Eileen Agar

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Eileen Forrester Agar (born December 1, 1899 in Buenos Aires , † November 17, 1991 in London ) was a British painter and photographer. She was best known for her surrealist works.

First years

Eileen Agar, the daughter of a Scotsman and an American, spent the first years of her childhood in Buenos Aires. In 1911 the family moved to London. Agar attended Heathfield St Mary's School , a traditional girls' school with a theater and arts center. In 1919 she began her art studies at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London. In 1924 he studied with the sculptor, illustrator and magazine founder Leon Underwood in Brooks Green in south-west Great Britain. She then went to the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1925 to 1926 . From 1928 to 1930 she continued her studies in Paris.

In 1926 she met the Hungarian writer Joseph Bard, who was still married to the prominent American journalist Dorothy Thompson . The divorce took place in 1927. Joseph Bard and Eileen Agar married in 1940.

From 1928 on, the couple lived in Paris. It made friends with the surrealists André Breton and Paul Éluard . Eileen Agar became a member of the London Group in 1934 . It was an artist community that had been founded in 1913 to provide exhibition opportunities independently of the more conservative Royal Academy of Arts . The group was run democratically and encompassed all branches of art.

surrealism

The festive hat for bouillabaisse, created by Eileen Agar in 1937

Eileen Agar participated with her works in domestic and foreign exhibitions of the group. In the 1930s she was mainly concerned with natural subjects . The result was a series of photos about unusual rock formations in Brittany , entitled: Bum - Thumb - Felsen . She experimented with new photo techniques and materials, with new formats and image details, with collages and unusual objects.

One of her best-known works is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the hat creation from 1937: "Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse". Finds such as herringbones, mussels and corals are found on a painted cork plate. Photos show that Agar also wore this hat. She kept him until the end of her life.

The Tate Gallery in London secured the Angel of Anarchy , a composition of a serial plaster head and various materials.

New ways

Around 1935, Agar and Bard rented a summer home in Swanage , Dorset. Here the artist made friends with Paul Nash . Nash, originally a landscape painter, had begun to record impressions from the front during his time as a soldier. The British government made him an official war painter . Agar and Nash worked closely together for a while, making collages from found objects and giving them titles like Seashore Monster at Swanage . Nash recommended the artist to the organizers of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries in London, Roland Penrose and Herbert Read . As the only British woman among the exhibiting artists, Eileen Agar was able to present three paintings and five objects.

From Mougins to Tokyo

In 1937 Eileen Agar vacationed at Pablo Picasso's estate in Mougins . The painter was living with Dora Maar at the time. Other guests included artist friends Paul Éluard, Nusch, Roland Penrose and Lee Miller , who took photos of Agar. Until 1940, her works were shown in surrealism exhibitions from Amsterdam to New York, Paris and Tokyo.

After the Second World War , a new productive phase began in her creative life. Between 1946 and 1985 she organized 16 individual exhibitions of her works. In the 1960s she began to deal with tachism . She created tachistic objects with surrealistic elements.

Eileen Agar died in London in 1991. Her work is housed in a number of UK museums, galleries and institutions including the Derby Art Gallery , the UK Government Art Collection and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Eduardo Westerdahl in Puerto de la Cruz .

Works (selection)

  • The Angel of Mercy , painting, 1934.
  • Quadriga , painting, 1935
  • The Angel of Anarchy , object, 1940
  • L'horloge d'une femme painting, 1989

literature

  • Georgiana Colvile: Scandaleusement d'elles: trente-quatre femmes surréalistes. Jean-Michel Place, Paris 1999.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Whitney Chadwick: Artist biography Eileen Agar . In: Tate . Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b A. S. Byatt : Angel of anarchy . In: The Guardian . November 27, 2004. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  3. ^ Frances Spalding : 20th Century Painters and Sculptors . Antique Collectors' Club, 1990, ISBN 1-85149-106-6 .
  4. ^ Marion Kite: Ceremonial hat for eating Bouillabaisse: Eileen Agar 1936 . Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b Tate: Catalog entry T03809 Angel of Anarchy . In: Tate . Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  6. ^ Penelope Curtis (Editor): Tate Britain Companion, A Guide to British Art . Tate Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-84976-033-1 .
  7. ↑ Jane Ure-Smith: From Swanage with love . In: The Guardian . March 5, 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  8. ↑ Karoline Hille Games of Women: Artists in Surrealism. Verlag Beiser, Stuttgart 2009. ISBN 978-3-7630-2534-3 , p. 114.
  9. ↑ Colvile: Scandaleusement d'elles: trente-quatre femmes surréalistes. P. 25.
  10. ↑ BBC / Public Catalog Foundation: Your Paintings: Eileen Agar . Accessed August 2011.
  11. ↑ Rachel Barnes (contributor): 20th Century Art Book . Phaidon Press (London), 2001, ISBN 0-7148-3542-0 .
  12. ↑ Colvile: Scandaleusement d'elles: trente-quatre femmes surréalistes. P. 26.
  13. ↑ Colvile: Scandaleusement d'elles: trente-quatre femmes surréalistes. P. 27.
  14. ↑ Colvile: Scandaleusement d'elles: trente-quatre femmes surréalistes. P. 29.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Agar, Eileen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Agar, Eileen Forrester (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Buenos Aires
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1991
Place of death London