Roland Penrose was a pivotal figure in Modern British Art, particularly known for championing Surrealism in Britain. He organised the landmark 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London, which helped establish Surrealism within the British art scene
Roland Penrose championed Surrealism in London by organising the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition. An art historian and writer, Penrose also created his own Surrealist collages and conceived a genre of ‘collage painting’ featuring idiosyncratic imagery painted as if it were collaged.
After graduating from University of Cambridge, Penrose relocated to France in 1922, marrying the surrealist poet Valentine Boué, through whom he met André Breton and Paul Éluard, who in the same year founded the First Manifesto of Surrealism. This, in turn, led to introductions to Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Picasso and Man Ray. When these artists found themselves short of money, Penrose would help by purchasing their work, and thus he amassed a significant and important collection of Surrealist, Cubist and Dadaist work.
