Creation 1893

Curator: Aubrey Beardsley’s ink drawing, "Creation," from 1893 presents an unsettling, almost theatrical scene. What strikes you initially? Editor: It’s so stark. The interplay of black and white creates an immediate drama. It's sensuous but also deeply unsettling, with those almost grotesque figures. Curator: Precisely. Notice how Beardsley uses the pen to create dense areas of black, contrasting with expanses of untouched paper. The stark delineation emphasizes form and silhouette, a hallmark of his distinctive style that draws heavily from the Japanese aesthetic prevalent at the time. Editor: I'm more drawn to how he deploys materiality as symbolism. The medium—ink on paper—itself evokes a sense of decadent fragility and is inherently reproducible. This connects to a broader Victorian discourse around mass production, the commodification of desire, and access. The "original" drawing has a relationship to dissemination and that feels significant here. Curator: An astute point. Furthermore, we can delve into the figuration. Consider the masked figure looming on the left, and then consider the androgynous satyr to the right, contrasted against the reclining figure—almost floating above the ornamented basin. Beardsley uses this to depict a rather transgressive tableau. Editor: Exactly, even down to the use of roses ornamenting the basin as both an allusion to craft and beauty and a marker of the "Fin de Siècle." Those decorative details are a sign of something mass produced to meet rising consumer desires for the arts, perhaps undercutting the potential rawness that some might assume of Beardsley's work. It invites commentary on both the "artist" and his patrons in relationship to art's potential commodification. Curator: And note the positioning. The composition suggests a psychological landscape where figures embody conflicting desires and anxieties. The lack of a traditional perspectival system enhances the sense of dreamlike distortion, almost a visual manifestation of the subconscious. Editor: I suppose it's in looking closely at that material basis and construction—thinking beyond Beardsley alone—that gives this "Creation" new potential. Curator: It appears, we have together perhaps only just touched upon the creative potential and anxieties embodied by this arresting artwork.