Surrealism had clear philosophical underpinnings that held special appeal for Colquhoun. Within the theoretical framework elaborated by André Breton, inspirations from poetry, psychoanalytic theory, trances and the study of dreams were used to challenge accepted notions of reality. Believing that the contradictions between the conscious and the unconscious could be resolved by such methods, surrealism aimed at a higher consciousness. In the Second Surrealist Manifesto (1) Breton had made explicit links between alchemy and surrealism. His ‘union of opposites’ would have been a familiar idea to a woman who had been steeped in alchemy since her schooldays. An important alchemical motto is coniunctio oppositorum: the conjunction of opposites.
In 1936, Colquhoun attended the International Surrealist exhibition held at the New Burlington Galleries in London. She was present at the famous lecture given by Salvador Dali dressed in a diving suit, during which he nearly suffocated. At first, Dali continued to be her main stylistic influence. At that time, in the mid 1930s, he was fully engaged with his so called paranoiac critical method. That is, of painting images in a meticulous and realistic manner but which contained sufficient ambiguity for them to be read in different ways. From about 1938 Colquhoun produced a small number of paintings with a classical Dalinian double image, such as Scylla (1938) and, a little later, Sardine and Eggs (c. 1941) and Tree Anatomy (1942), all with strong sexual overtones, but, for the most part, the compositions are straightforward, consisting of objects wrenched out of context that disturb through incongruity (L’Helice, 1939). Once again, a flurry of creative activity resulted in fourteen oil paintings and two carved objects for a joint show with Roland Penrose, held at the Mayor Gallery in 1939.
Colquhoun’s links with the Surrealist Group in London were short lived. They have been chronicled by Ray (2) and Remy (3) as well as the reasons for her exclusion. The aftermath, complicated by her relationship with Toni del Renzio, whom she married in 1943 and divorced in 1947, has been discussed by Levy. (4) Although she ceased formal associations with the group in 1940 she continued to regard herself as a surrealist all her life.
Notes
1. Breton, A. Second Surrealist Manifesto. Published in English translation in Seaver, R. and Lane, H.R. Manifestos of Surrealism, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1967.
2. Ray, P.C. The Surrealist Movement in England. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1971.
3. Remy, M. Surrealism in Britain,Ashgate, Aldershot, 1999.
4. Levy, S. 2005. The del Renzio Affair: A leadership struggle in wartime surrealism. Papers of Surrealism. issue 3. Available online at www.surrealismcentre.ac.uk/publications/papers/journal3/acrobat_files/Levy_article.pdf
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