'The Strange Country', Conroy Maddox

Artwork details

Artist

Conroy Maddox (1912‑2005)

Title

The Strange Country

Date 1940

MediumPrinted papers and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 406 x 279 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Purchased 1971

Reference

T01472

Not on display

Display caption

Maddox has dedicated himself to the original, radical intentions of the Surrealist movement since 1935. He severely criticised the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London for including artists he thought were neither committed to, nor informed about, the movement: Roland Penrose, Paul Nash and Herbert Read. In contrast to Read’s interpretation of Surrealism, Maddox is avowedly internationalist. This work echoes the irrational events and space of Rene Magritte’s paintings. The head of one figure is replaced by a balloon, while the muscleman seems to emerge from within a frame. A huge match seems to replace the sun.

September 2004