SKU: 11831
Marion Adnams
(1898 - 1995)
Design for a Nautical Mural, 1930’s
£1,850
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Marion Adnams (1898 - 1995)
Size:
Height – 30.7cm
Width – 39.9cm
An early work, probably undertaken when Marion Adnams was at Derby School of Art, there is no record that this nautical mural, which was clearly a site-specific decoration (space is left for a doorway on the second sheet), was probably never realised. Maritime subjects inspired Adnams throughout her career; titles from her studio book typically refer to Fishing Gear, Sark, Drying the Nets etc.
From her earliest work, Adnams played with discrepancies of scale and the creation of unlikely narratives in a surrealist way. She recorded that When I first went to see René Magritte at the Tate I saw him for the first time and I nearly passed out. So often the same thought had been with me.
In 1930, Adnams started attending life classes at Derby School of Art. She was gratified to find her natural ability to draw recognised, though perhaps less so in the terms her talent was acknowledged, with one teacher remarking, she drew like a man, direct, with no rubbing out’. The ornamental dogs featured in the pencil drawing Study of two Staffordshire Dogs were from Adnams’ own collection of Staffordshire pottery. The addition of a piece of paper to the left-hand side, suggests that having at first intended to draw only one of the pair, Adnams felt a compulsion to unite it with its companion.
Marion Adnams initially trained as a modern languages teacher; however, woodcuts she made while travelling in Europe during the 1920s received significant praise when she exhibited them at Derby Art Gallery, prompting her to re-train at Derby School of Art during the 1930s. She qualified as an art teacher in 1938 and in 1946 she became Head of Art at Derby Diocesan Training College.
From the late 1930s onwards, Adnams became known for her distinctive Surrealist paintings, and exhibited in local galleries and in London, including at the British Art Centre and the Modern Art Gallery Although she never formally joined any Surrealist societies, she made a significant contribution to the movement, particularly regarding female/male dichotomies within the group, which she explored extensively in her work. In 2017 she was the subject of a retrospective at Derby Art Gallery.
She wrote extensively, including an unpublished Autobiography.
