Visual Arts

The collection, brought together by prominent Leeds collector Dr. Jeffery Sherwin, contains work by Eileen Agar, Roland Penrose, Henry Moore, Emmy Bridgewater and Conroy Maddox. Dr. Sherwin started collecting in 1986 after seeing the exhibition 'British Surrealism in the 30s' at Leeds Art Gallery. The retired doctor is the owner of the largest privately held collection of British Surrealism in existence.

The exhibition will offer over 220 exhibits, including photographs, posters, rare Surrealist volumes and curiosities. These will demonstrate the social context behind the exhibition and will link to a broader collection of modern art from Gaudier-Brzeska to Damien Hirst.

The collection contains many important pieces including the Eileen Agar plaster head 'Angel of Mercy' accompanied by new research showing that it was originally titled 'The Politician' and collaged in fur; a haunting and disturbed head by Leonora Carrington after Max Ernst had left her for the USA and produced when she was in a mental home in Santander, Northern Spain, suffering from severe depression.

Eileen Agar's 'Angel of Mercy'

Also included is a group of 1930s photo collages by Humphrey Jennings contrasted with his post-World War II paintings; Conroy Maddox' box 'Denouement' enclosing objects including a photo of Maddox making a sadomasochistic attack on a nun who is wearing silk stockings and clearly enjoying the experience! A Julian Trevelyan work on a roof tile and his painting 'Hypnosis' from the days of taking the hallucinatory drug, mescalin.

All the British women surrealists are represented in the exhibition including Grace Pailthorpe who along with her younger partner by 23 years, Reuben Mednikoff produced Freudian dream paintings , mainly of a sexual nature.

The close connection between the British Surrealist and the Republican movement in Spain at the time of the Civil War is well represented in Dr Sherwin's collection. An extraordinary pen and ink drawing 'Mass in Pamplona' by Andre Masson depicts the Bishop of Pamplona as a Donkey handing out a holy communion wafer emblazoned with a Swastika surrounded by acolytes and a Goya-esque execution squad!

The Leeds College of Art surrealist connection of the 1960/70s is represented by Patrick Hughes and Anthony Earnshaw and their pupils Paul Hammond and Glen Baxter. Jeffrey Sherwin commissioned the anarchist and surrealist box maker Anthony Earnshaw to make two boxes after his heart attack and by-pass. The two works 'The Glamorous Heart Attack' and 'Make Mine A Quadruple', are made with bits from his surgery!

British Surrealism in Context: The Collector's Eye runs at Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow from Friday 10 July - Sunday 1 November 2009.