Eileen Agar Agar Family Group outside Quinta la Lila, Buenos Aires, in about 1900, Eileen is on extreme left, sitting on her mother’s lap   Eileen, Dorothy, Mother and Winifred in London, c.1912   Eileen photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1927   Self Portrait, 1927; oil on canvas (National Portrait Gallery, London)   Joan Waugh’s photograph of Evelyn Waugh, Joseph Bard, Eddie Sackville-West, Eileen and Alec Waugh at Oswalds, Bishopsbourne, Kent in 1933   Eileen in Bramham Gardens studio in 1936 with Bella the cat   Eileen in the studio at Bramham Gardens in 1936 showing Rodney Thomas’s clock embedded in her collage arrangement   Eileen wearing ‘Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse’, c.1936   Eileen dancing on a roof outside Mougins in 1937   Lee Miller’s photograph of Eileen at Brighton Pavilion in 1937. As Picasso said: ‘Eileen pregnant with a camera.’   Eileen and Joseph Bard just married, 29th February 1940, outside the Registry Office in Gloucester Road, London.   ‘The Angel of Anarchy’, c.1940, by Eileen Agar. This piece is on display in the ‘Subversive Objects Room’ at the Tate Modern, London from May 2000.   Eileen Agar by Orde Eliason   Eileen Agar by Lee Miller with 'The Golden Tooth' (Lee Miller Archive)   'International Surrealist Exhibition', New Burlington Galleries, London, 1936. Standing left to right: Rupert Lee, Ruthven Todd, Salvador Dalí, Paul Eluard, Roland Penrose, Herbert Read, E.L.T. Mesens, George Reavey and Hugh Sykes Williams. Seated left to right: Diana Brinton Lee, Nusch Eluard, Eileen Agar, Sheila Legge and an unidentified friend of Dalí   Biography 1899  Born 1st December in Buenos Aires. Father James Agar, Scottish, mother half-English half-American. Father director of Agar Cross a family import business. 1911-17  ather retired, left Argentina for England. Eileen attended school at Canford Cliffs, Dorset, Heathfield Ascot (taught art by Lucy Kemp-Welsh); Tudor Hall, Chislehurst. To the Mlles Ozanne’s finishing School, London. Attended weekly classes at Byam Shaw School of Art 1919  The Agar family moved to Balfour Place, London 1920-1  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 1921-4  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 1927-28  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 1928-30  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  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’. 1935-44  Affair with Paul Nash 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  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 1937-40  Showed in exhibitions organised by the Surrealists in England 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 1948  Appeared on the BBC TV programme ‘The Eye of the Artist’ also on a programme introduced by James Laver on ‘Hats’ 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 1952-3  Winter: to Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife; began to make watercolours and frottages of the landscape 1954-7  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 1977  Appeared with George Melly, Roland Penrose, Conroy Maddox and Robert Melville in a TV reconstruction of a Barcelona Restaurant meeting of the British Surrealists 1981  Exhibition of recent work at the New Art Centre 1983  Appeared on ‘Omnibus’ TV programme about her career, presented by Richard Baker 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 Solo Exhibitions 1933  Bloomsbury Gallery, London 1942  The Redfern Gallery, London 1944  The Redfern Gallery, London 1947  The Leger Gallery, London 1949  Recent Paintings, The Hanover Gallery, London 1951  The Hanover Gallery, London 1957  The Obelisk Gallery, London 1962  Recent Paintings 1960-62, Brook Street Gallery, London 1963  Bilico Gallery, Rome 1964  Paintings and Collages, Brook Street Gallery, London 1965  Moyan Gallery 2, Manchester 1971  Retrospective Exhibition, Commonwealth Art Gallery, London 1975  New Art Centre, London 1976  A Decade of Discoveries, New Art Centre, London 1978  New Art Centre, London 1980  Clementi House, London 1981  Paintings and Drawings, New Art Centre, London 1983  New Art Centre, London 1984  New Art Centre, London 1985  Objects from a Landscape Ploumanach and Port-Cross, New Art Centre, London 1987  Retrospective Exhibition, Birch and Conran Gallery, London 1999-2000  Eileen Agar 1899-1991: A Centenary Exhibition,Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and Leeds City Art Gallery 2000  Eileen Agar 1899-1991: Paintings and Drawings A Centenary Exhibition, The Redfern Gallery, London 2004  The Redfern Gallery, London Group Exhibitions 1936  International Surrealist Exhibition, New Burlington Galleries, London Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism, Museum of Modern Art, New York 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 1938  Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Galerie Robert, Amsterdam Pictures on the Staircase, London Gallery, London 1939  Living Art in England, London Gallery, London British Surrealist and Abstract Paintings, Northampton Art Gallery, Northampton Artists’ International Association, Artists for Peace, Democracy and Cultural Development, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 1940  Surrealist Work: Artists’ International Association, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London Surrealism Today, Zwemmer Gallery, London 1942  New Movements in Contemporary Art. Contemporary Work in England, London Museum, London 1945  Works, by Eminent British Artists, Russell-Cotes Gallery, Bournemouth 1947  Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Galerie Maeght, Paris 1951  London Group, New Burlington Galleries, London 1952  Mirror and the Square, New Burlington Galleries, London 1956  Modern Trends in Watercolour Painting, Cumberland House, Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth 1961  John Moores’ Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool The Art of Assemblage, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1964  Fifty Years of British Art 1914-64, London Group Jubilee Exhibition, Tate Gallery, London 1965  Art in Britain 1930-40, Marlborough Gallery, London 1967  The Enchanted Domain, Surrealist Art, The City Gallery, Exeter 1969  John Moores’ Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 1971  Britain’s Contribution to Surrealism of the ‘30s and ‘40s, Hamet Gallery, London 1973  The Illustration of Reality and the Reality of Illusion, McRobert Centre, Stirling University 1974  British Painting 1974, Hayward Gallery, London Hampstead in the Thirties. A Committed Decade, Camden Arts Centre, London 1976  Leon Underwood and 12 Girdler’s Road, New Arts Centre, London. British Painting 1900-1960, Sheffield City Art Gallery 1978  Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, Hayward Gallery, London 1979  International Exhibition of Soft Art, Kunsthaus, Zurich Thirties: British Art and Design before the War, Hayward Gallery, London 1980  The Other Face of the Avant-Garde 1910-1940, Palazzo Reale, Milan and Stockholm Photographic Surrealism, travelling exhibition, New York, Cleveland, Ohio and touring 1981  Image and Form: British Sculpture in the 20th Century, 1901-1950, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London The First Fifty Years. British Art of the Twentieth Century, National Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand 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 1983  The Story of the Artists’ International Association, 1933-1953, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and touring 1984  In the Spirit of Surrealism, Oliver Bradbury and James Birch Fine Art, London 1985  British Women Surrealists, Blond Fine Art, London A Salute to British Surrealism 1930-1950, The Minories, Colchester; Blond Fine Art, London; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull Je ne comprends pas la raison, James Birch Fine Art, London La Planète affolée: Surréalsime dispersion et influences 1938-1947, Musées de Marseilles 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 1936 Surrealism: Objects, Photographs, Collages, Documents, Zabriskie Gallery, New York 1987  La Femme et le Surréalisme, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne Surrealismi Retretti, Art Centre Suomi, Finland 1988  The Surrealist Spirit in England, Whitford and Hughes, London 1989  British Surrealism, Blond Fine Art, London I surrealisti, Palazzo Reale, Milan 1990  Collages Surréalistes, Galerie Zabriskie, Paris 1992  Ten Decades. Careers of Ten Women Artists Born 1897-1906. Norwich Gallery, Norfolk Institute of Art and Design, Norwich 1996  In the Mind’s Eye: Surrealist Works on Paper, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1997  El Objecto Surrealista, Ivam Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia
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