Sir Roland Penrose 1900-1984

London, New English Art Club;
King’s Lynn, Fermoy Arts Centre, Roland Penrose, July – August 1980, ex-catalogue; Arts Council touring exhibition subsequently visiting London, I.C.A.; Bristol, Arnolfini; Preston, Harris Museum & Art Gallery; Hull, Ferens Art Gallery;
Barcelona, Fundaçio Joan Miró, Roland Penrose, exhibition organised by the British Council, 1981, no.BC3.

The amalgamation of various architectural features in Painting 1925 immediately belie Penrose's early training as an architecture student at Cambridge from 1919-1922. Following graduation he joined the artistic beau-monde in Paris and studied painting with André Lhote. Although he was not to meet Picasso until 1936, the monumental proportions of the seated nude to the right of the composition clearly reflects the influence of Picasso's classical nudes of the 1920s, evidence of his 'rappel à l'ordre' following the First World War.  The combination of elements into such a distinctive landscape heralds Penrose's early commitment to Surrealism which ultimately led to his organisation of the International Surrealist exhibition in London in 1936.  By this time he had become close friends with painters such as Max Ernst and Joan Miró, as well as with the Surrealist poets André Breton and Paul Eluard.