Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956)

With a wild gaze, the absurd inhabitants stare at the visitor, as if the large pages were direct windows into this desolate landscape. It is the realm of the ugly, where hillsides sigh with melancholic expression and a disfigured woman with a blonde tail walks past – a small snake surrounds her head and the knot in her hair hangs loosely upwards. In this world it's hard to say when the vegetation has crossed the line and become beast.

The summer of 1924 was one of a personal crisis for Austin Osman Spare. His art was little requested and his last attempt at publishing an art periodical had failed. He was 37 years old. In his desillusion, he apparently walked deeper into his bleakest dreams which he recorded in his sketchbook with flowing lines, vaguely coloured with the odd hues of green, brown and yellow. The inhabitants are ugly, scared and bored: not even the monks wi
th yellow robes convince. The beautiful nymphs of his earlier works are absent, likewise the strong, old witches. The glimpses of power are few, one of them being expressed by the lynx-like creature with a luminous head in one of the last plates.

It seems it was here that the artist found something – this creature has the same curious smile one can see on photos of the aging Spare – the content outsider living on little else than tobacco and beer, selling his paintings for some coins.

"The Valley of Fear" is a large 4to size book, 48 pages, with 24 full-page drawings issued in 700 hand-numbered copies. It has a short introductory essay written by the publisher.… (more)