Bibliography for Women in the Surrealist Movement

ADES, Dawn
Notes on Two Women Surrealist Painter: Eileen Agar and Ithell Colquhoun
The Oxford Art Journal
April 1980

Very good discussion of two of Britain's best women Surrealists.

AGAR, Eileen (in collaboration with Andrew Lambirth)
A Look at My Life
Methuen
1988
ISBN 0413 18180 4

Excellant and amusing biography of one of the artists selected for the 1936 
Surrrealism Exhibition in London.  Agar had affairs with several of the 
European 'Surrealists' including Picasso and Paul Eluard.

BATTERSBY, Christine
Gender and Genius - Towards a Feminist Aesthetics
The Women's Press
1989
ISBN 07043 5039 4

Not strictly a Surrealist text, but very good on discussing how charcters 
such as Hannah Hoch (Dada) have been excluded from histories of achievement.  
A thought-provoking text.

BIGSBY, CWE
Dada and Surrealism - The Critical Idiom Series No 23
Methuen
1972
ISBN 416 08150 9

Bit dull.  Mostly about the literary origins of D and S.

BIRCH, BLOND and THEOPHILUS
A Salute to British Surrealism 1930-1950 (exhibition catalogue)
The Minories
1985
ISBN 0948252 006

Good, if disappointingly in B&W.  Good essays on the links to Lewis 
Carroll etc.  Amusing asides from Conroy Maddox and George Melly.

BRETON, Andre
Manifestoes of Surrealism
University of Michigan Press - Ann Arbour
1969 (1972)
0472 06182 8

BRETON, Andre
What is Surrealism? Selected Writings
Pluto Press
1978
ISBN 0904383 28 8

Excellent, if expensive.  A broad selection of Breton's best.

BUCK, Louisa
The Surrealist Spirit in England (exhibition catalogue)
Whitford and Hughes
1988

W&H are one of the galleries who handle sales of Surrealism in UK.

BUCK, Louisa
Faceless Femme Fatales: Unearthing Surrealist Women Using Bodies as Source 
and Subject
Women's Art Magazine
Nov-Dec 1992 No 49
pp.16-17

Excellant article useful to all investigating women surrealist imagery.

CARDINAL, Roger & SHORT, Robert
Surrealism - Permanent Revelation
Studio Vista / Dutton Paperback
1970

Fun and broad in coverage of Britain and Europe.

CAWS, MA / KUENZLI, R / RAABERG, G (Eds)
Surrealism and Women
MIT Press
1990 (1991)
ISBN 0 262 53098 8

CHADWICK, Whitney
Myth in Surrealist Painting 1929-1939
UMI Research Press
1980
ISBN 18357 1057 2

Good on European Surrealists' use of mythological subject matters (and their 
own creations).

CHADWICK, Whitney
The Muse as Artist: Women in the Surrealist Movement
Art in America
July 1985
pp.120-129

VERY GOOD chapter from Chadwick's book (see later).  She has problems 
describing the less glamourous charcters but otherwise is very good.

CHADWICK, Whitney
Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement
Thames and Hudson
1985 (1991 paperback)
ISBN 0500 27622 6

Flawed, but the 2nd best book in town on women surrealists (see CAWS et al 
for the best).  Discusses the lives, loves and works of Leonora Carrington, 
Leonor Fini, Frida Kahlo, Gala Dali / Eluard, Nusch Eluard, Valentine Hugo, 
Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, Eileen Agar, Remedios Varo, and others.
Read, digest and then criticise it.  Full of pointless comments about the 
beauty of these women.

CHADWICK, Whitney
Carrington, Mexico and Surrealism
Art Forum on Leonora Carrington
Women's Art Magazine
March April 1992 No 45
pp.26-29

Fairly useful for those who know little about how Carrington ended up in 
Mexico and how she used its inspiration.

CHADWICK, Whitney
Women, Art and Society
Thames and Hudson
1990 (1991)
ISBN 0 500 20241 9

General text with plenty on the Surrealists.  Drawn mainly from the main 
text (see above). The book as a whole has reasonable information on women 
artists and their histories in general.

DEEPWELL, Katy / SUGG, Deborah
Emmy Bridgwater
Women's Art Magazine
Nov Dec 1990 No 37
pp.14-16

One of the rare published texts on Bridgwater.  A good starting point.

DEL RENZIO, Toni / SCOTT, Duncan
Surrealism in England: 1936 and After
Canterbury College of Art - The Herbert Read Gallery (exhibition catalogue)
1986

Good essays (including one by Michel Remy, the best scholar of Surrealism 
in Britain).  Well illustrated.

Aovocaodo!