Ancestors II 1935

Details

Grace W. Pailthorpe (1883-1971)
Ancestors II 1935
signed and dated 'July 5th 1935/G W Pailthorpe' (lower left) and numbered '263' (lower right)
ink
12 x 15½ in. (30.5 x 39.4 cm.)

Literature

H. Read, Surrealism, London, 1936, pl. 72, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Sluice Gates of the Mind, Leeds, Museums and Galleries, 1998, p. 30, no. 6.

Exhibited

London, New Burlington Galleries, International Surrealist Exhibition, 1936, no. 281.
Leeds, Museums and Galleries, Sluice Gates of the Mind, January - March 1998, no. 6.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

This drawing, exhibited at the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, and much admired by André Breton, is an example of Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff's psycho-analytical research, which they embarked on from 1935 onwards - the recording through drawings and explanatory texts of the spontaneous outpouring of the subconscious. Here the monstrous creature is given a hairy masculine face and a breast-shaped hump on its back, the two antagonistic principles, masculine and feminine, whose struggle with each other maintains the division and drama of the self, while the womb-like pouch, intestine forms and crushed organs testify to the heavy weight brought to bear on the mind by the indestructible presence of the Past. Ancestors not only haunt and oppress the mind, but also shape our nightmares - creatively, one has to say, however paradoxical this may sound.

M.R.

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