Eileen Agar
| Eileen Agar | |
|---|---|
Eileen Agar
|
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| Born |
1 December 1899 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Died | 7 November 1991 (aged 91) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Byam Shaw School of Art, Slade School of Fine Art |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Surrealist |
| Spouse(s) | Joseph Bard |
Eileen Forrester Agar RA (1 December 1899 – 17 November 1991) was a British painter and photographer associated with the Surrealist movement.
Born in Buenos Aires to a Scottish father and American mother, Agar moved with her family to London in 1911. After attending Heathfield St Mary's School, she studied, beginning in 1919, at the Byam Shaw School of Art. Then, in 1924, she studied under Leon Underwood at his school at Brook Green. She attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1925 to 1926. She also studied art in Paris from 1928 to 1930.
In 1926, Agar met the Hungarian writer Joseph Bard, whom she married in 1940. In 1928, they lived in Paris where she met the Surrealists André Breton and Paul Éluard with whom she had a friendly relationship. She was a member of the London Group from 1934 onwards.
Agar exhibited with the Surrealists in England and abroad. During the 1930s Agar's work focused on natural objects often in a light-hearted manner such as Bum-Thumb Rock, a set of photographs of an unusual rock formation she noticed in Brittany. She started to experiment with automatic techniques and new materials, taking photographs and making collages and objects. The Angel of Anarchy, a plaster head covered in fabric and other media, is such an example from 1936–40 and is now in the Tate collection. In the mid-1930s Agar and Bard began renting a house for the summer at Swanage in Dorset. Here she met Paul Nash and the two began an intense relationship. In 1935 Nash introduced Agar to the concept of the found object. Together, they collaborated on a number of works, such as Seashore Monster at Swanage. Nash recommended her work to Roland Penrose and Herbert Read, the organisers of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, in London and she became the only British woman to have work, three paintings and five objects, included in that exhibition.
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