The Scandalous Eye: The Surrealism of Conroy Maddox

Conroy Maddox discovered surrealism by chance in 1935 and spent the rest of his life exploring its potential through his paintings, collages, photographs, objects and texts. In his early twenties he set out on a quest for ‘the marvelous liberating power of the imagination’, surrealism’s principal aspiration. Inspired by artists such as Max Ernst, Oscar Dominguez and Salvador Dali, he rejected academic painting in favour of techniques that expressed the surrealistic spirit of rebellion. His creations soon began not only to challenge the conventional view of reality, but also to push pictorial expansion to the limits of the unconscious. Maddox went on to become a rebel in every sense – the defiance that had initially turned towards aesthetics became a broader challenge against morality, religion and the establishment as a whole. Not surprisingly, Maddox was to be implicated in both scandal and controversy. During the Second World War Scotland Yard even suspected him of fifth columnist sabotage and mounted a surprise raid to seize works thought to contain coded messages to the enemy. Maddox’s colourful exploits and outstanding artistic production undoubtedly make him Britain’s most beguiling, provocative and vigorous exponent of surrealism. This book maps out his place in the history of the surrealist movement and reveals the intellectual complexity as well as the poignant charm of an oeuvre that spans eight decades.

Condition: Fine