Catherine White
Head of Sale
Lot 108AR
Austin Osman Spare
(British, 1886-1956)
Figure Dancing with a 'KIA' Form
22 March 2023, 13:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £5,737.50 inc. premium
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Megan Abell
Sale Coordinator
Mary Gatenby
Cataloguer
Austin Osman Spare (British, 1886-1956)
Figure Dancing with a 'KIA' Form
dated and inscribed '1904./ONE' (lower right)
pencil and pen and ink on paper
32.5 x 24cm (12 13/16 x 9 7/16in).
dated and inscribed '1904./ONE' (lower right)
pencil and pen and ink on paper
32.5 x 24cm (12 13/16 x 9 7/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 11 May 2005, lot 41 (as Zos Dancing with a Kia Bird)
Alan Michael Harris
Between 1902–1906, Spare produced many stylised works employing imagery inspired by the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and ancient Egypt, often laden with oblique occult motifs that were entirely his own. 'KIA' was his term for a feminine Absolute, symbolised by the head of a vulture, a reference to the Egyptian goddess Mut, wife of the god Amen. To the ancient Egyptians, Amen was known as the maker, or creator, or often simply as the ONE. Spare identified with Amen and employed both the vulture skull and 'ONE' in several works around this period, usually adjacent to, or in place of, his signature.
We are grateful to Robert Shehu-Ansell for compiling this catalogue entry.