Courtesy of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magic
Burt Shonberg's "Magic Landscape" (Lucifer In The Garden).
The exhibition opens Aug. 17 and continues through Nov. 1. Historian, documentarian and longtime Shonberg advocate Brian Chidester curated the exhibit, which will be accompanied by a catalog, the first-ever exclusively devoted to Shonberg's art, with an introduction by Minneapolis Institute of Art curator Robert Cozzolino, a director’s foreword by Steven Intermill of the Buckland, and contributions by Shonberg friend Marshall Berle, screenwriter/former Shonberg roommate Hampton Fancher and esteemed filmmaker Roger Corman.
Born on March 30, 1933, in Revere, MA, Shonberg studied art in the '50s at the Boston School of the Museum of Fine Arts. His interests were in the occult, UFOs, science fiction, and horror movies, in particular, the Frankenstein monster, whom the artist considered something of an alter-ego.
Shonberg gained acclaim in L.A. primarily for his mural paintings found at popular Los Angeles coffee houses like Pandora's Box, Cosmo Alley, the Bastille and the Seven Chefs and from his associations with filmmakers and actors in the Hollywood subculture.
During his lifetime, Shonberg was associated with the artist/occultist Marjorie Cameron, who probably introduced him to the mythos of Aleister Crowley and the ceremonial use of peyote. Shonberg later participated in 1960 in the experiments of Dr. Oscar Janiger on the effects of LSD on the creative mind.
Shonberg's art was prominently used in Roger Corman's classic films The House of Usher and The Premature Burial.
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