Renate Druks

Renate Druks (January 2, 1921 – December 15, 2007) was a notable American artist and filmmaker. Based in Los Angeles, she practiced Thelema, the esoteric spiritual philosophy founded by Aleister Crowley, and served as a source of inspiration for various artists, including Anaïs Nin, Marjorie Cameron, and Kenneth Anger.

Born in Vienna into a Jewish family, Druks attended the Vienna Art Academy for Women. In 1938, she and her American spouse escaped Austria with their son, Peter, seeking safety in the United States. Continuing her artistic education, she studied at the Art Students League and spent several years in Mexico before eventually settling in Los Angeles. Known for her extravagant gatherings at her Malibu residence, one of these events inspired Anger’s 1954 film, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.

Druks' painting style leaned toward surrealism, drawing inspiration from themes of paganism, tarot, and the occult. Her work predominantly featured women and cats, and she has been likened to artists such as Leonora Carrington and Leonor Fini. Although her art did not achieve significant commercial success during her lifetime, a posthumous exhibition of her work took place in July 2021 at Max Levai's Ranch gallery in Montauk, New York, marking the first showcase of her paintings in over fifty years.

A close confidante of Anaïs Nin, Druks illustrated Nin's memoir Portrait in Three Dimensions in 1979, and Nin’s 1964 novel, Collages, was influenced by their relationship. As a filmmaker, Druks created a 12-minute documentary, A Painter's Journal, in 1967, and her short film Space Boy received a Grand Prix nomination at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973. This film was envisioned as a sequel to her friend Curtis Harrington's 1966 science-fiction horror feature, Queen of Blood.