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Founded in 1914 by the artist and writer Percy Wyndham-Lewis, Vorticism’s aesthetic of speed and dynamism was an attempt to capture the experience of life in the ‘Machine Age’. It combined Cubism’s fragmentation of reality with hard-edged imagery derived from the urban industrial environment. The horror of World War One laid waste Vorticism’s idolisation of a highly mechanised future, but like Italian Futurism, which shared some of its ideals and impetus, this was Modernism as rebellion, driven by a firm anti-establishment stance.
In the aftermath of the War, Surrealism offered an alternate form of social and political revolution that centred on the individual and the unfettered freedoms of the unconscious mind. British artists experienced it first-hand in Paris, but the key conduit was the painter and poet, Roland Penrose, who organised the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, which led to the fusion of an English Surrealist movement in art. Among the 390 exhibits were pieces by Paul Nash and Edward Burra, and Henry Moore.
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Edward Burra (1905-1976)
The Opium Den 1933
watercolour on paper
24 ½ x 33 in/ 62 x 84 cm
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Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957)
Daydream of the Nubian 1938
oil on canvas
signed & dated lower right
30 ½ x 40 in / 77.5 x 101.6 cm
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John Armstrong (1893-1973)
Acrobats 1927
tempera on board
initialled & dated lower right
22 x 21 in/ 56 x 53.5 cm
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Conroy Maddox (1912-2005)
The Engaged Couple 1949
oil on board
signed verso
17 ½ x 14 in/ 45 x 36 cm
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John Tunnard (1900-1971)
Night Garden 1947
watercolour & gouache
signed & dated lower left
15 x 22 in/ 38 x 56 cm
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Julian Trevelyan (1910-1988)
Landscape with Church & Telegraph Pole 1937
watercolour, gouache, pen & black ink, pencil & paper collage
signed & dated lower left
15 ½ x 22 ½ in / 39.4 x 57.1 cm
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Eileen Agar (1899-1991)
The Angel of Mercy 1934
plaster, collage and watercolour
signed
height: 17 in/ 44 cm
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Still Life with Self Portrait 1926
oil on canvas
signed verso
30 x 24 in/ 76 x 61 cm
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William Roberts (1895-1980)
The Kitchen circa 1940
watercolour, pencil & crayon on paper
signed lower centre
22 x 14 ½ in/ 56 x 37 cm
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Ceri Richards (1903-1971)
The Sculptor 1936
oil on canvas
signed & dated
titled & dated verso
35 x 42 in/ 89 x 107 cm
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Roland Penrose (1900-1984)
Le Voyage 1938
collage, watercolour & pencil
signed verso
9 x 11 in/ 23 x 30 cm
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