Surrealism in Britain

by Michel Remy

Surrealism in Britain is the first comprehensive study of the British Surrealist movement and its achievements. Lavishly illustrated, the book provides a year-by-year narrative of the development of Surrealism among artists, writers, critics and theorists in Britain.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

404 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1999

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive overview of the unrecognised and ignored British Surrealist scene during its mid-1920s to late-1940s pinnacle. Like the UK avant-garde novel of the 1960s, this movement has been overshadowed by the French innovators and the predictable failure of British critics to take the artists seriously. Some striking and dazzling work was produced by the unsung geniuses of this period. Here’s a small list of my favourites featured in this book for your fingers to Google and eyes to view:

Edward Wadsworth—Tomorrow Morning (1929)
John Banting—Two Models (1935)
Humphrey Jennings—House in the Woods (1936)
Reuben Mednikoff—Stairway to Paradise (1936)
David Gascoyne—Perseus and Andromeda (1936)
Grace W. Pailthorpe—Composition (1937)
Ronald Penrose—L’Île Invisible (Seeing is Believing) (1937)
Edith Rimmington—Family Tree (1937)
Thomas Samuel Haile—Mandated Territories (1938)
Conroy Maddox—The Lesson (1938)
Reuben Mednikoff—The King of the Castle (1938)
John Melville—Mushroom-headed Child (1939)
Conroy Maddox—Onanistic Typewriter (1940)
Ithell Colquhoun—The Pine Family (1941)
Edith Rimmington—Eight Interpreters of the Dream (1941)
Reuben Mednikoff—The Little Man (1944)
Edith Rimmington—The Oneiroscopist (1947)
‘Scottie’ Wilson—Greedies II (1950)
Desmond Morris—The Progenitor (1950)
Philip West—Derailed Sea (1987)