Austin Osman Spare Biography - Phil Baker & Mark Pilkington

On Thursday 21st March, we have the honour of hosting an event with Phil Baker & Mark Pilkington who will be discussing the new edition of the biography of Austin Osman Spare (Strange Attractor Press).

London has harbored many curious characters, but few more curious than the artist and visionary Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956). A controversial of the Edwardian art world, the young Spare was hailed as a genius and a new Aubrey Beardsley, while George Bernard Shaw reportedly said “Spare’s medicine is too strong for the average man.” But Spare was never made for worldly success and he went underground, falling out of the gallery system to live in poverty and obscurity south of the river. Absorbed in occultism and sorcery, voyaging into inner dimensions, and surrounding himself with cats and familiar spirits, he continued to produce extraordinary art while developing a magical philosophy of pleasure, obsession, and th…