Austin Osman Spare

Borough Satyr: The Life and Art of Austin Osman Spare is the long awaited full colour introduction to the work of this astonishing London artist.

Driven by a personal quest for the eccentric and unusual, the young art connoisseur Frank Letchford sought out Austin Osman Spare in 1937. Through twenty years of close friendship he became Spare’s student, amanuensis and benefactor and after the artist’s death sustained a tireless effort to further his work and ideas.

The Book of Pleasure is often regarded as Spare’s most important work. This brief essay is offers perspectives from many years research by the noted AOS authority, Gavin W. Semple.

Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) was one of the most enigmatic artists of this century. His powerful and idiosyncratic art masks a philosophy of arcane beauty, often overlooked by the undiscerning eye.

Two Grimoires is a sumptuous book, the core of which is the publication for the first time of two elaborate book dummies or grimoires by Spare which he produced during the years 1905 and 1906.

There are few works in the life of Austin Osman Spare as notorious as his illustrations for Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis. First documented in the early 1930s by the socialite Viola Bankes, Spare shared various anecdotes about this commission with friends and acquaintances until the end of his life.

During the course of his creative life Spare produced more than 2000 drawings, watercolours and pastels. His exhibitions ranged from the fashionable West End of Edwardian London, to the earthy characterful taverns of post-War Southwark. This volume gathers together his very rare exhibition catalogues.

The Focus of Life: The Mutterings of Aãos, is arguably the most biographically significant of all Spare’s published works. Often obscure, magical and fragmentary, it invites exploration of a strange Nietzschean landscape through what Spare termed ‘the labyrinth of the alphabet.’

In his late creative life, Spare was sought out by artists and writers eager to receive insights of experience from the ‘Walworth Road Surrealist.’ And yet, there were very few indeed who became good friends. Vera Wainwright was one such friend.

It is sometimes observed that there are periods in our lives when the world around us seems to conspire against our most vital interests. For Austin Osman Spare, the darkest of these periods began in 1924.

Without doubt one of the most important works on Spare ever published, this ground-breaking book has deservedly won an enviable reputation in modern occult studies.

Over fifty years ago, Kenneth and Steffi Grant met the artist Austin Osman Spare. A mutual passion for weird art brought them together at a time when Spare, in the final decade of his life, had turned again to writing about his other passion – the occult.

Created during an important and intensely introspective period in his life, The Book of Ugly Ecstasy provides a pure point of access for those wishing to explore further the energies with which Spare was working. It is published here for the first time.

This book is intended to provide an introduction to various techniques of divination using cards as developed by the English artist and sorcerer, Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956).

The work comprises two complete previously unpublished texts by Spare bound back to back - ie the texts start at opposite ends of the book, with each finishing in the middle. Each text has its own color frontis and numerous black and white illustrations.

The first I:MAGE was a seven day interdisciplinary exhibition and events programme, curated by FULGUR at The Store Street Gallery, London. The venue was chosen due to it’s proximity to Treadwell’s Bookshop, who generously offered facilities for ancillary events associated with the programme. Over the course of a week, more than 300 people attended.