Valentine Penrose
Surrealist, Poet, Artist, Voyager
Will be published approx. on 4. February 2027
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-350-43706-7 (ISBN)
Description
Artist, poet, traveller and 20th-century surrealist visionary, Valentine Penrose was highly regarded as a poet and artist during her lifetime, but is yet to receive the critical attention given to her surrealist peers. Bringing to life the artist in her own right, this is the first English-language book dedicated to Penrose's genre-defying oeuvre and its poetic quest to understand the shifting world of the 20th century from multiple perspectives.
This volume explores Penrose's accomplished visual and literary work, relating it to her creative, often unconventional, philosophical ideas. It shows how her work emerged from encounters with global cultures and political issues: she travelled widely (frequently solo) through India, the Canary Islands, Africa, and across Europe - protesting against the Spanish Civil War, driving British soldiers during the London Blitz, and stationed in Algiers during the Second World War. The contributors highlight a range of unique motifs throughout Penrose's work, covering ecology, spiritualism, folklore, mythology, lesbianism, the Gothic, the occult, and life during war. Reflecting on Penrose's practice during a time of immense global change, the chapters provide insight into the bold practice of a female artist working against patriarchal, heteronormative, and capitalist power structures.
Bringing these unpublished archival materials as well as Penrose's published works into dialogue with works by better-known artists such as Eileen Agar and Alice Rahon, the volume offers new and creative ways of thinking through feminism, female collaboration, and queerness in surrealism. Introducing a dynamic personality to the modernist canon, it will be a vital addition to studies on British, French, and non-Western surrealisms, and to scholarship on female surrealism.
This volume explores Penrose's accomplished visual and literary work, relating it to her creative, often unconventional, philosophical ideas. It shows how her work emerged from encounters with global cultures and political issues: she travelled widely (frequently solo) through India, the Canary Islands, Africa, and across Europe - protesting against the Spanish Civil War, driving British soldiers during the London Blitz, and stationed in Algiers during the Second World War. The contributors highlight a range of unique motifs throughout Penrose's work, covering ecology, spiritualism, folklore, mythology, lesbianism, the Gothic, the occult, and life during war. Reflecting on Penrose's practice during a time of immense global change, the chapters provide insight into the bold practice of a female artist working against patriarchal, heteronormative, and capitalist power structures.
Bringing these unpublished archival materials as well as Penrose's published works into dialogue with works by better-known artists such as Eileen Agar and Alice Rahon, the volume offers new and creative ways of thinking through feminism, female collaboration, and queerness in surrealism. Introducing a dynamic personality to the modernist canon, it will be a vital addition to studies on British, French, and non-Western surrealisms, and to scholarship on female surrealism.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Laminated cover
Illustrations
61 colour illus.
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-43706-7 (9781350437067)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Felicity Gee is Senior Lecturer in Modernism and World Cinema at the University of Exeter, UK, and President of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism (ISSS).
Content
List of illustrations
The Editor
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Preface Valentine Penrose - a reminiscence, Antony Penrose (Lee Miller Archives, Farley Farm, Sussex, UK)
Introduction 'The World Itself Stretches': Valentine Penrose, Beginnings, and Moons at Midday, Felicity Gee (University of Exeter, UK)
1. Framing the Voyage: Valentine Penrose, India, and the Geo-poetical, Felicity Gee (University of Exeter, UK)
2. Architecture of an OEuvre: Castles and Creative Constructsin the Work of Valentine Penrose, Karen L. Humphreys (Trinity College, Connecticut, USA)
3. Valentine Penrose: An Archivist's Memoir, Fiona Menzies (Archivist, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK)
4. Fleeing the Heterosexual Norm: Gothic Tropes and Illicit Lesbianism in Martha's Opera (1946), Beth Kearney (University of Queensland, Australia)
5. Valentine Penrose's Collages: Myth and Metamorphosis as Visual Explorations of Identity, Caterina Caputo (Universita Iuav di Venezia, Italy)
6. Valentine Penrose, the Dark Star of Surrealism: Letters from the Roland Penrose Archive and Fondo Westerdahl, Maria Angeles Aleman Gomez (Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain)
7. Europe, 'bleeding out its life': Valentine Penrose's Wars, Felicity Gee (University of Exeter, UK)
Chapter 8: Sapphic Surrealism: Valentine Penrose's Dons des feminines, Rachel Silveri (Assistant Professor, University of Florida, USA)
Chapter 9: Gothic Nature, Vampirism and the Power of the Moon: Valentine Penrose's The Bloody Countess as site of queer, feminist protest, Tor Scott (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Vignette: A Botanical Fire of Love, Maria Lusitano
Vignette: I met Valentine at Farley Farm, Penny Slinger
Valentine for Valentine
Vignette: Of Penrose and a Particular Kind of Stone, E.C. Belli
Coda: Valentine Penrose's Futures: A Clairvoyant Relevance, Felicity Gee (University of Exeter, UK)
Index
The Editor
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Preface Valentine Penrose - a reminiscence, Antony Penrose (Lee Miller Archives, Farley Farm, Sussex, UK)
Introduction 'The World Itself Stretches': Valentine Penrose, Beginnings, and Moons at Midday, Felicity Gee (University of Exeter, UK)
1. Framing the Voyage: Valentine Penrose, India, and the Geo-poetical, Felicity Gee (University of Exeter, UK)
2. Architecture of an OEuvre: Castles and Creative Constructsin the Work of Valentine Penrose, Karen L. Humphreys (Trinity College, Connecticut, USA)
3. Valentine Penrose: An Archivist's Memoir, Fiona Menzies (Archivist, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK)
4. Fleeing the Heterosexual Norm: Gothic Tropes and Illicit Lesbianism in Martha's Opera (1946), Beth Kearney (University of Queensland, Australia)
5. Valentine Penrose's Collages: Myth and Metamorphosis as Visual Explorations of Identity, Caterina Caputo (Universita Iuav di Venezia, Italy)
6. Valentine Penrose, the Dark Star of Surrealism: Letters from the Roland Penrose Archive and Fondo Westerdahl, Maria Angeles Aleman Gomez (Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain)
7. Europe, 'bleeding out its life': Valentine Penrose's Wars, Felicity Gee (University of Exeter, UK)
Chapter 8: Sapphic Surrealism: Valentine Penrose's Dons des feminines, Rachel Silveri (Assistant Professor, University of Florida, USA)
Chapter 9: Gothic Nature, Vampirism and the Power of the Moon: Valentine Penrose's The Bloody Countess as site of queer, feminist protest, Tor Scott (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Vignette: A Botanical Fire of Love, Maria Lusitano
Vignette: I met Valentine at Farley Farm, Penny Slinger
Valentine for Valentine
Vignette: Of Penrose and a Particular Kind of Stone, E.C. Belli
Coda: Valentine Penrose's Futures: A Clairvoyant Relevance, Felicity Gee (University of Exeter, UK)
Index