Eileen Agar: Her Jewel-Like Paintings Stretched Surrealism
Roberta Smith, New York Times
February 2024
‘The history of art by women still has its secrets. Some recent revelations include the visionary abstract painter Hilma af Klint of Sweden, the genius American quilter Rosie Lee Tompkins and Mary Delany, an 18th-century British polymath who created some of Western art’s first collages.
The latest surprise, at least for Americans, is the multitasking British artist Eileen Agar (1899-1991) — a productive painter, collagist, sculptor, photographer and beachcomber (to gather materials for assemblages) whose work can be seen in her first major solo show in the United States. Titled “Eileen Agar: Flowering of a Wing: Works, 1936 -1989,” this knockout is at Andrew Kreps Gallery (through Saturday). Its title, taken from one of the canvases here, signals Agar’s lifelong devotion to nature and to ambiguous meanings.’ […]