It’s Surreal

ANEW selling exhibition at Farleys House Gallery, East Sussex, sets out to explore the work of Surrealist painter Grace Pailthorpe through a selection of late watercolours from the private collection of retired art dealer Paul Conran.

Born in 1883, Pailthorpe worked as a doctor before developing an interest in psychoanalysis and beginning her artistic career in 1935. Pailthorpe believed Surrealism and psychoanalysis shared the common goal of liberating mankind, with art in particular removing ‘all the fetters which prevent full expression’. Today, says Mr Conran, ‘there is massive interest in female artists and their work, particularly the Surrealists—witness Ithell Colquhoun’s inclusion in the Venice Biennale and Eileen Agar’s recent retrospective at Leeds Art Gallery’.

Although Agar and Colquhoun exhibited next to Pailthorpe at the first exhibition of Surrealist art in the UK, held in 1936, the latter was deemed the superior artist, notes Mr Conran: ‘André Breton, the show’s organiser, said of Pailthorpe and her partner Reuben Mednikoff, that “their work was the best of the British contributions.”’

‘Grace Pailthorpe: Chance Encounters in Colour’ runs from May 26 to July 17 (www.farleyshouse andgallery.co.uk).

40 | Country Life | May 18, 2022