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Aubrey Beardsley was an important British artist who specialised in illustration and was a part of the influential Aesthetic movement. Despite passing away very young, he was still able to leave a legacy which is still felt today within the graphic arts.
The artist's majestic illustrations were inspired by many of the techniques found within Japanese woodblock prints, which at the time were in circulation around Western Europe. Due to his early death from tuberculosis, Aubrey Beardsley would only have around six full years of work to his career, but even in that short time he was able to produce an impressive body of work which ensured a strong legacy which is still celebrated today. Indeed, exhibitions of his work remain common and can be held far afield from his native UK. He would visit Paris just as the start of his professional career and this experience would mould what of what he produced, particularly having seen the poster art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and also some of the Japanese art that came before it. He would take these technical ideas back home and then work them into his own unique innovations and preferences.
As with most famous illustrators, Beardsley would work commercially, spending time as an art editor for a publication that he helped set up. He would eventually develop a style which was bold and memorable, though some would describe it as grotesque, or at least depicting the grotesque. There would be a sexual element to many of his drawings and the heavy contrast between black and white would create an immediate impact within his poster designs. His work seemed to be loved and hated in equal measure, and he regularly courted controversy. As his opinionated nature started to seep into his work, caricatures would appear too. He worked alongside writers to put various publications together, and then later worked on posters independently as his reputation continued to grow. He also varied the detail in his illustations, with some being incredibly complex and other being produced from relatively few strokes of his ink pen.
The artist was also highly sociable and became a popular figure within the Aesthetic movement, famed for his eccentric behaviour and strong fashion sense. He would spend a lot of time in the company of other creatives, not so much to learn but actually purely as a means to enjoy his life. Rumours soon surfaced about his sexual behaviour, even his preferences, which was perhaps partly fuelled by the controversial nature of his work, but none of these claims have ever been given much weight by art historians. What cannot be denied, though, is how his bouts of tuberculosis would regularly interfere with his work, as well as his life in general. Thankfully, in the short career that he had he was able to establish himself as one of the most famous British illustrators of all time and his work continues to be celebrated today all around the world. One can only imagine what this bright, innovative and highly skilled artist might have achieved if his life and continued for several more decades.
10 дек 2021
