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Spare was an accomplished draughtsman, a child
prodigy and the youngest artist of his time to exhibit at the
Royal Academy He was also deeply interested in magic and became
a friend and then almost as inevitably an enemy of Aleister
Crowley, the notorious occult practitioner. Some of his most
exquisite work was produced in trance states in pitch darkness.
In his life he was a Bohemian and after early success turned his
back on fashionable London to pursue his art and magic in a
Brixton basement. He even turned down the chance to become
Hitler's court painter.
The current exhibition is co-curated by the eminent occultists
Geraldine Beskin and John Bonner and follows a similar
exhibition they organised at the Morley Gallery in 1986.
Clerkenwell, with its peculiar psychogeography, is an
appropriate location to show Spare's work. He was born nearby in
1886 in Snowhill, Smithfield, the son of a policeman. The
Knights Hospitallers of St John are based around the corner and
there is a Masonic Lodge opposite. John Bonner is currently the
head of the Shemesh Lodge of the neo-Masonic Ordo Templi
Orientis in Hastings, in the Sussex Downs' cult-belt. One of his
predecessors was Aleister Crowley, the self-styled "Great Beast
666".
Bonner last year curated an exhibition of Crowley's art. Now, he
and Beskin hope to rescue Spare, a much better artist, from his
current obscurity. "We wanted to show magicians that Spare was
an incredibly fine artist, and wanted the art collectors to see
something of Spare's driving force, his motivation," explains
Beskin.
In his childhood, Spare became close to an elderly
fortune-teller called Mrs Paterson, who claimed descent from a
line of Salem witches. Mrs Paterson inspired his interest in
magic and also a sexual fascination with older women which he
never lost. He claimed he had witnessed her transformed by magic
into a desirable young woman.
The family moved to south London where Spare studied art. He
became known to his family as "a weird one" and was apt to draw
his visions all over the walls at home. His father took some of
his drawings to the Royal Academy where they were immediately
accepted and exhibited in the 1904 Summer Exhibition. The
following year Spare, aged 19, was hailed a genius by John
Singer Sargent.
Spare first met Aleister Crowley in 1907 at an exhibition of
Spare's work. Crowley swept in, announcing himself as the
"Vice-regent of God upon Earth".
"You look more like an Italian ponce out of work," came Spare's
rejoinder, puncturing the Beast's hyperbole. Crowley hastily
explained that he had meant that he expressed in poetry what
Spare did in images: that they were both messengers of the
divine. A friendship was formed and Spare joined Crowley's
occult group, the Brotherhood of the Silver Star, Argenteum
Astrum. He took his Probationer's Oath in 1909, adapting the
magical name "YIHOVEAUM" (following the Kabbalists' alphabet
mysticism) and observed their credo, "Do What Thou Wilt Shall be
the Whole of the Law".
Unlike Crowley, who was an energetic user of cocaine and heroin,
Spare's drug intake was only that of any self-respecting late
Victorian. "He was not some kind of dissolute drug addict,"
blinks John Bonner. "Spare was more of a pub man. He liked milk
stout, fruitcake and large quantities of tea."
Spare did share Crowley's above average libido, however. He said
that he found the grotesque ennobling and fed his magic powers.
His sexual tastes were as eclectic in his art. After
impregnating a woman much older than himself in an affair, Spare
embarked on a series of sexual adventures with a violent Welsh
maid, an unprepossessing dwarf woman and an hermaphrodite.
Crowley, initially delighted with his protoge, became annoyed at
Spare's lack of hard work on ritual initiation. Spare, for his
part, found Crowley's theatrical approach to the occult, silly.
Crowley was a "smells and bells" magician (perhaps the first
High Church Satanist), while Spare preferred his sorcery served
plain.
One anecdote, Spare later used to tell about Crowley) described
him tipping a plate of food over his own head while dining at
the Cafe Royal and another of him parading down Regent Street in
his magical robes under the illusion that they rendered him
invisible.
Eventually a vicious enmity ensued. The occult author Kenneth
Grant, who had introduced the two men always refused to discuss
what had finally caused the breach. In any event, by 1912 they
had gone their separate ways. Spare's career as an artist
nonetheless flourished. During the First World War he was
appointed an official war artist. After the war he lived a
rather glamorous life. He married a Gaiety Girl and became
sufficiently wealthy enough to publish several magazines
featuring work by the great names of his age, including George
Bernard Shaw. All of them soon folded.
His paintings throughout his life were done in a variety of
eclectic styles. Some are reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley,
others are Oriental, in some there are hints of Max Ernst's
innerscapes and Kokoschka's colour What, however, unites all his
work is the quality of the draughtsmanship for which he was
renowned. "It never fails," says Beskin, "even when he is
working in a trance state."
Magic is another constant theme and many paintings have ritual
functions, albeit indecipherable to the uninitiated. Spare's
trademark was to use what he called "sigils". Spare began with
magical words, reducing them to their elements, then reducing
them again, distilling their essence until they just became a
symbol. "Then he threw it away and forgot about it, and that's
when the magic worked," explains Beskin.
By 1925 he was fed up with his life in fashionable circles. He
published a work called The Anathema of Zos, a Philippic
against London's art world, then packed his bags and moved to
Brixton. Spare now lived austerely in a basement flat, his
palette dictated more by Woolworths' stocks than anything else.
He famously once lived for six months on £7. Gully Jimson, Joyce
Cary's amoral and egocentric artist in his novel, The Horses
Mouth (1944) was partly inspired by Spare and his new way of
life in Brixton. In his mystical seclusion, Spare's artistry
never faded - it was invigorated. He became a great
people-watcher and drew fine portraits of carters, layabouts,
hucksters, thieves, pimps and tarts in stunning detail on
anything he could lay his hands on including tea chests.
Spare could be choosy about commissions, even turning down Adolf
Hitler In 1936 one of Hitler's aides at the German Embassy in
London bought a self-portrait by Spare, which he thought bore a
strikng resemblance to the Fuhrer. When Hitler saw it, he agreed
and invited Spare to Berlin to paint his portrait. Spare turned
him down, replying: "Only from negations can I wholesomely
conceive you. For I know of no courage sufficient to stomach
your aspirations and ultimates. If you are superman, let me be
for ever animal."
He subsequently painted Esoteric Brotherhood (1938), a
brilliant self portrait of himself again showing a marked
resemblance to Hitler, making a sign of horned fingers. This
fertility symbol signifies strength, the goat and his
astrological sign, Capricorn. It might also be argued that it is
giving two fingers to Hitler.
During the Second World War Spare's basement was bombed and he
was trapped in the debris for three days. When his temporarily
disabled arms and fingers regained their skill. Spare found
himself drawing pictures in different styles, of different
periods, and signing them with a variety (of) dates both pre-war
and post-war. He died in 1956.
Despite several attempts to re-introduce Spare to the mainstream
West End art world, he has not yet escaped from the occult
groups who venerate his memory. Though he has an entry in the
Dictionary of National Biography, he doesn't yet feature in
standard books on British art of the 20th century. This
exhibition may help change that.
Austin Osman Spare. Marx Memorial Library Clerkenwell Green
London ECI until 22 August
Source: The Independent 20/08/1999
Article written by Adrian Gatley |
