Try telling a fish about water. Dynamism radiates in all directions from Ondine. Underwater, she floats within a protective penumbra, rather like thee spikes of a porcupine. We also see a fish tail that will, in time, morph this water sprite into a mermaid. From fish to mermaid is an evolutionary transformation. The human face is overlaid with vegetal growth in the red (blood) and green (vegetable) oval filigree.
In the manner of a Renaissance portrait of a venerable lady, Eileen Agar's Ondine offers her left profile to the viewer. It calls to mind these lines from Undine :(1811) by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqe:
"... in each element there exists a race of beings, whose form scarcely differs from yours, but who very seldom appears to mortal sight ... you now see before you, my love, an undine." Faces in profile recur in Agar's work, caught in the act of amazement. And those round eyes remind me of Picasso's images.
Where can we situate the work of a surrealist like Agar? Historical painting shows an event that happened at a particular moment. Genre painting shows something ordinary that happens all the time. Surrealist painting suggests what existd beyond reality.
Eileen Agar (1899-1991) was born in Buenos Aires. As a young girl she was sent to school in England. In 1926, she met her lifelong partner, Hungarian-born Joseph Bard. By 1930, Agar had begun to do art that was recognizably aurrrealist. She is buried in the storied Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Image: Eileen Agar - Ondine, 1972, acryllic and collage on canvas, Kreps Gallery, NYC.
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