Arthur Moyse – Anarchist Illustrator for Minus One


1946-Today, Sidney E. Parker / Sunday, April 17th, 2016

Fresh in our editor’s collection of egoist ephemra are two issues of Minus One (1963), two very early issues that just happened to be missing from the Index compiled by Bernd A. Laska. The first thing I’ve done is scan the artwork on the cover of the issues, mainly because they were signed. There are some woodcut type illustrations for EGO (1982), but most of those seem unattributed.

These two illustrations are by Arthur Moyse. The website We Make ‘Zines has an article that just happens to be titled “WHO WAS ARTHUR MOYSE?” by Kris Mininger.

Wikipedia has a nice TL:DR biographical sketch for those who don’t want to look at that Mininger article:

Arthur Moyse (21 June 1914 – 22 February 2003) was an Anglo-Irish anarchist, artist and writer. He was born in County Wexford and moved to West London in his youth to Shepherd’s Bush where he continued to live until his death.

In his youth he was actively involved in political activity including the battle of Cable Street in 1936. He also saw active service in World War Two, including the airborne landings at Arnhem in 1944, but he was court-martialled twice for insubordination.[1]

As well as being something of a self-publisher, particularly with his attachment to London bohemia life and producing the ZeroOne magazine, he is most commonly known as an art critic and cartoonist. His outpourings would contribute to Freedom, Anarchy and The Raven: Anarchist Quarterly amongst others from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

Arthur Moyse illustration from the number 4, Sept./Oct. 1964, issue of the "Minus One" journal, published by S.E.Parker.
Arthur Moyse illustration from the number 4, Sept./Oct. 1964, issue of the “Minus One” journal, published by S.E.Parker.

 

Arthur Moyse illustration from the number 5, Nov./Dec. 1964, issue of the "Minus One" journal, published by S.E.Parker.
Arthur Moyse illustration from the number 5, Nov./Dec. 1964, issue of the “Minus One” journal, published by S.E.Parker.
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