Iceberg Projects and the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, Bloomington, are pleased to present Austin Osman Spare: Psychopathia Sexualis, the first solo exhibition for the artist in North America. This landmark exhibition celebrates the centennial anniversary of a rare folio of erotic drawings from the Kinsey Institute’s Collection. The unveiling of this folio, on view in its entirety for the first time, contributes forty-four new works to the oeuvre of Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956).
The works on display depict numerous tableaus of a grotesque bacchanalia featuring monstrous figures, satyroi, animals, and even portraits of Spare himself. Completed c. 1921–1922, the principal drawings are 15 × 10 inches and executed in the artist’s distinctively sinuous and sharp graphite line work. Spare’s proto-surrealist technique, of first lightly outlining automatic contours and transforming those marks into highly detailed renderings, combined with his virtuosic draftsmanship, is fundamental to his art praxis and marks his contribution to the history of art and modern Western esotericism.
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