“When Dreams Come True”/ John Welson

         “When Dreams Come True”.

   Some personal memories of Surrealism in Britain during the 1970’s and 1980’s

The twists and turns, corners traversed, maps torn up, the adventure of smiles, dreams come true.

Born into a family of farmers in a desolate mountainous part of Mid Wales, Britain, hardly constitutes the ideal spawning ground for an adventure that has been little short of a dream come true. When as an infant you are shown the fields and animals that will become your responsibility when you are older, you “become” the farmer in waiting, your life is mapped out. However, when at the age of twelve you are sitting in a school library on a wet lunch break and chance upon a book that transforms your life then the map gets torn up and the contours of that map chart a very different terrain.

As a farmers son I showed no aptitude for drawing or painting, for there was no requirement to show any propensity for expressing oneself in such a fashion. But, back in 1965 picking up Patrick Walberg’s book, “Surrealism”, (Publisher, Thames and Hudson) all that was changed. It was the most revelatory half an hour of my life, for by the time I had looked through the book, read some of the texts, absorbed the pictures produced by the surrealists and consumed photographs of them, I simply said to myself, “I am going to be a Surrealist”. There was a resonance that struck a chord deep inside. It was not that I had not wished to farm, I did (and have done so on the family farms in the second half of my life) but that Surrealism was a realisation of something that was already deep inside me and just needed the key turning to release the adventure, an adventure that there was no possibility or desire to turn away from.

Since that day in 1965 I have had the good fortune and privilege to meet, exhibit with and appear in print along side so many people I respect and admire from around the world. However, primarily, I have made so many friends and have shared great warmth. In a world of scepticism, cynicism and polarised views and opinions I have received deep friendship and kindness. When as a teenager I had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of Surrealists from an earlier generation I received warmth, enthusiasm and support.

The intention of this short and personal reflection is to place the development of surrealism in Britain in the context of its emphatic progression to being a part of and participating in the wider surrealist movement. The period of the 1970/80s was a period of blossoming abandonment, as well as a conscious focus upon making contact and connection throughout the world. A fruitful dialectic. A period when a concerted effort was made to replace an inward looking singular perspective by joint activity in a world surrealist movement.

In 1973 at the age of nineteen I was offered my first exhibition, a one man show in London. I had travelled up to London from the farm with a body of my paintings under my arm. The gallery was situated in Hampstead in North London and the owner and custodian of the gallery was a charming lady who had left Vienna in the 1930’s. Her family had been gallerists in Vienna and been instrumental in furthering the careers of many associated with the Vienna Succession. Now in her new residence in London she retained links and connections with Vienna and enthusiastically regaled stories of Oscar Kockoshka and his resent visit. She advised me that I needed someone to open my exhibition and informed me that a neighbour and acquaintance was the painter Conroy Maddox. Without further ado she opened her telephone book and called Conroy saying to him,” I have someone here who paints crazy paintings like you, can I send him over?”. My introduction to the first Surrealist had taken place.

 I knew who Conroy was for he had been an unflinching and uncompromising surrealist since the 1930’s. It was Conroy who had spent time in Paris visiting members of the Paris Group in the 1930’s. Conroy (who in the 1930’s was living in Birmingham and was forming a Birmingham Surrealist Group with the brothers John and Robert Melville) had refused to exhibit in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Gallery, London, because he considered that some of the British artists who were invited to contribute were not surrealists. Conroy along with ELT Mesens, Jacques Brunius, Humphrey Jennings, John Banting, David Gascoyne, Roland Penrose Eileen Agar, Edith Rimmington, Grace Pailthorpe, Ithell Coquhoun and others had been the energy behind Surrealism during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Conroy had unflinchingly continued painting, writing, co-organising groups, activities, publications and exhibitions for forty years. Most recently he had been one of the members of the loosely formed group with John Lyle in Exeter, called “Transformaction” and the bad feeling about the dramas and machinations of its disintegration were still being played out as I was to learn. In time I met and became close friends with a lot of those who had been active in Transformaction. Anthony Earnshaw with his marvellous dark sense of humour created objects and cartoons which ridiculed reality and its constraints. I once greeted Anthony by saying that he had a studio full of work that only pleased malevolent malcontents, to which he added, “no, the work only pleases mischievous, malevolent malcontents”. Philip West was also participating in Transformaction’s activities before he went to live in Spain. I was to meet Philip some years later and we were to exhibit together at the Galerie 13, Hannover, Germany in an exhibition with two other British Surrealists, Paul Hammond (who was also to take up residence in Spain) and Tony Pusey, the animator of the Melmoth Group in the late 1970’s (and was to move to Sweden in the early 1980’s) the exhibition was called “Quadrinom” and perhaps offered a small insight into one of the reasons that Surrealism had a “stop-start” existence in the 1970’s and 1980’s, a lot of it’s participants moved abroad, leaving one to regroup and start all over again.

 And so I stood at Conroy Maddox’s front door, 17a Lambolle Road, Hampstead. I was about to make my first contact with a Surrealist. Up until now I had been a hermetically sealed Surrealist painter and writer formulating my style and perspective of creativity within a Surrealism I knew was out there and I knew I was going to participate in. I had been reading about Surrealism in  books, Patrick Walberg, “Surrealism”, Marcel Jean, “The History of Surrealist Painting”, Sarane Alexandrian, “Surrealism”, Roger Cardinal and Stuart Short,” Surrealism, Permanent Revelation” and visited “Acoris”, The Surrealist Centre, Brook Street, London, as well as the Tate Gallery, but now I was on the threshold of meeting a person whose kindness, inclusiveness and generosity was to be the first step in a friendship and working partnership that was to last until Conroy’s passing away thirty years later. As the years unfolded Conroy was to share so many of his experiences and adventures and each one affirmed Conroy’s excitement in his Surrealist adventure, he simply enjoyed the adventure and it was contagious, you joined in the thrill of the possible. (Conroy Maddox biography. “The Scandalous Eye” written by Silvano Levy. Liverpool University Press. 2003). Years later he invited me to the top rooms of his palatial flat. He opened the door to one of the rooms and the walls were splattered in dry oil paint. He explained that whenever Asger Jorn came to London for one of his exhibitions at Tooth’s Gallery, he painted the whole exhibition in the room and transported the exhibition of wet oil paintings to the gallery. Conroy smiled and added, “I don’t have the heart to clean the paint off the walls, it’s Asger’s room”. On the glass window pane Jorn had etched a drawing into the glass pane with a diamond. Years later I had the privilege of making contact with Asger Jorn’s brother, who went by the name of Jorgen Nash (Nash was kind enough to include me in an exhibition and also reproduce one of my images in Drakabygget 9/10/11.1984 and it was the occasion I made contact with the Bauhaus Situationists) and shared the story of his brother carving with a diamond into Conroy’s window pane.

Conroy opened his front door and invited me into his living room, adorned with paintings by Andre Masson, Matta, Max Ernst and Esteban Francis and Gordon Onslow-Ford. Along the whole of one wall was a giant bookcase brimming over with books, publications, catalogues, leaflets and pamphlets on or by Surrealists. After a coffee he looked at my pictures and agreed to open the exhibition and to write a review of it in the magazine “Arts Review”. He went over to the bookcase and took out some copies of the American Surrealist publication “Arsenal”, edited by Franklin Rosemont. He flicked through the pages and stopped at an article by Paul Garon, the authority on The Blues and a member of the Chicago Group that was energetically active at the time. Conroy advised me that Paul Garon was in London at the moment and that I should meet him and show him my work so that he could mention it to Franklin Rosemont. Paul Garon and I met the next day and an agreed “half hour chat” turned into a four hour non stop talk about everything from the blues singer Memphis Minnie to the painter Toyen whom we both deeply admired.

Two hours passed at Conroy’s house and he generously gave me five contacts in London, “call them and just mention my name” was Conroy’s generous overture. Amongst the names was Paul Hammond who worked at Compendium Bookshop in Camden Town, near Hampstead. Paul had stocked an enormous selection of books and pamphlets on Surrealism and had written extensively on Surrealism and film and was a creative constructor of painted objects and Surrealist paintings. Within three years Conroy, Paul and myself were to reform the London Surrealist Group and between the three of us we organised meetings, exhibitions and attended events and making contact with groups that we felt we could share the Surrealist perspective and platform without in any way compromising it. To that effect Paul and myself communicated with the SWP (Socialist Workers Party), the Situationists and the Anarchists. Paul wrote and edited many books on Surrealism and the cinema including, “The Shadow and It’s Shadow” City Lights, 2000. ”Seeing In the Dark”, Serpents Tail Press, 1990.

After a couple of meetings with Conroy in 1973 it was abundantly obvious that his warm and inclusive personality endeared itself to many people, for before the term “networking” became a familiar part of the language or description of a person’s personality or proclivity, Conroy exemplified the term, not out of any opportunistic perspective but simply because he was such a genuine person with a pleasant personality nourished by an enthusiasm and interest in a plethora of subjects; he was simply a magnet to those who were interested in broadening and comprehending the human condition. Because of his long association with Surrealism and the fact that he was known to Surrealists from around the world he became the person to see when you were visiting London. On my third visit I had the pleasure of meeting Petr Kral who was visiting Conroy. Kral wished to meet Paul Hammond to discuss cinema and Conroy suggested that I might like to accompany Kral and show him where Hammond worked. This became a normal occurrence, if someone was visiting then Conroy would telephone me and invite me over. I was to meet Dawn Ades the writer and also Michel Remy. The meeting with Michel was to be the start of a life long friendship with Michel who has done so much to record and champion Surrealism in Britain. As I had a spare room in my flat in Shepherds Hill, Highgate, London, Michel would stay with me when he was over. Michel was the leader of the Group Marges in Nancy, France, and their magazine invited me to submit sufficient material that they could produce a supplement of my drawings and poetry. The hours spent talking on his visits to my flat are some of the fondest memories I hold.

 Conroy was in constant contact with Surrealists around the world, from the first time I met him until my final meeting with him at his last exhibition he was endlessly writing letters or making telephone calls. The speed of communication now differs greatly from the 1970’s. The immediacy of connection today is a world away from the single delivery of mail that was the artery of the 1970’s and Conroy was apt to jump in his car and drive the four miles to me from his flat. One day he arrived with Guy Ducornet who was on his way from France to America, the date was the 20th November 1975 and as I opened my door Guy and Conroy said, “we have come to celebrate Franco’s death”. Just ten years ago Guy visited me again and we reminisced about Conroy and his passion.

On a visit to Conroy in early 1974 Conroy and I happened to be discussing Albert Meltzer of the Syndicalists and Freedom Press/Anarchist Fortnightly entered the conversation. I mentioned that some years previous I had witnessed Philip Sansome talking at “Speakers Corner” near Hyde Park in London. Philip Sansome had been the leader of the London Anarchist Group (as I was to find out later, he was never at ease with such a label) following in the steps of it’s founder Peter Kropotkin and had not only been supportive of the Surrealists in Britain during the 1940’s but been a close friend of Conroy’s. I visited Philip Sansome and we were to become close friends and each month I would spend an evening with Philip talking about everyone from Lucy Parsons to Bakunin. Philip expressed an interest in publishing a supplement to Anarchist Fortnightly on contemporary trends and activities in Surrealism. This was to be realised in 1978 when Francis Wright, one of Anarchist Fortnightly’s editors, assisted in publishing the supplement created and edited by Conroy Maddox and myself under the title of “Hinge of History”, including contributions from numerous people including Roger Cardinal. Cardinal was later to draw close to the group sharing his passion and interest in Surrealism and “Outsider Art” (including naive art and the art of the “insane/mentally/emotionally challenged”). Francis Wright and Anarchist Fortnightly were to publish further supplements in due course and were instrumental in publicising and publishing some of the publications that were soon to become a mouthpiece of Surrealism from Britain in the next couple of years.

Discussion and conversation, not to say an element of caution was already apparent in conversations taking place between Maddox, Hammond and myself as to drawing a distinction between different views of and to Surrealism. On the one hand there were a selection of “historical” Surrealist exhibitions taking place, some in private galleries where there was a tendency to collect Surrealism along with the fantastic and even aspects of Psychedelic Art and these ran along side institutions organising exhibitions whose formula followed a rather tried and tested perspective and always ended its engagement either at the Second World War or at Andre Breton’s passing as well as necessarily including Dali as the major proponent of Surrealism. In the same way there were people interested in Surrealism from an academic perspective, there were “art collectors”, people who disliked Abstraction, Op Art, Pop Art, Kinetic Art and found a default position in Surrealism. There were many who only considered Surrealism an art movement in the twentieth century and not an organic living, growing and developing perspective to life. Paul Hammond in his capacity as a promoter of contemporary Surrealist publications at Compendium Bookshop observed that predominantly those who purchased books from the Surrealist section of the shop were either those who followed the thread of Post Second World War leftist politics,1960’s Counter Culture, or by an interest stirred and ignited by Waldberg/Alexandrian/Cardinal and Short’s books which were published by popular publishing houses to satisfy the needs of a public that by the end of the 1960s were becoming increasingly more curious about a varying selection of subjects, including Surrealism. (It is interesting to note that in conversation over the years Surrealists from all over the world have referred to Waldberg’s book on Surrealism published by Thames and Hudson as being the catalyst for their taking the first tentative steps to Surrealist action). It was our agreement that there was a place and forum for Surrealism and Academia to meet but not at the cost of Surrealism’s life blood and vitality being marginalised or compromised. In the same way, “historical exhibitions” were always going to take place, but they needed to have a context and not take the form of wakes celebrating the dead. Both issues were to be addressed in a short period of time as we were adamant that we were going undertake Surrealist activities as a celebration of the human condition and as proponents of liberty and emancipation.

By 1975 Conroy Maddox, Paul Hammond and myself were meeting frequently, attending most of the meetings was Gavin MacFadyen the investigative journalist and documentary maker whose energy and vitality was instrumental in addressing the potential of group activity. This coincided with three forthcoming events which gave rise to Maddox, Hammond and myself realising our intention of being animators of Surrealism in Britain and placing our services at the promotion of sharing our Surrealist energies in a context of a world Surrealist action.

The first of these three events was to take place in 1976, Franklin Rosemont (author of “Andre Breton, What Is Surrealism” and “Andre Breton, The First Principles of Surrealism”) in Chicago, organised “Marvellous Freedom-Vigilance of Desire” an International Surrealist exhibition of active contemporary Surrealists and Surrealism, Maddox, Hammond and myself were invited to exhibit. It was to be the first of many exhibitions and publications including contributions from the three of us that took place in support of Franklin Rosemont’s enthusiasm for an uncompromising Surrealist activity throughout the world. It was an opportunity to make the acquaintance of the poets Philip Lamantia and Nancy Joyce Peters and many others from the Chicago Group. There followed further exhibitions, publications and broadsheets which elicited many letters and invitations to contribute to numerous projects around the world. One invitation arrived from Ladislav Guderna in Canada inviting myself to contribute to Guderna’s publication “Scarabus”. Ladislav’s warm correspondence and his overtures to me to contact others in Canada was a very kind gesture.

The second event was to have far reaching ramifications for Surrealist activity in Great Britain and place it as an energy of collaboration with its friends in France. At the beginning of 1977 Conroy Maddox was invited to contribute to a very large historical exhibition called, “Dada and Surrealism Reviewed” at the Hayward Gallery, London (it opened at the start of 1978, it covered the whole of the Dada Movement and Surrealism culminating in Andre Breton’s death). To coincide with this exhibition Maddox was invited to have a retrospective exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre in London. After some discussion with Hammond and myself he decided that he would only take half the space at the Camden Arts Centre and in the other half of the space he would organise an exhibition celebrating Surrealism from Breton’s death up to 1977. Surrealists from around the world were invited to contribute work and the exhibition was called, “Surrealism Unlimited”. It included many works and talks reflecting Surrealism in 1977. A large body of work was forthcoming from those associated with Mouvement Phases (Edouard Jaguer) and at the opening Edouard Jaguer, Jean Claude Charbonel, Suzel Ania, Guy Roussille, Gerard Simon and Jean-Pierre Vielfaure amongst other members of Phases visited the opening. Immediate bonds were made with these visitors and Edouard Jaguer invited me to participate in Phases activities which I did until Jaguer’s death in 2006. As a personal reflection upon Edouard Jaguer, I have to say that I found him one of the kindest and warmest people I have had the privilege of meeting. At the opening I forged a friendship with Jean Claude Charbonel and we were to share both a friendship (Edouard Jaguer referred to us as “Celtic Brothers”) and partnership in exhibiting and corresponding as well as meeting at such events as the Phases exhibition in Le Harve, “L’Experience Continue.1952-1988”. In 2011 at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales, Jean Claude and myself had a joint exhibition called, “Surrealism -The Celtic Eye”/“Surrealisme -Le Regard Celtique” the two “Celtic Brothers” celebrating the inspiration of Breton and Welsh culture, atmosphere and aura and how it informed our imagination.

The third event that took place coincided with the two events in London but was to be staged in the city of Worcester, some considerable distance from London. I had made the acquaintance of the head of the Worcester City Art Gallery some years previously and been offered an exhibition and not taken up the offer. But as the works had been arriving in abundance from around the world for the Camden Arts Centre Exhibition “Surrealism Unlimited” I contacted the head of the Worcester City Art Gallery and offered to curate an exhibition of contemporary Surrealist works from them. Thus, “The Terrain of the Dream” came about. The first time I had ever curated an exhibition. It coincided with the two London exhibitions which were receiving an enormous amount of publicity in the press. The exhibition included works by both Phases artists and members of the Chicago Group as well as Conroy, Paul and myself. I provided a series of lectures and films and the local arts centre provided a Surrealist event with the stipulation that all attending should wear a blindfold and be prepared to remove the item only if the individual was willing to renew the vista of their preconceptions of reality. The police were called and the exhibition was threatened with closure.

These events acted as a catalyst for people interested in Surrealism to make contact with Conroy Maddox, Paul Hammond and myself. Some of them had been working in isolation, others had been enthused by the exhibitions and inspired by the fact that they were able to realise the continued vitality and validity of Surrealism. Conroy Maddox, Paul Hammond and myself reflected upon the possibility of reforming the London Surrealist Group and received a warm response from those that we contacted tentatively inviting them to a preliminary meeting to discuss “first stages”. We were all intent upon it being a collective of actions and activity that interacted and supported international Surrealist activities. The first meeting took place in Covent Garden in the centre of London. I hired a large room above a public house and thirteen people were in attendance, including Conroy Maddox, Paul Hammond and Paul Garon who was visiting from the UK from Chicago and representing the Chicago Group, amongst others, journalist and activist Gavin MacFadyen, poet Jennifer Kane,  writer and poet Pauline Drayson, photographer Robert Golden, poet and collagist John Digby, painters Lee Cottle and Michael Stoddard. In the coming months five meetings took place of this group it was to be the reflection of an “initial energy”, some of those in attendance were either not from London or had the responsibility and calls of employment and meetings became infrequent.

Within a very short period of time a fresh direction of activity and enthusiasm was to take place, for new arrivals, new contacts and a new impetus offered the next step. Most of those associated with the initial group enthusiastically stepped into new paths of adventure. The arrival of Tony Pusey and his enthusiasm can not be underestimated. His vitality and focus was contagious, with him came contacts he had already made and with him came a connection to the newly formed and energetic Swedish Group with Johannes Bergmark, Bruno Jacobs, Tomas Werner, Petra Mandal and Mattias Forshage. I was to keep in contact with members of the group over the years and in 2019 Kristoffer Noheden invited me to participate in a project on “Surrealism and Ecology” in Sweden.

This was a very interesting period of time with a distinctive energy, a sense of excitement, a pulse that the possible could be made possible. This energy not only existed in Britain but was an integral part of a new pulse of energy that was crystallising throughout Europe, America and further afield and the energy was shared and grew. Additionally, there was a cross-pollination of participants with Iraqi’s Haifa Zangana and Salah Faiq moving to London, the frequent visits by Abdul Kader El-Janabi from Paris who along with Peter Wood and Rupert Edgell created an English language publication, “The Moment” (published in Paris) which ran to four numbers and included a body of interesting articles including an absorbing article on the Cobra Group by Edouard Jaguer. Abdul and I remained good friends through the years and in 2022 I suggested to Broken Sleep Publishing that a collection of Abdul’s writing from the previous fifty years would be a fitting reflection of Abdul’s importance as a poet. The book was published and I had the privilege of providing the image for the cover. During the early 1980’s Fadel Abbas Hady published the magazine “Literature” and on his visits from Paris he and I translated some of the poetry of Malcolm de Chazal which he published in “Literature”.

As well as painting I was writing a great deal of poetry and was invited to give a reading at the London Poetry Society (organised by Geoffrey Godbert) and I shared a reading with George Barker who had been a member of the “New Apocalyptics Movement”. After the reading George Barker turned to me and said,”you have to be mad to be a poet and you are totally insane”, with a gracious smile I took this to be a complement. It must have been a complement as Barker asked me to read with him again.

Throughout the world at this time there was the feeling of an ownership of a new generation of Surrealism, something flowering from the 1950’s and 1960’s, a sense of continuum and just a glimpse that whilst group activity might at times falter there was always a sense of continuum. This energetic sense of “moving forward” was further realised by two meetings I had with Matta, the first in London and the second in Paris. Matta seemed to personify a timeless energy where his very real sense of direction and motivation which was wired firmly into the present and future, for he only talked in terms of that which was happening or about to happen. As someone who had achieved so much, his forward looking perspective of confidence, his awareness of the aspirations of the youth and his desire to be firmly associated with the pulse of activity exuded an aura of restless adventure. In 2012 I had the pleasure of being invited to contribute an essay on my meeting with Matta and a painting dedicated to him in an exhibition in Chile celebrating what would have been his one hundredth birthday.

Reflecting upon the 1990’s up to the present day there has been a palpable change, for in the early 1990’s Kenneth Cox, Sarah Metcalf, Peter Overton, Bill Howe and others formed the Leeds Surrealist Group which has continued a pulse of activity constantly for over thirty years. Stuart Inman started a London Group and Merl Fluin, Paul Cowdell and Patrick Hourihan also undertook group activity until recently. In Wales, John Richardson, Jean Bonnin, Neil Coombs and myself have produced publications, organised events and exhibitions for the last decade. All these activities have been a fundamental part of international Surrealist activity but  have been informed by building blocks that were tentatively being put in place through the 1970’s and 1980’s. I am reminded of something Ted Joans said to me in the early 1980’s when he used to stay with me in my flat in London. Ted Joans reflected upon the solos of the jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker and said,” every solo by Bird has the history of jazz and mankind in it, it’s how Bird takes those roots and makes them modern, relevant for these times”. The statement was a pertinent reflection upon Surrealism and on Ted Joans whose visits to London were always punctuated by joint collage making and gathering material for his publication, “Dis und Das” which I contributed to.

Looking back almost fifty years, revisiting publications, correspondence, leaflets, pamphlets, memorabilia and memories that have resurfaced it is apparent that this period of time was significant. In fact perhaps its significance has not been given either the importance it had at the time and also the relevance and effect it has has had on Surrealist activities in the intervening decades. It is apparent just how much communication, connection and joint activity was beginning to take place. It is also apparent how fresh and new and vital some of the activity and enterprises were. It is of interest to note that some of the inclusions shared by Surrealists from a previous generation take on a new resonance when set aside contemporary reflections, a timelessness to Surrealist reflection.  A lot of the names of those active were new and the publications that blossomed were new, fresh and vibrant. In Britain fresh faces like Tony Pusey, Ysine, Rattus, Francis Wright and Michael Richardson (who in the intervening years has written many important books on both Surrealism and the cinema and two significant books on Georges Bataille) arrived on the scene offering boundless new perspectives and energy and they made up the Melmoth Group. Melmoth produced two magazines (articles and poetry by Joyce Mansour, Marcel Marien, Ted Joans, Pavel Reznicek, Ithell Colquhoun are amongst the many contributors) and numerous handbills which were quite incendiary (“Trajectory of Passion”). Melmoth also contributed a statement which was included in Arturo Schwarz’s book “Anarchia E Creativita”. One of the contributors to the second edition of the Melmoth publication was Ian Walker who contributed an article on Surrealism and photography and curated a large touring exhibition of a mixture of painters from the 1930’s up until 1986. This exhibition called “Contrariwise” began it’s tour of Britain at the Glynn Vivian Gallery, in Swansea, Wales and was opened by Graham Chapman who was a member of the television series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. In 1998 the Glynn Vivian Gallery hosted an exhibition celebrating the Czech Surrealists. I was fortunate enough to establish friendship with members of a group of Czech Surrealists and in the decades to follow I exhibited in numerous cities in the Czech Republic.

The group Melmoth and the two numbers of the publication by the same name gave an impression of being a bright star that may potentially burn even brighter, however after the two numbers appeared, so the activity ceased. The group and the magazine were reflecting the energy of Surrealism in Britain but firmly within the context of it being a composite part of Intentional surrealist activity and contributions came in from around the world as well as reflections being made by members of Melmoth on International Surrealist actions and activities. Part of the reason for it’s ceasing was that Tony Pusey moved to Sweden to live. Before Tony Pusey left for Sweden he assisted me in producing a book (30pages) called “Water Throat” which contained paintings, drawings and poetry by myself. Upon arrival in Sweden he immediately set to action in producing a publication called “Dunganon” which ran to a series of editions and an exhibition. It was a pleasure to continue contact and involvement with Tony who was a real energy at that time. His playful line drawings were nothing less than a reflection of his contagious spirit of creativity and humour. Tony had introduced me to the Icelandic writer Sjon and we corresponded and exchanged ides and thoughts. In 1982 Sjon invited me to have a solo exhibition at the Surrealist Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland. An exhibition at almost the most northern part of the world was contrasted by an exhibition in Argentine later in the year when the Argentinian Surrealist Jorge Kleiman and myself staged an exhibition of three joint pictures protesting against the war between Britain and Argentine.

By the late 1970’s there was there was very much a feeling that there were different paths or strands of activity, some overlapped, but some had their own definite paths. There were painters such as Eileen Agar who had been active in the 1930’s but were still full of a wonderful creativity, but had no enthusiasm for participating in any form of action other than in their studio. That made them no less relevant or important, it meant their energies were invested in other directions. I spent a great deal of time with Eileen Agar whose love of life and imagination knew no bounds. Her passion for nature, flowers, shells and organic shapes and forms was a part of her continuously blossoming personal adventure. Then there were those whose star had burnt brightly in a previous generation of Surrealism in Britain and with the renewed “interest” shown by a fickle public during and after the Hayward/Camden Arts Centre exhibitions, thought to rekindle their profiles and thus David Gascoyne, Toni DelRenzio and George Melly reappeared offering the media a view of their continued importance, not to say enhancing their relevance in their previous incarnation. Surrealism was starting to acquire a certain academic profile and there was a palpable difference between Surrealism on a syllabus and Surrealism the organic entity, however, as the decades have elapsed there is a a very real and valuable relationship forged and formed between those who write about aspects of Surrealism and those who “live” Surrealism and in some cases this was in its infant stages in the late 1970’s. There were many new exhibition spaces, galleries and gallerists in London that were becoming interested in offering both space and support to aspects of Surrealism that were not driven by commercial success and motivated by a financial return. James Birch (Birch and Blond Fine Art, Birch and Conran Gallery) Jayne England Gallery, Edward Crawshaw Gallery, Bonham-Murray Feely Gallery) all held exhibitions over a twenty year period. I was to have a selection of solo shows at the Crawshaw Gallery and Bonham-Murray Feely Gallery, but always the pleasure was to participate in any projects organised by James Birch, for his passion for Surrealism created “events” rather than exhibitions, he is a gallerist with a poetic vision. I organised the exhibition “Brittle Winds” at the Bonham-Murray Feely Gallery in London and was able to borrow a large sculpture by Leonora Carrington who had been born in Lancashire, England, before she began her adventure. At the time that I organised the exhibition Carrington was already highly respected, but in the intervening years she has become justifiably revered. Eileen Agar attended many of the openings and we became firm friends. She retained a youthful creative spirit and on my visits to her home she eagerly show me her work, collages with objects she had found on beaches incorporated into her paintings. Every surface of her apartment was festooned with components of her work and her windows were always open and the pieces blew about the apartment and she would burst into laughter and say, “look the collages are making themselves”. Robert Melville who with Conroy Maddox had been instrumental in forming the Birmingham Group in the 1930’s visited one of the openings and we shared memories of my visiting his summer residence which was near my family’s farm in Wales. I had visited him years before when I was twenty and spent an afternoon sitting next to a wonderful painting he owned by Lucien Freud and chatted with Robert, his wife Lilian and his daughter Roberta who was married to the renown blues musician Alexis Korner.

Coinciding with all these activities I had made contact with Vincent Bounoure (Bulletin de Liaison Surrealiste) in Paris and his warm reaction to my letters and his warm letters to me are still treasures for the imagination. Bounoure was instrumental in my being invited to show at the Galerie Le Triskele in an exhibition of Surrealist collages in 1978. Bounoure collaborated at this time (1976) with Michael Lowy on “La Civilisation Surrealiste” and in 2022 when Michael Lowy and I met at the exhibition “Surrealism Without Borders” (Tate Modern, London) we discussed how apposite “La Civilisation Surrealiste” was even though almost fifty years had elapsed since its publication.

In 1978 I received an invitation from Jimmy Gladiator in Paris to contribute to the publication, “Le Melog” and I contributed to both “Le Melog” and “Crecelle Noire” throughout the years, including a drawing I titled “Portrait of Jimmy Gladiator” in 1980. Jimmy Gladiator had participated in both the Melmoth and The Moment magazines and we were to remain in contact until his sad passing in 2019.

At this time I also made contact with Alain-Pierre Pillet and we corresponded for many years, various post cards arrived out of the blue sending me greetings from wherever Alain-Pierre was visiting. In 1984 I contributed an article to the book, “Andre Breton a Venice” that Alain-Pierre edited.

I was fortunate enough to meet Mario Cesariny and Arturo Cruzeiro Seixas whilst in Lisbon, Portugal and years later when Philip West had moved to live in Zaragoza in Spain he organised a meeting for us all to meet up again. It was a this time that Arturo and myself agreed to produce a series of joint works, it was a pleasure to make the joint works with Arturo. In the 1990’s I was to meet up with Philip West and Mario Cesariny and share a couple of days of Surrealist celebration.

This period, 1978 to 1980 was an interesting period of time and I participated in projects relating to “Mail Art”, showing in Osaka, Japan in and exhibition,”Surrealist Mail Art” organised by Yasuyuki Watanabe. I made contact with Ryosuke Cohen and years later he was kind enough to make the opening speech at the Mail Art exhibition “Letter Up-letter down” which I organised at Galerie Kubus, Hannover, Germany in 2003.

Christo invited me to participate in his project which involved the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany and on one of my visits to Germany I had the pleasure of meeting Karl Otto Gotz who had participated in Phases activities since it’s inception. Participation in Phases exhibitions through the years since 1977 has meant that I have travelled to many cities and countries to attend openings. I stayed with Antoni Zydron near Poznan in Poland when a Phases exhibition took place in Poznan. It was amazing to visit Zydron’s studio which included many large animal skins which Zydron utilised as part of his enormous installations. At this time I was exhibiting at the Galerie 13, Hannover, Germany and at one of the openings I turned around and was so pleasantly surprised by the arrival of two guests, Ludwig Zellor and Susana Wald were visiting Germany and travelled to the opening. A warm friendship has lasted through the years. The warmth of Surrealist friendships, a journey shared.

By the 1980’s I was showing frequently with Phases and also met Jean-Marc Debenedetti who produced the publication “Ellebore” and on one of my visits to Jean-Marc he asked me to add a little something to one of his sculptures.

When the disparate pieces of a jigsaw puzzle are put in place then an image is revealed. The 1970’s and !980’s in Britain may be likened to the jigsaw, the pieces are jewels in their own right; so it was with Surrealism in Britain, small jewels of action and activity, some burning bright, with relevance in their own right. Some were right for the time, pertinent and relevant in their context and in the social climate. They were building blocks for future cohesive group activity, but they were also points of definition laying down paths of direction that would be taken in the years to come when the individual pieces of the jigsaw coalesced into a whole. Most importantly there was a connection and input into the international activity that celebrates Surrealism as a world adventure, a willingness and desire to share the adventure and make the possible possible.

John Welson (February 2024).