Aubrey Beardsley

Chloe Wyma | Artforum | 15th October 2022

Beardsley was gleefully transgressive and feasted on prudish Victorian England. Caricaturist, cartoonist, book illustrator, poster designer and, of course, artist, his career lasted just seven years. His love of the grotesque led a contemporary to accuse him of “blasphemies against art”. Yet his drawings and “serpentine” line remain instantly recognizable, as does his mixture of “coyness and acid observation, of tender description with shocking incident”.