Fraudulent mediums and miracle-mongers: Illusion, concealment and revelation in the works of Crivelli, Greenberg and Houdini1

This article places in conversation Clement Greenberg (1909–94) and Harry Houdini (1874–1926) in their engagement with a search for a truth and draws subtle parallels in their biographies. Greenberg searched for an essence in the material realm of paint and Houdini searched the paranormal through mediumistic séances, both looking to reduce or debunk ideas of illusion in their fields, or more specifically, deception. This ‘conversation’ emerges from a close reading of the illusionary properties of the works of Carlo Crivelli (1430–95) and sets out to weave connections between approaches to illusion in painting, writing and magic via the notion of Carrie Lambert-Beatty’s parafiction (2009) where artworks that are presented as fact interact with the world. This article aims to raise questions and comparisons between illusions found in pictorial language, magical apparatus and parafictions, illustrating the fine line between illusion and material, and concealment and revelation.