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JOHN TUNNARD A.R.A., (1900-1971)

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Fish Trap

Fish Trap
signed, inscribed and dated 'John Tunnard. 46 W.9., W.19.' (lower left); inscribed 'Fish Trap.' (on the reverse)
gouache, watercolour and crayon on paper
39.5 x 57.5cm (15 9/16 x 22 5/8in).
Executed in 1946

Provenance
Lefevre Gallery, London (January 1947).
Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles.
Private collection, UK (acquired from the above).

Literature
A. Peat & B. Whitton, John Tunnard, His Life and Work, Aldershot, 1997, no. 491 (p.175).

During spring 1937, the Artists' International Association (AIA) presented a large, competitive exhibition at Grosvenor Gallery in London, 'Unity of Artists for Peace, for Democracy, for Cultural Progress'. This materialised during a period of artistic support in Britain for the Republican cause, particularly regarding the outbreak of war in Spain. At the same time, the First British Artists' Congress was established which aimed to outline the terms of an art policy in Britain, including the formation of artists' trade unions. Surrealists played a noticeable role in these events, and the Grosvenor Gallery show devoted a jury specifically for this increasingly significant body of artists. It is here that Tunnard's name first becomes associated with Surrealism. Over one hundred works were Surrealist in nature with an astonishing forty-three British artists represented, including John Tunnard.

Writing in The Saturday Book–25 in 1965, Sir Herbert Read commented, 'Tunnard is, of course, a surrealist if that word has any precise meaning. He has not actively participated in the Surrealist Movement as such, but if surrealism is to be defined, in the phrase of André Breton, as "pure psychic automatism", then I know no artist who has more consistently practised surrealism.'

Fish Trap, painted the year after World War II ended, displays the artist's deep connection with the natural world and his fascination with submarine life, an unknown world to many humans. A variety of paintings from this period continue his idiosyncratic style developed during the war as an auxiliary coastguard and conscientious objector, located at Cadgwith in Cornwall; Fishes' Window (1944), Surreal Seascape (1945), Portuguese Man O'War (1945) and Seabed (1947) all explore the colourful and bizarre life which flourishes under the water. The organic forms lent themselves well to Tunnard's surrealist tendencies. In Fish Trap a jellyfish floats close to the seabed, displaying its luminosity, with a sea urchin suspended just above. Beyond, loom abstract rhythmic forms which allude to infinite space and invite the viewer to engage. Sir Herbert Read likened this vision of Tunnard's to André Masson's 'dream of the future desert'.

Michel Remy comments in his chapter on the artist in Surrealism in Britain, 'Tunnard's contribution to surrealism in Britain, even if it lasted only until around 1945, was instrumental in investigating the poetic fusion between constructivist and surrealist principles' (Michel Remy, Surrealism in Britain, Aldershot, 1999, p. 261).

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[ translate ]

Fish Trap

Fish Trap
signed, inscribed and dated 'John Tunnard. 46 W.9., W.19.' (lower left); inscribed 'Fish Trap.' (on the reverse)
gouache, watercolour and crayon on paper
39.5 x 57.5cm (15 9/16 x 22 5/8in).
Executed in 1946

Provenance
Lefevre Gallery, London (January 1947).
Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles.
Private collection, UK (acquired from the above).

Literature
A. Peat & B. Whitton, John Tunnard, His Life and Work, Aldershot, 1997, no. 491 (p.175).

During spring 1937, the Artists' International Association (AIA) presented a large, competitive exhibition at Grosvenor Gallery in London, 'Unity of Artists for Peace, for Democracy, for Cultural Progress'. This materialised during a period of artistic support in Britain for the Republican cause, particularly regarding the outbreak of war in Spain. At the same time, the First British Artists' Congress was established which aimed to outline the terms of an art policy in Britain, including the formation of artists' trade unions. Surrealists played a noticeable role in these events, and the Grosvenor Gallery show devoted a jury specifically for this increasingly significant body of artists. It is here that Tunnard's name first becomes associated with Surrealism. Over one hundred works were Surrealist in nature with an astonishing forty-three British artists represented, including John Tunnard.

Writing in The Saturday Book–25 in 1965, Sir Herbert Read commented, 'Tunnard is, of course, a surrealist if that word has any precise meaning. He has not actively participated in the Surrealist Movement as such, but if surrealism is to be defined, in the phrase of André Breton, as "pure psychic automatism", then I know no artist who has more consistently practised surrealism.'

Fish Trap, painted the year after World War II ended, displays the artist's deep connection with the natural world and his fascination with submarine life, an unknown world to many humans. A variety of paintings from this period continue his idiosyncratic style developed during the war as an auxiliary coastguard and conscientious objector, located at Cadgwith in Cornwall; Fishes' Window (1944), Surreal Seascape (1945), Portuguese Man O'War (1945) and Seabed (1947) all explore the colourful and bizarre life which flourishes under the water. The organic forms lent themselves well to Tunnard's surrealist tendencies. In Fish Trap a jellyfish floats close to the seabed, displaying its luminosity, with a sea urchin suspended just above. Beyond, loom abstract rhythmic forms which allude to infinite space and invite the viewer to engage. Sir Herbert Read likened this vision of Tunnard's to André Masson's 'dream of the future desert'.

Michel Remy comments in his chapter on the artist in Surrealism in Britain, 'Tunnard's contribution to surrealism in Britain, even if it lasted only until around 1945, was instrumental in investigating the poetic fusion between constructivist and surrealist principles' (Michel Remy, Surrealism in Britain, Aldershot, 1999, p. 261).

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Estimate
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Time, Location
25 Mar 2021
UK, London
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