Eileen Agar Biography
Surrealist painter in oil and acrylic, collagist and object-maker. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, daughter of a businessman, she came to England in 1911. Studied part-time at the Byam Shaw School with Rex Vicat Cole, then with Leon Underwood at his Brook Green School and at the Slade School of Fine Art with Henry Tonks, Philip Wilson Steer and Walter Westley Russell. Married the artist Robin Bartlett and after divorced the Hungarian writer Joseph Bard. Studied for two years in Paris, where she became familiar with modern movements such as Surrealism. Became friendly with Ezra Pound, Evelyn Waugh, Pablo Piscasso, Man Ray, Henry Moore and Paul Nash. Took part in the International Surrealist exhibition in London, 1936. Began to show widely in London, having a first one-man exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1942. Retrospective at Birch and Conran 1988, the year she published her autobiography "A Look at my Life". The Tate Gallery among others holds her work which has a strong jokey element. Shortly before she died, in London, she was elected R.A.