The New York Times hails "knockout" Eileen Agar exhibition

Roberta Smith, chief art critic of The New York Times, has described Eileen Agar's current exhibition at the Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, as a "knockout".

 

Titled after a 1966 painting, Flowering of a Wing, this is Agar's first major solo exhibition in the United States. It spans work from six decades, encompassing paintings in oil and acrylic, photography, collage, and drawing. 

 

In her review, Smith refers to Agar's "brilliance as a colorist - which was unusual for her generation of British artists", and praises Agar's strong work ethic and desire to experiment, with styles, subject matter, as well as media. In particular, Smith notes how Agar's use of dripped paint in the early 1940s was "ahead of Pollock". 

 

This "lively" survey show was also reviewed by Ann Collins, of The Brooklyn Rail, who refers to the "striking" yet "contemplative" photographs of giant rocks that Agar documented while holidaying in Ploumanac'h, 1936. Collins notes how their fusion of surrealism and abstraction inspired much of Agar's work over the next fifty years, culminating in a series of acrylic paintings of the rocks, made in 1985.     

 

Eileen Agar - Flowering of a Wing: Works 1936-1989 at the Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, runs from 12 January - 10 February 2024.