Austin Osman Spare

Book excerpt: Austin Spare was described as the greatest draughtsman in England and was the enfant terrible of the Edwardian art scene but by the time of his death he was living in squalor and all but forgotten. This engaging biography charts the rise and fall of British art's darkest star, who was facinated by mysticism and spirtualism and practised automatic drawing before the Surrealists and developed a unique system of magic. By the 1930s Spare had retreated from fashionable society, living in poverty and obscurity but he never stopped working, only now is his work seen.