Robert Shehu-Ansell
Robert Shehu-Ansell (b.1965) is a publisher, curator and independent scholar. An experienced public speaker, he occasionally lectures on his field of expertise – esoteric art of the 20th century with a specific focus on Austin Osman Spare. Through his publishing company FULGUR PRESS he has represented esoteric artists in book form since 1992. Robert is also the publisher of several series publications, including Black Mirror and Abraxas Journal, which has been described as ‘today’s pre-eminent voice for the serious study of occult and esoteric expression.’ He has been interviewed for the BBC Culture Show, the blog Boing Boing, and Dazed and Confused. He lives in Somerset with his wife and publishing co-director, Aisha Shehu-Ansell.
Publications
Borough Satyr: The Life and Art of Austin Osman Spare is the long awaited full colour introduction to the work of this astonishing London artist.
There are few works in the life of Austin Osman Spare as notorious as his illustrations for Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis. First documented in the early 1930s by the socialite Viola Bankes, Spare shared various anecdotes about this commission with friends and acquaintances until the end of his life.
During the course of his creative life Spare produced more than 2000 drawings, watercolours and pastels. His exhibitions ranged from the fashionable West End of Edwardian London, to the earthy characterful taverns of post-War Southwark. This volume gathers together his very rare exhibition catalogues.
The Focus of Life: The Mutterings of Aãos, is arguably the most biographically significant of all Spare’s published works. Often obscure, magical and fragmentary, it invites exploration of a strange Nietzschean landscape through what Spare termed ‘the labyrinth of the alphabet.’
Created during an important and intensely introspective period in his life, The Book of Ugly Ecstasy provides a pure point of access for those wishing to explore further the energies with which Spare was working. It is published here for the first time.
The work comprises two complete previously unpublished texts by Spare bound back to back - ie the texts start at opposite ends of the book, with each finishing in the middle. Each text has its own color frontis and numerous black and white illustrations.
The first I:MAGE was a seven day interdisciplinary exhibition and events programme, curated by FULGUR at The Store Street Gallery, London. The venue was chosen due to it’s proximity to Treadwell’s Bookshop, who generously offered facilities for ancillary events associated with the programme. Over the course of a week, more than 300 people attended.
Periodicals
Maori shamanism within therapy, Animistic art, Dance as ritual, Androgynous aspects in Austin Osman Spare’s art, Salvador Dali’s meeting with Jacques Lacan, Rebis: the Double Being, David Bowie’s Non-Human Effect, similarities between ritual magic and psychoanalysis, and much more.
In this volume we explore the philosophy and practice of embodiment. Throughout the twentieth century both occult practitioners and artists explored the effects of the patriarchal monotheistic heritage that divorced the mind from the body, privileging the intellect as spiritual and negating and subjugating the corporeal.
Black Mirror is a peer-reviewed series that seeks to examine ways in which the occult and the esoteric have been at the heart of art practice now and throughout the modernist period.
Abraxas Issue #6 offers more than 160 large format pages of essays, poetry, interviews and art. Printed using state-of-the-art offset lithography to our usual high standard, contributions for Abraxas #6 include an interview by Anna Dorofeeva with the artist, Penelope Slinger, who also kindly designed the cover for this issue
Abraxas Journal Issue #4 offers 192 large format pages of essays, poetry, interviews and art. Printed using state-of-the-art offset lithography to our usual high standard, contributions for Abraxas #4 include a previously unpublished manuscript by Austin Osman Spare entitled Fragmentum presented here in facsimile over 30 pages
Abraxas Journal #3 offers 176 large format pages of essays, poetry, interviews and art. Printed using state-of-the-art offset lithography to our usual high standard, Abraxas 3 is richly illustrated and employs a variety of papers.
Following the enormous success of the first issue, we are delighted to announce Abraxas No.2 is now available. Substantially larger than the first issue, Abraxas No.2 offers over 200 pages of essays, poetry, interviews and art.
Abraxas Issue #1 offers 128 large format pages of essays, poetry, interviews and art. Printed using state-of-the-art offset lithography to our usual high standard. Includes a Manifesto for Abraxas, printed in letterpress.