Surrealist Summer: Eileen the Cynus

Seeing as the UK is in the grips of a brief heatwave and I have neglected this space, I wanted to do some small - tiny - newsletter about the Surrealists during summertime, starting with an image-based post.

I love these photos of Eileen Agar taken by Joseph Bard (her husband) in Knokke, Belgium, in September 1938. Known for her sea and marine-based Surrealism, the photographs are playful, fun, and alluring - a perfect companion to Agar’s own artwork. She would briefly describe the trip in her 1988 autobiography A Look At My Life:

“It was a period of more travel than work, for the international political situation made it impossible to concentrate on anything for long. In September we had a holiday in Europe - in case it was our last - visiting amongst other places Knokke, a seaside town in Belgium. We revelled in the sun and the bathing, and Joseph took some photographs of me for a change. We visited Bruges, where I remember seeing the old ladies like wax dummies outside their houses, eternally doing their crochet work.”

Joseph Bard, Photograph of Eileen Agar lying on a beach with a plastic swan and a rubber shark, Knokke, Belgium, September 1938.

Joseph Bard, Photograph of Eileen Agar sitting on a beach with a plastic swan, Knokke, Belgium, September 1938.

Joseph Bard, Photograph of Eileen Agar in a boat with a plastic swan, Knokke, Belgium, September 1938.

Joseph Bard, Photograph of Eileen Agar in a boat on the beach with a plastic swan, Knokke, Belgium, September 1938.

Joseph Bard, Photograph of Eileen Agar by the sea with a plastic swan, Knokke, Belgium, September 1938.