The British Surrealists
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The lives, loves, and works of key British Surrealists revealed by one of the last surviving members of this movement, best-selling author and artist Desmond Morris.
Honored for their idiosyncratic and imaginative works, the surrealists marked a pivotal moment in the history of modern art in Britain— pioneering the Surrealist movement between World War I and II. Many artists banded together to form the British Surrealist Group, while others carved their own, independent paths.
Here, best-selling author and surrealist artist Desmond Morris—one of the last surviving members of this important art movement—draws on his personal memories and experiences to present the intriguing life stories, complex love lives, and groundbreaking works of this wild and curious set of artists. From the rebelliousness of Leonora Carrington to the beguiling Eileen Agar and the “brilliant” Ceri Richards, Morris brings his subjects’ triumphs as well as their shortcomings to the fore.
Laced with his inimitable wit, and profusely illustrated by images of the artists and their artworks, Morris’s vivid account reflects the movement’s strange, rebellious, and imaginative nature. Featuring thirty- four surrealists—some famous, some now largely forgotten—Morris’s intimate book takes us back in time to a generation that allowed its creative unconscious to drive their passions in both art and life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Contending that Surrealists "dislike having their work analysed," painter Morris (The Artistic Ape) presents instead a delightful series of chatty "pen portraits" that highlights the lives of 34 prominent British artists working "in the period between the two great wars." Through effervescent biographical sketches, personal anecdotes, and reproductions of their work, Morris, a notable Surrealist in his own right, reveals how each artist's background and personality influenced their rejection of "the strict rules of the established art world" and pursuit of Surrealism as a way of life. Surrealist outlier John Tunnard (who detested the "bitchy in-fighting" of the St Ives's school's artistic scene), for example, expressed his "out-and-out" embrace of the movement through his "bizarre costumes" and theatrics. Eileen Agar, meanwhile, spent her days "revolt against convention" via such antics as "making love standing up in a hammock." The influence of wartime is also felt: Francis Bacon incorporated images of the "tormented flesh" he witnessed in the London blitz into his paintings, while Edward Wadsworth hoarded his wartime egg rations for his preferred egg tempera technique. Throughout, Morris's irreverent tone is balanced by serious and insightful details, making each profile feel at once indulgent and informative. Bringing his own knowledge to bear on his fascinating subjects, Morris offers a sweeping survey that's surprisingly intimate.
