SKU: 11986
Ithell Colquhoun
(1906 - 1988)
The Generation of Gold, c.1957
£22,750
Ithell Colquhoun (1906 - 1988)
£22,750
Size:
Height – 22.5cm
Width – 29.5cm
1 in stock
‘We are grateful to Richard Shillitoe for dating this work and pointing out that it is similar to other decalcomania compositions by Colquhoun of the period, such as Bed of Empedocles, 1955.
In addition to the decalcomania technique The Generation of Gold has added brushed-on sections in black and the blue.
Decalcomania, as used by Ithell Colquhoun, is a Surrealist technique in which wet paint is pressed between surfaces and then pulled apart to create accidental, organic patterns.
Colquhoun embraced the method as a form of automatism, allowing chance textures to suggest mystical landscapes, mineral formations, or living forms. Unlike artists such as Max Ernst, she connected decalcomania to her interest in the occult, viewing the spontaneous imagery as a way of revealing hidden or subconscious realities with minimal conscious control.
Ithell Colquhoun studied at Cheltenham Art School (1925’7) and
the Slade School of Fine Art (1927’31), winning joint first prize
with Elizabeth Leslie Arnold (1909′ 2005) in the 1929 Summer
Composition Competition.
After discovering Surrealism in Paris in 1932, she held her first
solo exhibition at Cheltenham Art Gallery in 1936 and in 1939
joined the British Surrealist Group, showing alongside Roland
Penrose (1900’1984) at the Mayor Gallery that June. She was
particularly interested in automatic painting and how it could unlock
not just the unconscious mind but also the mystical.
Despite her expulsion from the English Surrealist Group
in 1940 due to her increasing preoccupation with the occult,
Colquhoun remained active in Surrealist circles ‘ she was married to
Toni del Renzio from 1943’48. She wrote and illustrated numerous
books, including The Living Stones: Cornwall (1957), and exhibited
at the Leicester Galleries and with the LG and WIAC. She took part
in several Surrealist retrospectives in the 1970s, including a solo show
at the Newlyn Gallery in 1976, and the terms of her will bequeathed
her studio (over 3000 works) to the National Trust.
