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拍品专文
À l'instar de Desmond Morris et Conroy Maddox, John Melville est un membre actif du groupe surréaliste de Birmingham, mouvement informel d’artistes qui se rencontrent au café Kardomah de la New Street ou au pub Trocadéro de la Temple Street à Birmingham. Les réunions du groupe, auxquelles participent des femmes au style tzigane, des intellectuels communistes, des immigrants caribéens et des musiciens de jazz, sont très animées. Politiquement, ils sont clairement opposés aux surréalistes de Londres, dont ils considèrent l’œuvre incompatible avec les idéaux d’origine du mouvement français. Melville, l’un des membres fondateurs du groupe, est un artiste autodidacte qui cultive une certaine indépendance, proche de l’isolement, afin d’éviter d’être enfermé dans un mouvement stylistique. Son art possède ainsi des qualités imaginatives uniques, comme l’illustre Dancers No. 3 exécuté en 1934, qui reprend ses figures mystiques caractéristiques et témoigne de l’influence de Max Ernst sur son œuvre.
Along with Desmond Morris and Conroy Maddox, John Melville was active within the Birmingham Surrealist group, an informal grouping of artists who met at the Kardomah cafe in Birmingham's New Street or the Trocadero pub in Temple Street. The group's meetings were lively affairs, attended by women dressed as Gypsies, communist intellectuals, Caribbean immigrants and Jazz musicians. Politically they were outspoken about their opposition to the London-based Surrealists, whose work they considered incompatible with the original ideals of the French movement. Melville, a founding member of the group, was a self-taught artist who cultivated a level of independence, verging on reclusion, in order to avoid being pigeon-holed within a specific stylistic movement. By consequence his art possesses unique imaginative qualities, as can be seen with Dancers No. 3, executed in 1934, which displays his characteristic otherworldly figures and illustrates his indebtedness to the work of Max Ernst.
Along with Desmond Morris and Conroy Maddox, John Melville was active within the Birmingham Surrealist group, an informal grouping of artists who met at the Kardomah cafe in Birmingham's New Street or the Trocadero pub in Temple Street. The group's meetings were lively affairs, attended by women dressed as Gypsies, communist intellectuals, Caribbean immigrants and Jazz musicians. Politically they were outspoken about their opposition to the London-based Surrealists, whose work they considered incompatible with the original ideals of the French movement. Melville, a founding member of the group, was a self-taught artist who cultivated a level of independence, verging on reclusion, in order to avoid being pigeon-holed within a specific stylistic movement. By consequence his art possesses unique imaginative qualities, as can be seen with Dancers No. 3, executed in 1934, which displays his characteristic otherworldly figures and illustrates his indebtedness to the work of Max Ernst.