2.

Surrealism

After leaving the Slade, Colquhoun travelled through Europe. She took a studio in Paris in 1931, where she met the British abstract and Surrealist painter Paule Vézelay, who was one of the first to introduce her to Surrealist ideas. She also visited Greece, Tenerife, and Corsica, developing her artistic style as she went.

The First International Exhibition of Surrealism

When she returned to London permanently in 1936, she attended the First International Exhibition of Surrealism at the New Burlington Galleries in London. This experience confirmed Colquhoun’s association with Surrealism, especially her passion for the work of Salvador Dalí. His ‘double-image’ concept was key to her Surrealist works such as Scylla, one of her earliest paintings to fully embrace the influence of Dalí. In this work, two images or concepts are layered together: the first is a narrow passage between two flesh-coloured cliffs, referencing the strait between the monster Scylla and whirlpool Charybydis faced by Odysseus and his men in Homer’s Odyssey. The second is a view of the artist’s body in the bath, with the cliffs becoming legs and the central patch of seaweed pubic hair. The double meaning of the painting makes it jarring and engaging at the same time.

Parsemage and other Surrealist techniques

Colquhoun’s ground-breaking works placed her at the centre of British Surrealism. In 1939, she contributed work to a joint show with artist Roland Penrose at the Mayor Gallery and wrote pieces for The London Bulletin, the most prominent forum for Surrealist writing in Britain.

She used many Surrealist techniques in her work, including decalcomania (applying paint to paper then folding it to create a mirror pattern), collage, frottage (creating an artwork by rubbing a textured surface) and her own invention, parsemage—sprinkling powdered charcoal on water then submerging a piece of paper, to lift out an unpredictable and varied pattern.

Despite Colquhoun’s embrace of the Surrealist movement, she was expelled from the group in 1940 due to her irreconcilable beliefs in the occult.  

4.

Rediscovery & Legacy

Colquhoun’s reputation has enjoyed a much-deserved resurgence in the past decade. Her work is featured in public collections throughout Britain, including Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery, The Hunterian Museum and the Government Art Collection.

While she fell into obscurity in the later part of her career and after her death—like many 20th century women artists—her work reached wide audiences in Britain again in 2009 with the exhibition Dark Monarch at Tate St Ives, which explored and celebrated esotericism in British art and included Colquhoun’s work.

Ten years later, in 2019, Tate acquired Colquhoun’s 5,000-piece archive, solidifying her place in the history of British art. The ‘rediscovery’ of Colquhoun follows a similar pattern to that of other abstract or Surrealist women artists who were heavily influenced by the occult, such as Swedish artist Hilma af Klint and Swiss artist Emma Kunz. As they regain the recognition and stature they held in life, and in some cases exceed it, our collective understanding and appreciation of the story of modern art is enriched and enlivened.