SPARE, Austin Osman. Wandering Lust.
c. 1950. Pencil and wash on paper, 55 x 40.5cm, signed.
£ 8,000
55 x 40.5cm. Signed twice with initials, pencil and yellow wash on paper, in original frame, with artist’s label on the reverse.
A striking pencil drawing by the artist, depicting a multi-faced male nude figure accompanied by a female nude whose legs melt into waves, over a vibrant yellow wash. A late example of Austin Osman Spare’s (1886-1956) risqué imagery, the work explicitly presents his characteristic raw corporeality and of bodily distortion, applied in exploration of the emotional and psychological boundaries of art.
‘Spare’s work often featured pagan and occult imagery such as satyrs and witches, but his portraits and nudes have a less circumscribed appeal. He was a draughtsman of exceptional power, and some of his work has an almost Pre-Raphaelite degree of finish. His skills enabled him to produce remarkably separate styles, and he was popularly compared at different times with Beardsley, Albrecht Dürer, William Blake, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt. He also produced automatic drawings and grotesques. (…) Misleadingly promoted as a proto-surrealist, or pigeon-holed as an Edwardian decadent, Spare was a maverick artist whose best work carries an exceptional charge.’ (ONDB)
Exhibited: London, The Mansion House Tavern, Exhibition of Paintings by Austin Osman Spare, June – July 1952, no. 93.