Join us on Saturday 28th May, 11am-1pm at The Beecroft Gallery, Southend

as we take a plunge into the early years of Surrealism in Paris and London.

La Galerie Surrealiste, rue Jacques Gallot, photographed by Man Ray 1927.

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“one of the most genuinely subversive movement in the history of ideas” – Michel Remy

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Leonora Carrington (1917-2011)

The Giantess (The Guardian of the Egg) [1947; private collection]

“When one is overcome by demoralization and defeat, depressed or on the verge of suicide, that is the time to open one’s Surrealist Survival Kit and enjoy a breath of magical fresh air. To lay out its marvellous contents carefully before you and let them play …”
wrote artist, novelist and poet, Leonora Carrington in 1936.

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We’ll discuss Andre Breton’s Surrealist Manifestos, the influential paintings of Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst and meet some of the first British artists inspired by Surrealism.

Attendance is £10 on the door and will include tea, coffee & biscuits – all welcome!

Julian Trevelyan (1910-1988): Standing Figure with Ace of Clubs [1933; c/o Pallant House Gallery]

“Let us gladly shout: to dream is to create” – Julian Trevelyan

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Join us for our monthly book discussion group on

Friday 27th May, 2pm at “Pebbles” café (the old Havens) on Hamlet Court Road.

This month’s book is:

The King’s Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein

by Franny Moyle

Hans Holbein the Younger is chiefly celebrated for his beautiful and precisely realised portraiture, which includes representations of Henry VIII, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Anne of Cleves, Jane Seymour and an array of the Tudor lords and ladies he encountered during the course of two sojourns in England. But beyond these familiar images, which have come to define our perception of the world of the Henrician court, Holbein was a protean and multi-faceted genius: a humanist, satirist, political propagandist, and contributor to the history of book design as well as a religious artist and court painter. The rich layers of symbolism and allusion that characterise his work have proved especially fascinating to scholars. Franny Moyle traces and analyses the life and work of an extraordinary artist against the backdrop of an era of political turbulence and cultural transformation, to which his art offers a subtle and endlessly refracting mirror.

Happy reading – I look forward to hearing what you think!

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