Eileen Agar...

Eileen Agar (1899-1991)was a British painter and photographer associated with the surrealist movement. Surrealism was a cultural movement that began in the 1920's. It dealt with the subconscious and many of the artists involved with the movement like Agar, experimented with automatic techniques -automatism - using stream of consciousness tapping into the spontaneity of creativity while embracing new materials. Agar, as well being an accomplished painter, also used fabric with plaster and photographs with other mixed media to create collages. What I like about her work, having now just discovered her, are the natural themes she develops and how they relate to her as a woman.She has returned in 'earth' as a natural form of order. Her works are political as well as spiritual regarding her femininity and role as a woman. She too has reduced form to simple shapes and builds on the picture with layering it to create depth and dimension. She believed that women were the true surrealist and wrote:' the importance of the unconscious in all forms of Literature and Art establishes the dominance of the Feminine type of imagination over the classical and more masculine order.' In being introduced to Eileen Agar's works, I am beginning to understand the Anarchy symbol that I saw as part of the balance of feminine energy. It came again the following night and the 'A' was centred upright within a circle. The Bust of the Woman I included of her works is entitled 'Angel of Anarchy' , totally correlates to this as part of the feminine ethos. It was a piece she included in an exhibit in the 1930's entitled 'The Autobiography of an embryo'. I am amazed that many of her images and themes are also those which I too have embraced through the creative process.I am still not clear about the meaning behind the Anarchy symbol but I believe has to do with 'chaos' in the universe as part of the feminine order and creation. It is central to that universal balance and perhaps the most important of all. It is where all things were created from - (As in the big bang')...