UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Surrealism: a Marxist Enterprise in 1930s London Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vk769zn Author Obarski, Susan King Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Surrealism: a Marxist Enterprise in 1930s LonDon DISSERTATION submitteD in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Visual Studies by Susan King Obarski Dissertation Committee: Professor James D. Herbert, Chair Professor Cécile Whiting Associate Professor Catherine L. Benamou 2014 © 2014 Susan King Obarski DEDICATION To my parents Joan anD Jim King, and my Daughter Katie Obarski, for their love and unconditional support. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi CURRICULUM VITAE xii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION xiv INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: Establishing the Revolutionary Aims of British Surrealism 11 Extending Unit One 15 Aligning with Breton and Local British Traditions 18 Part of a Growing British Left 21 The International Surrealist Exhibition 31 Postmortem anD Response to the Press 46 Standing with anD Against English Culture 48 Conclusions 56 CHAPTER 2: Eileen Agar anD the Compromises of Pursuing A Free Revolutionary Art 65 Surrealism ConceiveD Upmarket 72 Autobiography of an Embryo 76 Angel of Anarchy 93 Agar as ProDucer 97 Cultural Production as a Political Cause 106 Conclusions 113 CHAPTER 3: Speaking to the Masses with Surrealist Film 125 Contributions to the British Surrealist Group 136 Presenting the Social by Experimental Means 144 Evolving Labor and Technology in The Birth of the Robot 154 MoDern Workers in Spare Time 161 Conclusions 174 CHAPTER 4: Exhibiting Picasso’s Guernica: Melding Marxist ideology and Capitalist Enterprise to Oppose Fascism 185 Spain as a Defining Surrealist Issue 189 Unity and Conflict in the A.I.A. 195 The Guernica Exhibitions: A Culmination of the Surrealist-Realist Debate 200 iii The English Response to Guernica 220 Collecting and Selling Picasso in EnglanD 227 Conclusions 238 CHAPTER 5: Summary Conclusions 253 REFERENCES 257 APPENDIX 1: Chapter One Figures 264 APPENDIX 2: Chapter Two Figures 272 APPENDIX 3: Chapter Three Figures 290 APPENDIX 4: Chapter Four Figures 307 iv LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1 Cover Design for Herbert Read’s Surrealism 265 Figure 1.2 International Surrealist Bulletin No. 4 265 Figure 1.3 Exhibition Poster for International Surrealist Exhibition 266 Figure 1.4 Exhibition Catalogue for International Surrealist Exhibition 266 Figure 1.5 Henry Moore, Figure, 1933-34 266 Figure 1.6 International Surrealist Exhibition entrance 267 Figure 1.7 New Burlington Galleries with works by Moore and Nash 267 Figure 1.8 Special Double Number of Contemporary Poetry and Prose 268 Figure 1.9 David Gascoyne, Perseus and Andromeda, 1936 268 Figure 1.10 EdwarD Burne-Jones, The Doom Fulfilled, 1884-85. 269 Figure 1.11 Henry Moore, Reclining Figure, 1931 269 Figure 1.12 Henry Moore, Reclining Figure, 1931, installed 270 Figure 1.13 Eileen Agar, Quadriga, 1935 270 Figure 1.14 Eileen Agar, Quadriga, 1935, installed 270 Figure 1.15 Paul Nash, Harbour and Room, 1932-36 271 Figure 1.16 Paul Nash, Swanage, c. 1936 272 Figure 1.17 Paul Nash, driftwood Marsh Personnage, installed 272 Figure 2.1 Eileen Agar’s Angel of Anarchy and Herbert Read 273 Figure 2.2 Eileen Agar, The Autobiography of an Embryo, 1933-34 273 Figure 2.3 Julian Trevelyan, The Potteries, 1938 273 Figure 2.4 Agar Family Portrait, c. 1912 274 v Figure 2.5 Two Maasai people 275 Figure 2.6 Early state of The Autobiography of an Embryo 275 Figure 2.7 Detail with sperm-like form in The Autobiography of an Embryo 276 Figure 2.8 Robed figures in The Autobiography of an Embryo 276 Figure 2.9 Mesopotamian figure in The Autobiography of an Embryo 277 Figure 2.10 AlfreD Jarry, Illustration of Père Ubu, 1896 277 Figure 2.11 Ubu-like figure in The Autobiography of an Embryo 278 Figure 2.12 African figures in The Autobiography of an Embryo 278 Figure 2.13 Akorino elders 279 Figure 2.14 Eileen Agar, Family Trio, 1931, pen and ink on paper 279 Figure 2.15 Jomo Kenyatta 280 Figure 2.16 Kikuyu People 280 Figure 2.17 Archaeopteryx Display 281 Figure 2.18 Duck, Painted Pottery, Cyprus, c. 600-450 BCE 281 Figure 2.19 Gallery of Paleontology anD Comparative Anatomy, Jardin des Plantes 281 Figure 2.20 Eileen Agar wearing Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse with The Hand of Fate 282 Figure 2.21 Eileen Agar, The Battle Cry (Bullet-proof Painting), 1938 282 Figure 2.22 Eileen Agar, Left Review, c. 1936 283 Figure 2.23 Royal Air Force De HavillanD DH82 Tiger Moth Biplane 283 Figure 2.24 “TowarDs an INDEPENDENT Revolutionary Art” 284 Figure 2.25 Eileen Agar, Angel of Anarchy I, 1934-36. 284 Figure 2.26 Eileen Agar moDeling Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse 285 vi Figure 2.27 London Gallery Bulletin No. 1, April 1938 with dresses by Norine 285 Figure 2.28 Elsa Schiaparelli wearing a hat of her own creation 285 Figure 2.29 Sheila Legge as the Surrealist Phantom in Trafalgar Square 286 Figure 2.30 Eileen Agar, Glove Hat, c. 1936 286 Figure 2.31 Joseph Bard’s photograph of Eileen Agar near Mougins, France 286 Figure 2.32 SalvaDor Dali HolDing a mannequin 287 Figure 2.33 Salvador Dali's ink drawing over photo (by Horst P. Horst) 287 Figure 2.34 Eileen Agar, Rococo Cocotte, c. 1937 288 Figure 2.35 Eileen Agar, Ladybird, 1936 288 Figure 2.36 René Magritte in front of the Tentative de l’impossible (Attempt at the Impossible), 1928 289 Figure 2.37 Eileen Agar, Family Trio, 1931, watercolour on paper 289 Figure 2.38 Eileen Agar, The Wandering Minstrel, c. 1932 290 Figure 3.1 London Bulletin No. 3, June 1938 291 Figure 3.2 Len Lye in production on The Birth of the Robot, 1935 291 Figure 3.3 Humphrey Jennings in production on The Birth of the Robot, 1935 292 Figure 3.4 Special edition of London Bulletin Nos. 4-5, July 1938 292 Figure 3.5 Vacuum sugar apparatus and Max Ernst’s La Femme Chancellante 292 Figure 3.6 Lyubov Popov, stage set for the Meyerhold Theatre proDuction 293 Figure 3.7 1929 filmmaking workshop conducted by Sergei Eisenstein 293 Figure 3.8 Len Lye, Photogram, 1947 294 Figure 3.9 Eileen Agar, Untitled Collage Head, c.1930s 294 Figure 3.10 Len Lye, The King of Planets Meets the First Man, 1936 294 Figure 3.11 ‘Copulation fetish by impotent negro paranoiac’ 295 vii Figure 3.12 Humphrey Jennings, “The Iron Horse” 295 Figure 3.13 Hand cranked gears in the opening scene of The Birth of The Robot 296 Figure 3.14 Film still from Humphrey Jennings’ Locomotives 296 Figure 3.15 Detail of colonial tourist in The Birth of The Robot 296 Figure 3.16 Film still of sanDstorm in The Birth of The Robot 297 Figure 3.17 Film still of “Garage” mirage 297 Figure 3.18 Film still of oil drops bringing the skeleton to life as a robot 298 Figure 3.19 Film still of robot’s shadow over Europe 298 Figure 3.20 "Long Man of Wilmington" 299 Figure 3.21 Film still of robot’s shadow overpowering the industrializeD world 299 Figure 3.22 Film still of robot waving back to Venus 300 Figure 3.23 Man Ray, photograph in La Révolution surréaliste No. 7, c. 1926 300 Figure 3.24 Eileen Agar, The Object Lesson, 1940 301 Figure 3.25 Film still of worker housing anD inDustry in Spare Time 301 Figure 3.26 Bill Brandt, Coal Miners’ Houses, East Durham, 1937 301 Figure 3.27 Humphrey Jennings, The House in the Woods, 1939-44 302 Figure 3.28 Film still of workers in Spare Time 302 Figure 3.29 René Magritte, cover design, London Gallery Bulletin No. 1 303 Figure 3.30 Film still of Dancers in Spare Time 303 Figure 3.31 Film still of British auDience in Spare Time 303 Figure 3.32 Film still of men purchasing postal orDers in Spare Time 304 Figure 3.33 Film still from Spare Time evocative of Thanatos. 304 Figure 3.34 Fade in of dancehall bandstand in Spare Time 304 viii Figure 3.35 Film still of coal miners’ housing in Spare Time 305 Figure 3.36 Film still of carnival riDe in Spare Time 305 Figure 3.37 Film still of store clerk anD customer in Spare Time 305 Figure 3.38 Film stills from Len Lye, N or NW (North or NorthWest), 1937 306 Figure 3.39 Film still from Spare Time with surrealist-like headlines 306 Figure 3.40 Film still of Mancunian Morris Troupe band playing “Rule Britannia” 307 Figure 4.1 Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937 308 Figure 4.2 AD for humanitarian aiD in Contemporary Poetry and Prose 308 Figure 4.3 AD for arms for Spain in Contemporary Poetry and Prose 309 Figure 4.4 John McNair, In Spain Now!, 1936-1937 309 Figure 4.5 Surrealist hoarding in support of the Spanish Republicans, 1939 310 Figure 4.6 Hoarding in London's Bouverie Street, 7 February 1939 310 Figure 4.7 Program for the Spain & Culture Rally and Auction, 24 June 1937 311 Figure 4.8 Pablo Picasso, Weeping Woman, 16 June 1937 311 Figure 4.9 “Ambulance for Spain,” banner in Hammersmith 312 Figure 4.10 “Arms anD Justice for Spain,” banner in Hammersmith 312 Figure 4.11 A.I.A.