Photo Lucy Dawkins, Courtesy Gagosian
Austin Osman Spare British, 1886-1956
Glossolaly of Soliloquy
Pencil on paper
52 x 35.5 cm (20 1/2 x 14 in) sheet
64.5 x 50 cm (25 3/8 x 19 3/4 in) frame
64.5 x 50 cm (25 3/8 x 19 3/4 in) frame
Glossolaly of Soliloquy (date unknown) reflects Austin Osman Spare's (1886–1956) characteristic fusion of spiritualism, psychology, and visionary art. A painter and occultist deeply immersed in esoteric practice, Spare worked through...
Glossolaly of Soliloquy (date unknown) reflects Austin Osman Spare's (1886–1956) characteristic fusion of spiritualism, psychology, and visionary art. A painter and occultist deeply immersed in esoteric practice, Spare worked through automatic drawing and trance-induced states, treating image-making as a form of psychic excavation. His signature ethereal linework is present throughout: faces and figures dissolving into one another, embodying his ideas around the fluidity of consciousness and the porous boundary between the real and the psychic.