Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds

The Surrealist art movement grew out of the lingering horrors of the first ever World War. Artists who dedicated their lives to philosophy and beauty were sent to war, where they witnessed the lowest crimes of humanity and the arrival of death machines like the Gatling gun which could wipe out a whole battalion in moments. They were searching for meaning in the world and their art changed to reflect it, incorporating symbols and mysteries which mirrored the contradictions of real life.

Dance of the Nine Opals, 1942

At the same time the leaders of the movement were rigid in their declarations of Surrealism as a "pure" philosophy. They based their manifestos on the principles of anarchism and the Dada movement. Their images drew on the new studies of the subconscious developed by psychiatrists like Professors Freud and Jung. 

St. Elmo, 1947

But even as the Surrealists embraced the unconscious and dream symbolism, they rejected the intuitive and metaphysical theories of the mind. They derided many of their own members - especially women - for believing in mysticism and cosmic forces, even though the richness of Surrealist symbolism owed so much to its spiritual roots.

Song of Songs, 1933

This year the Tate Britain honours one of the most influential women of Surrealism, Ithell Colquhoun...who was expelled from the British Surrealist Group after only one year because she refused to sever ties with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. 

Attributes of the Moon, 1947

Colquhoun's work was fully intertwined with her spiritual beliefs, and she was a prolific writer and scholar of practices like Tarot, geomancy and alchemy. She even created her own deck, The Taro as Colour: the arcana as pure spots and rings of colour made with enamel paint and inspired by nebulas.

The Taro as Colour, The Major Arcana, 1977

Despite being an official member of the Surrealists for only a year, Colquhoun considered herself a Surrealist all her life and developed several techniques used by many later artists. She published a paper called "The Mantic Stain" which detailed these techniques, and the exhibition reveals her mastery of them over years of work.

Autumnal Equinox, 1949

Techniques like decalcomania, fumage, rubbings and paper marbling created a tactile quality to her abstract work and a sense of weight to her figurative paintings. She was also classically trained and used her skill with colour and realism to create strange landscapes that move between country and body. Corals grow out of human parts, thighs become mountains and islands in her painting.

Scylla, 1938

She was fascinated by the fluidity of gender and sexuality in the magic circles. Many of her figures fluctuate between male and female, human and mineral. She was also fascinated by islands and the relationship between water and land, and how her own body looked like an island in the water.

La Cathedrale Engloutie, 1950

Ithell Colquhoun was a playwright and performer as well as artist, writer and mystic. She matched any of her fellow Surrealists in talent, learning, technique and vision, and yet she disappeared for decades while her male colleagues were lauded and sought after by museums and galleries. wonder | wander | women are glad that this brilliant artist is finally getting the attention she deserves.