Join us for an evening with Anthony Penrose, film maker, photographer, author, artist, photo-curator, son of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, and co-founder of the Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection as he shares the life and work of his father, surrealist artist Roland Penrose including his friendship with Peggy Guggenheim.
In 1922 Roland Penrose went to Paris and became a Surrealist artist. In 1936, following the collapse of his marriage to the poet Valentine Penrose (neé Boué) he returned to London, introducing Surrealism to an incredulous and often hostile British public. With Herbert Read and David Gascoyne he mounted the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition, and the movement took root in this country. Eileen Agar, John Banting, Paul Nash, Henry Moore, Humphrey Jennings, Conroy Maddox and later Desmond Morris became numbered among Roland’s friends. Reviled and ridiculed at the time, and beset with internal quarrels, the movement made a truly lasting impact on the arts in Britain.
From that exciting period, among the many people who became friends with Penrose, Peggy Guggenheim was a key figure. When Penrose bought The London Gallery in 1938, Guggenheim established her gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, next door. Guggenheim returned to the United States during the war and in the post war years she and Penrose re-stablished their friendship. Lee Miller, by now married to Penrose photographed Guggenheim at the Venice Biennale in 1948. In 1964 she generously welcomed us as a family, in her Palazzo in Venice. Today at Farleys House and Gallery we have a pleasant relationship with the Guggenheim foundation.
Tickets include entrance to Peggy Guggenheim: Petersfield to Palazzo, allowing you to explore the exhibition before the event.
Our fully licensed bar will be available for you to enjoy a range of exhibition inspired refreshments including, Aperol Spritz, Espresso Martinis, Affogato and Jude's ice cream.
Doors/Exhibition/Bar Open: 6pm
Talk starts: 7pm
Event End: 8.30pm
