💜Violet: Spirit This #PrideMonth 2020, we're sharing artworks inspired by the meaning behind the rainbow flag. Today we look at Violet, symbolizing Spirit. . “Elisar von Kupffer, also known as Elisarion, was an Estonian-born poet, artist, and gay-rights activist recognized for publishing the first anthology of homoerotic literature in 1900. Together with his partner, Eduard von Mayer, Elisarion founded a religion called Clarism, which tried to reconcile their faith and longing for an afterlife with their identity as queer men. Clarism attracted virtually no followers other than the couple. Nevertheless, the two built a temple to this new religion, known as the Sanctuarium Artis Elisarion. The entire temple was meant to symbolize a path from darkness to light, from duality to unity through a circuit that visitors would follow in a space filled with dozens of paintings by the artist." –Pietro Rigolo, assistant curator For more on Elisar von Kupffer, the history of the pride flag, a...