About this artwork
This work is thought to have been made in the autumn of 1939, after Agar and her husband had spent their summer holiday near Toulon on the Mediterranean coast. Agar had been an avid beachcomber since 1930, composing works from the flotsam and jetsam washed up on the shore. The collage features a real starfish, pinned on with a thumbtack, together with collaged and drawn elements. The starfish is the pivot of the composition, its shape providing the perfect link between the geometric and organic elements of the collage.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Eileen AgarEnglish (1899 - 1991)
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title:Fish Circus
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date created:1939
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materials:Collage, pen and ink and watercolour on paper
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measurements:21.00 x 26.00 cm; paper size: 25.50 x 30.50 cm (framed: 54.30 x 67.00 x 3.20 cm)
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object type:
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credit line:Bequeathed by Gabrielle Keiller 1995
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accession number:GMA 3938
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gallery:
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subject:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Eileen Agar
Eileen Agar
Agar was born in Buenos Aires to a Scottish father and an American mother. She went to school in England and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Rebelling against her privileged upbringing, she left her husband and in 1929 moved to Paris with her lover, the writer Joseph Bard. In the...