Personal papers of and artworks by Eileen Agar

1917–92

Available online are items a range of Eileen Agar's artworks and writings which shed light on her working methods, including her extensive use of found objects, and her involvement in the Surrealist movement. Artworks which have been digitised include sculptures constructed from found objects and preparatory tracings for her series of paintings of rocks at Ploumanach. Several of Agar's writings and notebooks, which provide some insight into her life, working methods, and reflections on art, can also be seen online.

Details of the remainder of the collection can be found on the Archive catalogue.

Collection Owner: Eileen Agar 1899–1991
Collection: Tate Archive
Acquisition: Bequeathed to Tate Archive by Eileen Agar, 1992.
Reference: TGA 9222

239 objects in this collection

Personal papers of and artworks by Eileen Agar

239 Objects

Title: Glass plate negatives
Date: [c.1930–60]
Description: This sub-series consists of glass plate negatives of Agar, Joseph Bard and friends, as well as reproductions of plates from botanical and biological books, possibly used by Agar as inspiration for her artwork. A few of the slides have been painted or had patterns stuck to them (for instance TGA 9222/4/8/109-120), presumably by Agar.
Reference: TGA 9222/4/8

239 objects in this collection

Showing 101–120 of 124 objects

Black and white glass lantern slide of a drawing of a Mexican statue

Black and white glass lantern slide of an Aztec-style drawing captioned ‘Ancient initiatory ceremony depicted on a vase from Chama, Mexico’

Black and white glass lantern slide of an African artefact captioned ‘Chivita’

Black and white glass lantern slide of an African-style drawing captioned ‘Namungumi’

Black and white glass lantern slide of a picture of a vase, possibly from Africa, carved with the shape of a turtle and geometric lines

Black and white glass lantern slide of drawings of artefacts from New Guinea captioned ‘Tippera and dancing belt from New Guinea’

Black and white glass lantern slide of a relief, possibly Assyrian

Glass slide painted in a zebra pattern and splattered with brown paint

Two slides joined together, an abstract pattern on the left hand one and a sketch painting of a large ship on the right hand slide

Glass slide with rounded shapes drawn on in ink

Colour glass lantern slide of the large elephant hawk moth caterpillar on a plant with small cut out pieces of paper glued to the image, presumably by Eileen Agar

Slide on which a geometric pattern has been constructed from pieces of coloured cellophane glued to the slide

Slide on which a geometric pattern has been constructed from pieces black paper

Slide on which a paper cut out of a peacock and peacock feathers have been glued

Glass slide on which shapes have been painted in blue paint

Glass slide with a piece of black paper, possibly cut from a negative, glued in the middle

Glass slide with curved lines drawn on in black paint

Glass slide which has had pieces of yellow paper cut into geometric shapes glued onto it

Glass slide which originally had a paper cut out of a bird glued to it, now detached

Two slides sellotaped together

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