Aubrey Beardsley: The Decadent Magician of the Light and the Darkness (Pie × Hiroshi Unno Art)

Bought as a gift and they were delighted. Foubd it very interesting.

A wonderful introduction to one of the great artists of the fin de siecle, Aubrey Beardsley. The whole package is superbly produced and presented on good quality paper, and a great variety of pictures that do full justice to his unique talent.

The book is beautiful, with a lot of illustrations and background material. There are some small oddities – a few obvious mistakes in description/interpretation of the drawings (e.g. referring to trees on a screen or on a tapestry/wall hanging as being outside the window). Then, the author’s interpretation of Beardsley’s signature mark as a phallus and drippings of semen (yes, the author is an expert and I am not, and Beardsley did like the risqué, still this seemed to me a bit far-fetched).