Austin Osman Spare: Artist and Visionary with Phil Baker - LIVE

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture at our museum - tickets include a complimentary glass of Absinthe

Doors open at 6:30pm and lecture starts at 7pm

Phil Baker on Artist and Visionary Austin Osman Spare: A Live, Illustrated Lecture - LIVE

Forgotten and famous at the same time, Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) is now a cult figure, much mythologized since his death. Controversial enfant terrible of the Edwardian art world, Spare was hailed as a genius and a new Aubrey Beardsley, but instead, he fell out of the West End art scene and went underground, living in poverty and obscurity in South London. Absorbed in occultism and sorcery, voyaging into inner dimensions and surrounding himself with cats and familiar spirits, he continued to produce extraordinary art while developing a magical philosophy of pleasure, obsession, and the subjective nature of reality.

Phil Baker’s groundbreaking biographical study offers wide-ranging insights into Spare’s art, mind and world, reconnecting him with the mainstream art history that ignored him and exploring his parallel London; a bygone place of pub pianists, twentieth-century alchemists and gigantic owls.

Richly readable and illuminating, it takes us deep into the strange inner world that this most enigmatic of artists inhabited, shedding new light while allowing just a few shadowy corners to flourish unspoiled.

Phil Baker

Phil Baker's books include Austin Osman Spare, The London of Aleister Crowley, The Dedalus Book of Absinthe, a biography of Dennis Wheatley, The Devil is a Gentleman, and critical works on Samuel Beckett and William Burroughs. He lives in London

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The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

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From their East London distillery, Devil's Botany makes absinthe the way it should be: bold, flavour-forward, and devilishly good to drink. As the UK’s first dedicated absinthe distillery, they're bringing a famously misunderstood spirit back to life for a new generation of absinthe drinkers. Founded by owners of The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society, Devil's Botany celebrates the spirit’s unruly connection to art, literature, magic & mixology.

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Event is suitable for 18+ over only. Please contact [email protected] with any questions, allergies or dietary requirements. Refunds for in-person events are only possible up to 7 days prior to the event date.