This exhibition was a watershed in Colquhoun's development. It came at a crucial time when she was making the transition from realism to surrealism. It represented the climax of the work that she executed using traditional painting techniques. The early flower paintings were behind her and automatism lay just around the corner. Colquhoun has written that all the works on show shared erotic themes (1). Of the fourteen paintings on show, seven (of which three have entered public collections), constitute the Méditerranée series. One, Scylla, was painted in 1938. The remainder date from the following year. The paintings are: L'Ancre; Beau Gosse; Gouffres Amers; L'Helice; Le Phare; Rivières Tièdes and Scylla. All are painted with measured brushwork. Although they are united by technique, they are very different in apparent subject matter; it is not immediately obvious in what sense they constitute a series, or in what sense they are all erotic.
Several of the works deal with space and enclosure, offering the viewer an architecture that is as once both familiar and unsettling. Examples include Rivières Tièdes (1939); Interior (1939 and Le Phare (1939). L'Helice (1939) is a displaced industrial artefact in a featureless urban environment. Devoid of people, the viewer enters these paintings as the sole spectator and human presence. The idea of solitude in a natural setting has been a powerful and enticing one since the early Renaissance. But solitude in a built environment speaks of isolation and alienation. These works undoubtedly possess a disquieting quality in which the emotional properties of empty space are a contributory factor. They are symbols of our walled in existence and the restrictedness of our consciousness which has lost touch with nature.
Of the other works in the show, Rails (1936) and Corner (1937), with their overlapping transparent planes, indicate a passing interest in Cubism. Cucumber (1939) is a classic castration image. There were also two carved and painted chalk objects. One of these, Heart (1939) is a comment on the cruel side of love that leads to vulnerability and pain. It is, literally, a heart of stone.
Notes
1. Colquhoun, I. Women in Art. Oxford Art Journal, July 1981 p 65.
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