Eileen Agar

Untitled Collage (Flower), 1980
Ink, gouache, pencil and collage on paper
Unframed: 8 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches (21 x 29.8 cm)
Framed: 15 3/4 x 19 1/4 inches (40 x 48.9 cm)

Courtesy of Andrew Kreps Gallery

Selected by The Drawing Center

Over the course of seventy years, Eileen Agar developed a deeply personal artistic language that linked diverse forms and objects through both spiritual, and formal relationships. Born in Buenos Aires, Agar relocated to London as a child, first studying art at the Brook Green School, and later, the Slade School of Fine Art. Joining the London Group in 1934, Agar would rise to prominence as one of the few women to exhibit in The International Surrealist Exhibition, presented in 1936 at New Burlington Galleries, London. In spite of this, Agar throughout her career would maintain a tenuous relationship with surrealism, taking cues from concurrent movements like cubism, and abstraction, while interjecting a consistent irreverence and wit. Additionally in 1936, Agar’s work would be included in the landmark exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, furthering her international reputation.

Throughout her life, Agar was influenced by her ongoing conversations with artists and writers, including Henry Moore, Ezra Pound, André Breton, Dora Maar, Lee Miller, Pablo Picasso, and others. Her relationship with the British painter Paul Nash, would lead to the incorporation of the found object in her work, as she moved freely between painting, sculpture, photography, and collage. Culling stones, marine life, and other natural detritus, Agar would imbue her works with a sense of mysticism, creating enigmatic, and lyrical compositions. While she would continue to experiment with, and explore material freely, Agar would preserve an intimate aesthetic sensibility, allowing her to deftly incorporate diverse content, ranging from her interest in the body, ancient mythology, the natural world, as well as her own biography into the cosmos of her work.

This year, Andrew Kreps Gallery presented the exhibition Eileen Agar: Leaves of the World, in parallel with a solo exhibition of the artist presented at Alison Jacques, London, UK. In 2024, Thames & Hudson republished Eileen Agar’s groundbreaking autobiography, A Look at My Life. In 2021, the Whitechapel Gallery, London presented Angel of Anarchy, a major retrospective of Agar’s work comprising over 150 works, curated by Laura Smith, which later traveled to Mjellby Art Museum, Sweden, and Leeds Art Gallery. In the past two years, her work has been included in ​​Judy Chicago: Herstory, The New Museum, New York, 2023, The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani, the international exhibition at 59th Venice Biennale, 2022, Surrealism Beyond Borders, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2021, traveled to the Tate Modern, London. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Tate, London, the British Museum, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, National Portrait Gallery, London, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, among others.