Eileen Agar 1899-1991
Untitled, 1955
enamel on paper
45 x 64.5 cm
17 3/4 x 25 3/8 in
17 3/4 x 25 3/8 in
signed
After working through an artistically melancholic phase throughout the Second World War, the late 1940s saw a tentative progression towards a more optimistic outlook in Agar’s work; gentle pastel colours...
After working through an artistically melancholic phase throughout the Second World War, the late 1940s saw a tentative progression towards a more optimistic outlook in Agar’s work; gentle pastel colours appeared, depicting marbled, layered and painted forms, not unlike elements of this example. In 1953, the artist experienced a watershed moment in her life, during a trip to Tenerife which ignited her creativity once more, leading to a successful period in her career, regularly travelling, painting and exhibiting. Her work at this time focused on using Surrealist techniques to create works that melded elements of collage, drawing and painting through decalcomania and automatism. In this work, we see a speckled backdrop of marbling paint through the lens of two egg-shaped spaces that appear like tears in an intense blue fabric that overlaps the colour underneath. These striking ovate forms are commonly found in Agar’s earlier work, including the many ellipsoidal components that make up her 1933 painting, ‘Autobiography of an Embryo’.