Eileen Agar's name is usually recorded in the history of the Surrealist movement and sometimes pops up in connection with fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
Born in Buenos Aires to a Scottish father and American mother, Agar moved with her family to London in 1911.
A member of the London Group from 1934 onwards, she was also the only British woman to have her work (three paintings and five objects) included in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London.
She then appeared in further surrealist events in Amsterdam, New York, Paris and Tokyo and, from the '60s on, she produced Tachist paintings with Surrealist elements.
During the summer the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds celebrated one aspect of Agar's work, her natural ready-mades. The artist was indeed very much attracted by the shapes and forms found in nature and in her 1998 autobiography she stated: "Surrealism for me draws its inspiration from Nature...you see the shape of a tree, the way a pebble falls or is framed, and you are astounded to discover that dumb nature makes an effort to speak to you, to give you a sign, to warn you, to symbolise your innermost thoughts."
Agar apparently kept a fish tank in the 1930s and was intrigued by the aquariums at the zoos in London and Naples. The artist also became a meticulous beachcomber, visiting the shoreline to look for natural materials that she then incorporated into assemblages, collages and sculptures such as "Marine Object" (1939), a sculpture combining a Greek amphora that Agar purchased from a French fisherman (who found it caught up in his nets in Toulon), with a ram's horn, a starfish recovered from sea mud, and a marine skeleton.
Her "Untitled Box" from 1935 features instead a collage containing many different items, such as a coral, seahorse and netting against a backdrop of a watercolour.
Sea motifs such as shells and seahorse tails also appeared in the painting "The Autobiography of an Embryo" with its combination of sea-creatures and plant-like structures and in kitsch shell architectures photographed by Agar in 1939 that turn in her black and white images into classical works of art.
Fashion designer Holly Fulton must have seen these works when she focused on her S/S 16 collection. Fulton stated Agar was indeed her starting point (did she choose her also because Agar's father was Scottish as Fulton?) and, while there were no ceremonial hats for eating Bouillabaisse or other fancy headdresses made overlapping a pair of Schiaparelli gloves on Fulton's runway during London Fashion Week, the new collection borrowed here and there Agar's marine motifs, her shells, nets, classical sculptures and geometric forms.
Fulton integrated natural motifs such as three-dimensional starfish or floral motifs in silicone in her designs, at times decorated also with abstract versions of sinuous tails of seahorses.
Wave-like ruffles and frills broke the surface of hemlines, adding movement, volume and dynamism to narrow skirts; beaded and sequinned motifs appeared on collars, embroideries and Swarovski crystal embellishments were sprinkles on dresses and denim outfits, creating at times clashes of colours and textures reminiscent of "The Angel of Anarchy" sculpture.
Surface decoration was a prominent motif also on the densely embroidered and embellished denim dresses, trousers and jackets that were new additions to Fulton's wardrobe offer.
In some cases Agar's lightness of touch and passion for translucent textures as the ones seen in her "Ladybird" photograph (probably also used as the starting point for some of the frills and curved lines on the skirts and dresses) were reinterpreted as feminine and romantic looks, hints at Agar's belief in women being the true Surrealists.
As the artist indeed wrote: "the importance of the unconscious in all forms of Literature and Art establishes the dominance of a feminine type of imagination over the classical and more masculine order."
Though Agar was an interesting inspiration, maybe Fulton didn't explore too much in depth the possibilities the artist may have opened for her. Besides, while she should have maybe rebalanced the number of party dresses against more wearable pieces, Fulton may have gone down the Surrealist route for what regarded the accessories that totally lacked the power of Agar's assemblages and collages.
In many ways Fulton's collection seems to perfectly mirror the mood of this London Fashion Week. As usual there is a lot to see and discover, but, once you filter it all and read between the lines of raving reviews of supposedly young and talented designers (who clearly do not know how to cut a pattern), you get the impression that London is lacking coherent and desirable collections in favour of designs that will last only one season or of crazy temporary trends that will go down well with young generations of fashionistas only to be abandoned till the next big thing arrives on the scene.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Comments