A journal by artist and designer John Coulthart.
Occult
And still they come… This variation on the Flandrin pose was recommended by Jonathan at Midian Books, for whom I designed some catalogue covers several years ago. Jonathan’s partner, Victoria Musson, took the (untitled) photo and their site features other examples of her work with a distinctly pagan quality.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive
• The recurrent pose archive
My good friend Ed Jansen writes to inform me that a new edition of his web (and occasionally, print) magazine Passage has appeared. Contents can be seen above: musician Steven Brown, a member of the excellent Tuxedomoon with a separate solo career; artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare who’s been featured here several times; mythical hero Odysseus and playwright, poet and actor, Antonin Artaud. Since Ed is Dutch, the contents are also largely in Dutch but at { feuilleton } we try to be at least occasionally international. The Steven Brown section includes some English language material and the magazine is worth a look for the pictures, especially the Spare work which includes a number of examples I haven’t seen before. Once again I can’t help think that Spare is long overdue a serious monograph from the likes of Thames & Hudson.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The illustrators archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Austin Spare’s Behind the Veil
• Another playlist for Halloween
• Austin Osman Spare
The Vision of Faust (1878).
A suitably sorcerous bacchanal for Walpurgis Night by the Spanish painter. There’s more of his voluptuous erotica at ArtMagick and The Atheneum.
The Witches Sabbath aka Muse of the Night (1880).
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Weel done, Cutty-sark!
Nick + Matt (2004).
Collage and painting by Canadian artist Scott Treleaven who says of his work “occult language and symbology often remains the most accurate way of describing and dignifying the human condition.”
Black Shuck (i) (2007).
• Scott Treleaven at Gay Utopia: I | II
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The art of Andrey Avinoff, 1884–1949
• The art of Robert Flynt
• Austin Osman Spare
Another Internet Archive discovery, this is a scanned copy of one of Austin Spare’s first illustrated works. Behind the Veil was a small book of mystical fiction by Ethel Rolt Wheeler, published in 1906. Spare was only 20 at the time and the drawings, while accomplished, lack the finesse of his later work. They also owe a lot more to Beardsley’s style than his later drawing (with some figurative nods to Michelangelo, perhaps) which isn’t so surprising given that Beardsley’s influence, eight years after his death, was still considerable.
Also in the archives are two more Spare commissions of lesser interest: Twelve Poems (1916) and The Gold Tree (1917), both by JC Squire.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The illustrators archive