Surrealism in Britain

A comprehensive study of the British surrealist movement and its achievements. The illustrated text provides a year-by-year narrative of the development of surrealism among artists, writers, critics and theorists in Britain. It also seeks to make a major contribution to the understanding of the individual achievements of the writers and artists involved and their allegiance to this key 20th-century art movement. Michel Remy draws on 20 years of studying British Surrealism to provide this biographically rich account. He has conducted personal interviews with many of the artists involved and the book includes an extensive examination of the careers of Paul Nash, Henry Moore, Eileen Agar, Len Lye, Humphrey Jennings, Grace Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff, Roland Penrose, F.E. McWilliam, Conroy Maddox, Emmy Bridgwater, Edith Rimmington, Desmond Morris, Lee Miller, Julian Trevelyan, John Tunnard and others. Poetry, prose, painting, sculpture, photography and artists' texts are analyzed and the book is illustrated with 170 pictures, many in colour. The book is published to coincide with a series of exhibitions staged to mark 60 years of Surrealism in Britain.

Table of Contents:
Exits and entrances; The entry of the mediums: the establishment of Surrealism in Britain 1932-6; Communicating vessels: formation and growth, 1936-7; Spirit levels, level spirits: the years of definition, 1938-40; The eye of the hurricane: the war years 1940-45; Watchman, what of the night?: the Free Unions years 1945-51; Postscript: the search for a fading prospect; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index

About the Author :
Michel Remy is Professor of English Literature and Art History at the University of Nice, France, and the leading authority on British Surrealism.

Review :
'the first dedicated history of the movement,' The Independent 'a sure-footed guide for the beginner and a treat for the connoisseur,' Times Metro 'Remy probably knows more about the subject than anyone now breathing...Surrealism in Britain is a book without obvious peer...an unusually handsome piece of bookmaking,' Financial Times 'an excellent guide to a previously underrated, but now recognised as revolutionary, period in British art history,' ARLIS News-sheet, No. 139 'Michel Remy is the leading authority on British Surrealism...Surrealism in Britain...is a substantial, well-researched history,' George Melly, Daily Telegraph 'Students of the Surreal will be delighted by Remy's book and due to the immensely fluid nature of British Surrealism (apparently encompassing Henry Moore and the Goons), connoisseurs of other British art movements will find much to illuminate and cross-fertilise their respective fields,' The Art Newspaper, No. 98