of the most attractive parts of his personality. In fact, when she was still alive, she went so far as to affirm that  “what I do will not be understood until later, in the 21st century.” 

Emma, ​​more than 50 years ago, may already know more about her future artistic career than we can ever understand.

Or maybe not. Perhaps it is simply all about a series of fascinating coincidences. Therein lies the mystery and uncertainty that have been swarming over the figure of this woman for half a century and her indecipherable drawings, which are still waiting for someone who is really capable of seeing beyond paper.