The Forgotten Occult Artist Who Refused to Paint for Hitler by Jade Angeles Fitton

He was a man Alan Moore called, "One of the most overlooked British artists in art history," and now, 61 years after his death, an exhibition at London museum and cocktail bar, The Last Tuesday Society, is bringing Austin Osman Spare back to life. Held in the venue's emerald rooms, the show isn't huge (around 35 artworks), but it is magic. Viktor Wynd, The Last Tuesday Society's curator and co-founder, has wanted to exhibit Spare since opening in 2009, but due to complications, admits, "It has been the most difficult show I've ever tried to organize out of the 50 or so that I've curated, I'm extremely pleased that I've finally done it."

Read more...

Alan Moore: Conversations edited by Eric L. Berlatsky

British comics writer Alan Moore (b. 1953) has a reputation for equal parts brilliance and eccentricity. Living hermit-like in the same Midlands town for his entire life, he supposedly refuses contact with the outside world while creating his strange, dense comics, fiction, and performance art. While Moore did declare himself a wizard on his fortieth birthday and claims to have communed with extradimensional beings, reticence and seclusion have never been among his eccentricities. On the contrary, for long stretches of his career Moore seemed to be willing to chat with all comers: fanzines, industry magazines, other artists, newspapers, magazines, and personal websites. Well over one hundred interviews in the past thirty years serve as testimony to Moore's willingness to be engaged in productive conversation.

Alan Moore: Conversations includes ten substantial interviews, beginning with Moore's first published conversation, conducted by V for Vendetta cocreator David Lloyd in 1981. The remainder cover nearly all of his major works, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, Marvelman, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea, From Hell, Lost Girls, and the unfinished Big Numbers.

While Moore's personal life and fraught business relations are discussed occasionally, the interviews chosen are principally devoted to Moore's creative practices and techniques, along with his shifting social, political, and philosophical beliefs. As such, Alan Moore: Conversations should add to any reader's enjoyment and understanding of Moore's work.

Download:
https://mega.nz/#!kUp2FZIC!CsumNmz5aqkzBfQo8nBNlzge70wbMsdcsXcSBS7kyqQ

The Art of Magic by Alan Moore

Remember that when I say that magic and art are equivalent, you should not construe that I am saying that magic is only art; that I’m in some way attempting to downplay magic by conflating it with something everyone believes is commonplace and possible.

What I am actually saying is that art is only ever magic, that all of the spectacular rewards said to be achievable by magic are attainable through art, and all of the nightmarish horrors and dangers reputed to be implicit in magic are similarly attendant upon the artist or the writer.

Approach your work with as much awe, compassion, intelligence and practical caution as you would bring to an encounter with a supposed angel, god or demon. Art can kill you or can drive you mad as certainly as any of the six dozen performers in the Goetia of Solomon and if you doubt me then consider all the crushed or suicided artists, poets and performers, easily as long a list as that containing Edward Kelly or Jack Whiteside Parsons.

Art and magic are perhaps the greatest human works and are an interface with the eternal. Take them seriously; take yourself seriously and remember that your art and magic are as big, as powerful, as dangerous and beautiful as you yourself are able to conceive of them as being.

Don’t pursue them in the hope of wealth, power, fame or notoriety, or as a style accessory, but for their own sake. This is the meaning of devotion and if properly applied it can transform you and the world that you exist in.

Oh, and find yourself a god or its equivalent or, better, let a god or its equivalent find you. I would suggest a god with good hair, although that may be merely a personal preference. Good luck.