Jeffrey Sherwin and British Surrealism

A collection of British Surrealism brought together by prominent  Leeds collector Dr. Jeffery Sherwin, will be on display at Leeds Art Gallery from 10th July. The exhibition will contain outstanding pieces including work by Eileen Agar, Roland Penrose, Henry Moore, Emmy Bridgewater and Conroy Maddox.

Dr. Sherwin started collecting  in 1986 after seeing the exhibition ‘British Surrealism in the 30s’ at Leeds Art Gallery and is acknowledged as having the largest private collection of British Surrealism in the country. 

Taken from over 220 works the exhibition will contain many important pieces including the Eileen Agar plaster head ‘Angel of Mercy’ accompanied by new research showing that it was originally titled ‘The Politician’ and collaged in fur; a haunting and disturbed head by Leonora Carrington after Max Ernst had left her for the USA and produced when she was in a mental home in Santander Spain suffering from severe depression. This work, displayed alongside a grainy photograph of Carrington sitting with her psychiatrist Luis Morales in 1941. A group of 30’s photo collages by Humphrey Jennings contrasted with his post world war II paintings. Conroy Maddox box Denouement enclosing objects including a photo of Maddox making a sadomasochistic attack on a nun who is wearing silk stockings and clearly enjoying the experience. A Julian Trevelyan work on a roof tile and his painting, ‘Hypnosis’ from the days of taking mesalin, the hallucinatory drug. The painting includes an image of a Calder mobile’. Trevelyan bought the first Calder mobile which is now in the Tate.

All the British women surrealists are represented in the exhibition including Grace Pailthorpe who along with her younger partner by 23 years Reuben Mednikoff produced Freudian dream paintings , mainly of a sexual nature.

The close connection between the British Surrealist and the Republican movement in Spain at the time of the Civil War is well represented in Dr Sherwin’s collection. An extraordinary pen and ink drawing ‘Mass in Pamplona’ by Andre Masson depicts the Bishop of Pamplona as a Donkey handing out a holy communion wafer emblazed with a Swastika surrounded by acolytes and a Goyaesque execution squad etc .

The Leeds College of Art surrealist connection of the 60-70’s is represented by Patrick Hughes and Anthony Earnshaw and their pupils Paul Hammond and Glen Baxter. Jeffrey Sherwin commissioned the anarchist and surrealist box maker Anthony Earnshaw to make two boxes after his heart attack and by-pass. The two works ‘The Glamorous Heart Attack; and ‘Make Mine a Quadruple’ made with bits from his surgery are part of the show.

Written by: Dominique