Emma Kunz was a visionary artist and healer whose work was deeply rooted in spirituality, intuition, and the belief in unseen energies that shape both the human body and the cosmos. Her art was not made for galleries or aesthetic pleasure—it was created as part of a healing practice, a sacred dialogue between inner vision and cosmic law. Working in almost complete obscurity during her lifetime, Kunz left behind a body of work that today stands as one of the most profound expressions of spiritual abstraction in the 20th century.
Born in 1892 in Switzerland, Kunz showed psychic and intuitive abilities from an early age. She never received formal artistic training, nor did she associate with contemporary art movements. Her drawings were created using a technique she described as divination: working with a pendulum, she would draw complex geometric compositions on graph paper, guided by a higher force. These images, which she called "telepathic diagrams," were part of her research into what she referred to as "radiesthesia"—the study of energy fields and vibrations. For Kunz, art was a tool for healing and spiritual diagnosis, not self-expression or visual innovation in the conventional sense.
Her large-format drawings, made with coloured pencils and graphite, are mesmerising in their symmetry and intricacy. Radiating lines, nested geometries, mandala-like structures—all seem to suggest a hidden architecture, a universal order underlying the chaos of the physical world. Kunz believed that these drawings could reveal the energetic conditions of a person or a space, and could help in diagnosing and treating illness. She approached them with reverence and clarity, often working in solitude and silence.
Though deeply personal, her work resonates with traditions found in sacred geometry, alchemy, and esoteric philosophy. The sense of balance, harmony, and inner logic present in her drawings reflects a belief that the universe is structured according to divine proportions, and that these can be accessed through meditative attention and intuitive guidance. There is something deeply contemplative about her images—despite their exactitude, they never feel rigid. Instead, they seem alive, vibrating with energy, as if they were living symbols rather than static diagrams.
Kunz’s spirituality was not religious in a traditional sense, but holistic and experiential. She saw no separation between matter and spirit, body and cosmos. Everything was interconnected, and healing involved restoring harmony across all levels of being. She even discovered and worked with a healing stone—AION A—found in a Roman quarry, which she believed emitted powerful curative vibrations. To this day, the site where she found it is considered a place of spiritual significance.
It was only after her death in 1963 that Kunz’s drawings began to receive recognition, particularly from artists and thinkers interested in the relationship between spirituality and abstraction. Today, her work is understood not simply as outsider art or esoteric practice, but as a deeply sophisticated spiritual system rendered through visual form.
Emma Kunz’s art invites us to see beyond the surface of things, into the structures of energy and consciousness that bind all life. Her work is a reminder that art can be more than expression—it can be invocation, meditation, healing, and revelation.
