Sebastian Horsley (1962–2010,) born Marcus A. Horsley, was an English artist, painter, writer, and self-proclaimed dandy and the embodiment of decadence. His writing often revolved around his dysfunctional family, colorful and eccentric behavior, drug addictions, sex, and reliance on prostitutes.
Born in Holderness in Yorkshire, Horsley attended St Martin’s School of Art in London in the early 1980s but was expelled for forging a document to gain a grant. He made considerable wealth in the stock market during the 80s but spent lavishly on his drug addictions and prostitutes.
Horsley wrote a regular column for the Erotic Review from 1998–2004 and an “agony uncle” column for the Observer in 2006. He also contributed short and quirky pieces to The Decadent Handbook (2006) and A Hedonist’s Guide to Life (2009.)
In 2000, Horsley infamously underwent a crucifixion as a participant in a rebirth ceremony in the Philippines. He was nailed to a cross for 20 minutes. He fell when the foot support weakened by rain and broke and fainted from the pain. Horsley exhibited his paintings of this incident and others’ photographs and a film in his show Crucifixion (2002.)
Horsley captured his turbulent life in the memoir Dandy in the Underworld (2007.) It gained notoriety for his discussions of rape, sodomy, alcoholism, and drug addiction and was adapted as a one-person show for the Soho theatre. Horsley was denied entry into America on the grounds of “moral turpitude.” Horsley died of heroin and cocaine overdose.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Sebastian Horsley
An artist has to go to every extreme, to stretch his sensibility through excess and suffering in order to feel and to communicate more. I have always been fascinated by blood. Pain can be vitalizing; it gives intensity in the place of vagueness and emptiness. If we don’t suffer, how do we know that we live?
—Sebastian Horsley
Topics: The Artist
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Christopher Hitchens Anglo-American Social Critic
Douglas Adams British Author
John Fowles English Novelist
Laurence Housman English Novelist, Dramatist
John Major British Head of State
Roger Moore English Actor
Doris Lessing British Novelist, Poet
Eric Clapton British Musician
George Holyoake English Social Reformer
Al Alvarez English Critic, Poet, Novelist