Austin Osman SPARE

The present sheet may probably be dated to the early 1950s, when Austin Osman Spare produced a number of works devoted to the theme of magic and witchcraft. In this he may have been influenced by his friend and acolyte Kenneth Grant; as Spare’s biographer has noted, ‘Grant’s especial influence on Spare was to whip up his interest in witchcraft, orgiastic sabbaths, and lascivious old women.’

A very similar drawing, entitled Incident at the Witches’ Sabbath, was one of five works with the same title exhibited at the Mansion House pub in London in 1952, and the present sheet may have been part of the same exhibition. A number of drawings of similarly contorted, devilish figures were used to illustrate a book entitled The Witches Sabbath / Axiomata, published in 1992, many years after Spare’s death. The book was a compendium of writings by Spare and Grant from the early 1950s, accompanied by drawings by the artist from private collections. 

The American music executive Seymour Stein (1942-2023) owned several works by Austin Osman Spare.