Call for Papers: Surrealism in Britain, 1925 - 1955
Rachel Stratton (Courtauld Institute of Art) and Dr Hilary Floe (The Hepworth Wakefield) invite submissions of papers for Surrealism in Britain, 1925 – 1955, a one-day symposium taking place on 6 October 2018 that aims to rethink Surrealism in Britain through an expanded lens and coincides with our exhibition Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain.
Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain is the first exhibition exploring the connections between Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain. As a mobile figure who bridges fine art, commercial and journalistic practices, Miller serves as a useful starting point for a renewed consideration of pre- and post-war Surrealist practices and discourses in Britain.
The deliberately broad time-frame given allows for exploration of Surrealism’s presence in Britain before its supposed arrival in 1936 and in the postwar era. Proposals are welcomed that explore regional and transnational Surrealisms and Surrealist explorations among marginalized groups in Britain.
Topics might include (but are not limited to):
- Surrealism’s presence in Britain prior to the International Exhibition of Surrealism in 1936
- Networks of Surrealist artists, exhibitions, dealers, collectors and publications, including the London Gallery and London Bulletin
- De-centred narratives and vernacular Surrealisms
- Surrealist politics and (inter)nationalism in 1930s, 1940s and 1950s Britain
- Photography and Surrealism across genres
- Women in Surrealism
- Surrealism in popular culture e.g. fashion, design and journalism
- Surrealism in Britain during the Second World War
- Surrealism and the Independent Group
- Surrealism in Britain’s postwar environment
To Apply
Please send your 250-word abstract and a short CV to hilaryfloe@hepworthwakefield.org and rachel.stratton@courtauld.ac.uk by 15 July 2018.
Papers should be 20 minutes long. You will be notified in early August.
Surrealism blasted its way into British popular consciousness in 1936 with the International Exhibition of Surrealism at the New Burlington Galleries in London.
Unlike its French equivalent, Surrealism in Britain was associated with the visual arts from the outset. Herbert Read’s 1936 publication Surrealism popularised a connection between the movement and Britain’s rich romantic literary and landscape-painting traditions, an interpretative framework which remains dominant. Meanwhile, accounts of Miller’s photography often repeat familiar biographical mythologies, privileging her singularity over more robust investigations of her contexts and contemporaries.
Revisiting these narratives, the symposium aims to reconstruct intricate networks of artists, writers, dealers and critics – friends, lovers and rivals – through which Surrealist ideas circulated and mutated during a turbulent historical period.
