Artists are renowned for leading debauched lives but few were as outrageous as the English occultist Aleister Crowley, described by one Sunday newspaper as "the wickedest man in the world".

Also known as The Great Beast 666, Crowley set up the occultist "anti-monastery" The Abbey of Thelema in 1920 and was a frequent drug user who had ritual sex with both men and women.

Influenced by symbolism and expressionism: Aleister Crowley.

His portraits, landscapes and trance paintings were created as part of his occult practices and influenced by symbolism and expressionism, says curator Robert Buratti.

His work, like those created by the "witch of Kings Cross", Rosaleen Norton, sought out the divine, but were shunned by the art world.