CONROY MADDOX, (1912-2005)

Condottiere

Condottiere
signed and dated 'Conroy Maddox /, 40' (lower right)
gouache on paper
51.5 x 32.9 cm (20 1/4 x 13 in).
Executed in 1940

Provenance
J.P.L. Fine Arts, London.
Private collection, UK.

Exhibited
London, Holsworthy Gallery, The Surrealist Eye, Conroy Maddox, 10 - 27 September 1980, no. 40.
London, Blond Fine Art, Conroy Maddox, Gouaches of the 1940s, 29 March - 28 April 1984, no. 19.

The year 1940 was one of high visibility for Maddox. He had been an official member of The Surrealist Group in England for two years and was then exhibiting at the Zwemmer Gallery. A year earlier he had exhibited at the Lucy Wertheim Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, the London Gallery and the City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Seemingly as a gesture of defiance, his works took on a playful and jovial tone at the outbreak of war. This comical humanoid figure is given the title 'condottiere', the Italian for mercenary soldier. The satirical allusion to Benito Mussolini is thinly disguised.

We are grateful to Dr. Silvano Levy for compiling this catalogue entry.