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Eileen Agar
(
British
, 1899–1991)
Eileen Agar
Family Trio,
1931
750 GBP
Eileen Agar
FAMILY TRIO,
1931
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Eileen Agar
Family Trio,
1931
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Biography
Timeline
Exhibitions
Timeline
1899
Born 1st December in Buenos Aires.
1919
The Agar family moved to Balfour Place, London
1920 - 1921
Horace Kesteven, the music master at Tudor Hall, toook Agar to studio of Charles Sims RA. Summer at Cap d’Antibes. Taught watercolour by William Thornley, who also took her to see the murals by Puvis de Chavannes at the Pantheon and to Rodin’s studio at Meudon. Trip to Argentina for her 21st Birthday celebrations. Attended Leon Underwood’s Brook Green School
1921 - 1924
Attended the Slade part-time.Taught by Professor Henry Tonks. Left home for a flat in Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea and studio in Royal Avenue. Visited Paris, Madrid, Toledo and Seville with Robin Bartlett, fellow student at the Slade.
1925
Destroyed most of her work. November: married Robin Bartlett; they moved to flat in Fernshaw Road, Chelsea; December father died, leaving Agar £1000 per annum. Periods in cottage at Varengeville near Dieppe acquired by Bartlett
1926
Spring met Joseph Bard, began relationship which lasted fifty years. Separation from Bartlett
1927 - 1928
Agar and Joseph Bard took a flat in Fitzroy Square. Winter spent in Portofino. Met Ezra Pound. Agar stayed behind in Rapallo to paint, Bard returned to London. Photographed by Cecil Beaton. Spring: returned to London. Summer holiday: Birling Gap, near Eastbourne; Autumn: moved to Paris, took a flat in Rue Schoelcher
1928 - 1930
Studied painting with Czech Cubist painter, Frantisek Fòlt´yn; visited Brancusi’s studio; met Louis Marcoussis, André Breton and Paul Eluard
1929
Summer spent at Cap Martin. Visited by Evelyn Waugh
1930
Summer: Agar and Bard to Sark to stay with her sister, Winifred and her husband Hugh Mackintosh. Autumn: move to number 47 Bramham Gardens, London. Rodney Thomas designed interiors of studio and flat
1931
Publication of The Island, edited by Joseph Bard in collaboration with Leon Underwood. Agar contributed to all four numbers.
1933
First solo show at Bloomsbury Gallery – a seven-year retrospective. Joined the London Group, at suggestion of Henry Moore, and exhibited with them
1934
Summer at Wittersham, Kent. Visits from A R Orage and Henry and Irina Moore. Exhibited with the London Group. Made first collages
1935 - 1944
Affair with Paul Nash
1935
Summer: Bard and Agar took house at Swanage - met Paul Nash through Ashley Havinden. Nash introduced Agar to the idea of the ‘found object’. She found a ‘seashore monster’.
1936
Penrose and Read as British selectors for the International Surrealist Exhibition, London, visited Agar’s studio and chose 3 oils and 5 objects. Agar’s work appeared in the exhibition held at the New Burlington Galleries, London, alongside work by Picasso, Miró, Ernst etc. July: Agar and Bard travelled to Ploumanach, Brittany. Agar acquired Rolleiflex camera and photographed the stones. Request from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for loan of Quadriga for Fantastic Art, Dada & Surrrealism exhibition
1937 - 1940
Showed in exhibitions organised by the Surrealists in England
1937
Summer: Eluard visited Agar and Bard in London. July: Agar and Bard stayed at Lambe Creek, Cornwall with Roland Penrose, Lee Miller, Paul and Nusch Eluard. Agar started affair with Eluard. September: travelled with them to Hôtel Vaste Horizon, Mougins to join Picasso and Man Ray. November: Surrealist Objects & Poems exhibition at the London Gallery. Agar exhibited Angel of Anarchy (first version). Also exhibited with International Association and with the London Group
1938
Summer: to Somerset – a period more of travel than work. September: to Knokke in Belgium. Agar took more photographs
1939
Spring: to Toulon. Agar painted soldiers on the quay and found the amphora base for the Marine Object in a fishing net. Exhibited with the London Group
1940
February 29th: married Joseph Bard. War disrupted painting. War work in a canteen in Savile Row until the end of the war. First meetings of the British Surrealists at the Barcelona Restaurant. Exhibited in Surrealism Today, at Zwemmer Gallery, London. Visits from Paul Nash
1941
Exhibited with the London Group
1942
Solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, London; exhibited with the London Group (also in 1943 & 1947)
1944
Visit to Buttermere in Lake District. Agar painted watercolour landscapes. Visit to Edinburgh. ELT Mesens published poem about Agar in Troisième Front
1945
War ended. Visit to Cornwall
1946
Started painting agagin but dissatisfied with work
1947
Contributed to the Surrealist exhibition at the Galerie Maeght, Paris. Travelled with the PEN Club to Stockholm
1949
Spring: solo exhibition at the Hanover Gallery, written up by Geoffrey Grigson in The Listener. Summer: with PEN Club to Venice. Met Peggy Guggenheim
1950
Summer: to Provence with sister Winifred
1952 - 1953
Winter: to Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife; began to make watercolours and frottages of the landscape
1954 - 1957
Winter: visits to Tenerife
1958
Agar and Bard moved to West House, Melbury Road, Kensington
1960
Visits to Venice and Cornwall. Joseph Bard unwell
1962
Joseph Bard ill. Tate Gallery bought the Flying Pillar
1965
Agar discoved acrylic paints
1968
Proposal for retrospective exhibition. Began large scale canvases for the exhibition
1971
Retrospective exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute, London
1975
July 26: death of Joseph Bard
1981
Exhibition of recent work at the New Art Centre
1985
Began a series of paintings based on photographs of Ploumanach. Photographed by Lord Snowden modelling clothes by Issey Miyake
1987
Moved from Westbury House
1988
Autobiography A Look at my Life published
1989
Appeared in Channel Four TV documentary Five Women Artists
1990
Elected Academician of the Royal Academy, London
1991
November 17: died in London
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Exhibitions
2000
Eileen Agar 1899-1991: Paintings and Drawings A Centenary Exhibition, The Redfern Gallery, London (solo)
1999 - 2000
Eileen Agar 1899-1991: A Centenary Exhibition,Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and Leeds City Art Gallery (solo)
1997
El Objecto Surrealista, Ivam Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia
1996
In the Mind’s Eye: Surrealist Works on Paper, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
1992
Ten Decades. Careers of Ten Women Artists Born 1897-1906. Norwich Gallery, Norfolk Institute of Art and Design, Norwich
1990
Collages Surréalistes, Galerie Zabriskie, Paris
1989
British Surrealism, Blond Fine Art, London
I surrealisti, Palazzo Reale, Milan
1988
The Surrealist Spirit in England, Whitford and Hughes, London
Retrospective Exhibition, Birch and Conran Gallery, London (solo)
Surrealismi Retretti, Art Centre Suomi, Finland
1987
La Femme et le Surréalisme, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
1986
Contrariwise: Surrealism and Britain 1930-1986, Swansea Festival Exhibition, Swansea
Surrealism in England, 1936 and After, Canterbury College of Art, Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
Angels of Anarchy and Machines for Making Clouds. Surrealism in Britain in the Thirties, Leeds City Art Galleries
Women Artists of the Surrealist Movement, Baruch College Gallery, New York
British Surrealism – Fifty Years On, The Mayor Gallery, London
British Surrealism – Fifty Years On, The Mayor Gallery, London
1936 Surrealism: Objects, Photographs, Collages, Documents, Zabriskie Gallery, New York
Objects from a Landscape Ploumanach and Port-Cross, New Art Centre, London (solo)
La Planète affolée: Surréalsime dispersion et influences 1938-1947, Musées de Marseilles
A Salute to British Surrealism 1930-1950, The Minories, Colchester; Blond Fine Art, London; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
1985
British Women Surrealists, Blond Fine Art, London
Je ne comprends pas la raison, James Birch Fine Art, London
1984
New Art Centre, London (solo)
In the Spirit of Surrealism, Oliver Bradbury and James Birch Fine Art, London
1983
New Art Centre, London (solo)
The Story of the Artists’ International Association, 1933-1953, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and touring
1982
The Women’s Art Show 1950-1970, Nottingham City Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham
Peinture Surréaliste en Angleterre 1930-1969, Galerie 1900-2000, Paris
The First Fifty Years. British Art of the Twentieth Century, National Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
1981
Image and Form: British Sculpture in the 20th Century, 1901-1950, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
Paintings and Drawings, New Art Centre, London (solo)
1980
Clementi House, London (solo)
The Other Face of the Avant-Garde 1910-1940, Palazzo Reale, Milan and Stockholm
Photographic Surrealism, travelling exhibition, New York, Cleveland, Ohio and touring
1979
International Exhibition of Soft Art, Kunsthaus, Zurich
Thirties: British Art and Design before the War, Hayward Gallery, London
New Art Centre, London (solo)
1978
Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, Hayward Gallery, London
British Painting 1900-1960, Sheffield City Art Gallery
Leon Underwood and 12 Girdler’s Road, New Arts Centre, London.
1976
A Decade of Discoveries, New Art Centre, London (solo)
1975
New Art Centre, London (solo)
The Obelisk Gallery, London (solo)
1974
British Painting 1974, Hayward Gallery, London
Hampstead in the Thirties. A Committed Decade, Camden Arts Centre, London
1973
The Illustration of Reality and the Reality of Illusion, McRobert Centre, Stirling University
1971
Britain’s Contribution to Surrealism of the ‘30s and ‘40s, Hamet Gallery, London
Retrospective Exhibition, Commonwealth Art Gallery, London (solo)
1969
John Moores’ Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1967
The Enchanted Domain, Surrealist Art, The City Gallery, Exeter
Moyan Gallery 2, Manchester (solo)
1965
Art in Britain 1930-40, Marlborough Gallery, London
1964
Paintings and Collages, Brook Street Gallery, London (solo)
Fifty Years of British Art 1914-64, London Group Jubilee Exhibition, Tate Gallery, London
1963
Bilico Gallery, Rome (solo)
1962
Recent Paintings 1960-62, Brook Street Gallery, London (solo)
1961
John Moores’ Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
The Art of Assemblage, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1956
Modern Trends in Watercolour Painting, Cumberland House, Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth
1952
Mirror and the Square, New Burlington Galleries, London
The Hanover Gallery, London (solo)
1951
London Group, New Burlington Galleries, London
1949
Recent Paintings, The Hanover Gallery, London (solo)
1947
The Leger Gallery, London (solo)
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Galerie Maeght, Paris
1945
Works, by Eminent British Artists, Russell-Cotes Gallery, Bournemouth
1944
The Redfern Gallery, London (solo)
1942
The Redfern Gallery, London (solo)
New Movements in Contemporary Art. Contemporary Work in England, London Museum, London
1940
Surrealist Work: Artists’ International Association, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
Surrealism Today, Zwemmer Gallery, London
Artists’ International Association, Artists for Peace, Democracy and Cultural Development, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1939
Living Art in England, London Gallery, London
British Surrealist and Abstract Paintings, Northampton Art Gallery, Northampton
1938
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Galerie Robert, Amsterdam
Pictures on the Staircase, London Gallery, London
1937
Artists’ International Association, Unity of Artists for Peace, Democracy And Cultural Development, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
38 Surrealist Objects and Poems, London Gallery, London
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Nippon Salon, Tokyo, Japan
Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1936
International Surrealist Exhibition, New Burlington Galleries, London
1933
Bloomsbury Gallery, London (solo)
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