Sketchbook

British by birth, Crowley arrived in New York by 1903 and joined an avant-garde circle centered on the sculptor John Mowbray-Clarke (1869-1953) and the latter's wife Mary Mowbray-Clarke (1874-1962) – she was a part owner of the radical Sunwise Turn bookshop. Crowley’s art includes detailed ink drawings of temples, visionary landscapes, and "Wigglemuch" creatures—cartoon-like beings freighted with psychological and symbolic meaning. Despite receiving positive reviews to works he exhibited in New York, Crowley returned to England in 1917 and joined the army. After World War I, he married one of his New York friends, Alice Lewisohn (1883-1972), a founder of the Neighborhood Playhouse. In 1928 the couple moved to Zurich to be close to Carl Jung. The artist’s sketchbooks are filled with fascinating notes and small drawings.