Austin Osman Spare
| Austin Osman Spare | |
|---|---|
Spare in 1904.
|
|
| Born |
30 December 1886 Snow Hill, near Smithfield Market London, England |
| Died | 15 May 1956 (aged 69) London, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Education | Royal College of Art |
| Known for | Draughtsman, painter |
| Movement | Symbolism, Proto-Surrealism |
| Patron(s) | Pickford Waller, Desmond Coke, Ralph Strauss, Lord Howard de Walden, Charles Ricketts, Marc-André Raffalovich, John Gray, Aleister Crowley. |
Austin Osman Spare (30 December 1886 – 15 May 1956) was an English artist and occultist who worked as both a draughtsman and a painter. Influenced by symbolism and art nouveau, his art was known for its clear use of line, and its depiction of monstrous and sexual imagery. In an occult capacity, he developed idiosyncratic magical techniques including automatic writing, automatic drawing and sigilization based on his theories of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious self.
Born into a working-class family in Snow Hill in London, Spare grew up in Smithfield and then Kennington, taking an early interest in art. Gaining a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington, he trained as a draughtsman, while also taking a personal interest in Theosophy and Occultism, becoming briefly involved with Aleister Crowley and his A∴A∴. Developing his own personal occult philosophy, he authored a series of occult grimoires, namely Earth Inferno (1905), The Book of Pleasure (1913) and The Focus of Life (1921). Alongside a string of personal exhibitions, he also achieved much press attention for being the youngest entrant at the 1904 Royal Academy summer exhibition.
...
Wikipedia