There are few ARTISTS that
rival Aubrey Beardsley for rattling
the Victorian cages of his contemporaries.
When he joined forces with Oscar Wilde to
rock the Victorians
few survived in tact.
His blatant truth and obscene
characters for the day
still brought a laugh to the
throats of contemporaries in ART School
100 + years later.
We have all attempted to explain
the Decadents of that period
without getting into
some of Aubrey Beardsleys
examples of drawings.
I remember doing a lecture about
his work to many classes in the
elementary school of my children
and having to choose my drawings
wisely.
And my explanations even
more so.
I wanted them to understand why
it was important that he did what he did.
Why it was a huge step in an era when
everyone had more rules
than we can even imagine.
Aubrey was born to a family
that never quite made it financially.
He suffered as the third generation
battling tuberculosis
in a day when it killed you.
He had many health problems
and they killed him at the
ripe old age of 25.
Such a loss.
Who knows what trouble he could have gotten
into.
Oscar Wilde did not last long either.
It was a time of vices
that killed you
if your general health did not.
The gifts that Aubrey brought
were earlier than other ARTISTS did.
He was not afraid
to be in the limelight
for being different.
He believed that his role
in the ART world was to state
what others were afraid to state.
He was a warrior
and a person of
"Living on thorns"
As he called it.
