Daughter of Night

 

This is Nemesis Daughter of Nyx (Night) another early work from the CygnusX Archive. The drawing dates from 1966 and is clearly inspired by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) and the large exhibition of his work organised that year by Brian Reade (1913-1989) at the Victoria & Albert Museum. In his catalogue introduction Reade wrote of Beardsley: 'he belongs with the artists of night, not with the artists of day...' . Together with Kenneth Clark (whose article in the Sunday Times Supplement was called 'Out of the Black Lake'), Brian Reade was chiefly responsible for the Beardsley Boom of 1965-1969. This figure of Nemesis, according to one authority, a personifation of 'righteous anger', is a pastiche; it combines an incongruous ancient Egyptian influence with Beardsley's 'Japonesque' manner. To this day Beardsley remains the epitome of aesthetic dandyism; his work exemplifies not only the grotesque nature of Decadence - but also its style and elegance.

'If I am not grotesque, I am nothing' - Aubrey Beardsley

Illustration: Nemesis, 1966

From The Archive

 There are a few pencil sketches from 1966 in the archive. This rough drawing of The Temptation of St Anthony is probably the earliest. No doubt this frenetic, proto-convulsive figure is really a Damned Poet struggling with his or her inner demons - the first example of a continuing theme.

Illustration: The Temptation of St Anthony, 1966

The CygnusX Archive

The CygnusX Archive is a growing digital collection. There are currently 1575 items in the archive of which over 1400 are original artworks. The earliest items in the archive date from 1966. These are grouped into a collection called Within The Glass (1966-1969), the first book of Collected Pencil Drawings, and a small group of miscellaneous uncollected works from 1967. There is also a small, growing collection of documents and diagrams of various kinds. Another section of the archive includes research information and biographical material relating to the Convulsionst Group, The Ultrasphere, publications and various small press interests that have devloped over the years.

'...art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space' - Marcel Duchamp