Film of the Month - The Bones Go Last: The Seven Ages of Austin Osman Spare

This film tells the story of the artist Austin Osman Spare who lived in Kennington and Walworth, London, until his death in 1956.  
Born in 1886, the son of a policeman, the first 8 years of Spare’s life were spent around Smithfield market and it is here and in the church where his artistic influences around spiritualism, ritual, belief and philosophy were started. In 1894, Spare moved with his family to Kennington and his art work was to take on a more esoteric theme.  Spare exhibited two works of art at the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Show at the age of 17 and the subsequent press attention and praise that it received catapulted his work into the public arena.

Through a mixture of interviews with art historians, writers and publishers and the inclusion of archive footage and photographs, the film gives an historical account of Spare’s life. It includes an account of his involvement in World War 1 as an artist, his marriage and the relationships which hindered and helped his art and finally his life in Walworth Road where he lived and continued his art, drawing the local characters. The film describes a brilliant artist who was misunderstood, and whose complex character lent itself to “myriad of interpretations”.  

33 mins, ©Jerusalem Press Ltd., written and produced by Richard Millington and Thomas Oldham, music composed by James Bulley.
 With thanks to Stephen Pochin.

Watch here - https://www.londonsscreenarchives.org.uk/title/22512/.