Sluice Gates of the Mind: The Collaborative Work of Pailthorpe and Mednikoff

Nigel Walsh; Andrew Wilson

ISBN 10: 090198163X / ISBN 13: 9780901981639

Published by Leeds Museums & Galleries, 1998

About this Item

From the Library of John Russell Taylor.

Seller Inventory # PL-3160-68_1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sluice Gates of the Mind: The Collaborative Work of Pailthorpe and Mednikoff
• Publisher: Leeds Museums & Galleries
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 090198163X
• ISBN 13: 9780901981639
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Psychoanalyst Dr Grace Pailthorpe wrote that she was searching for a 'quicker way to the deeper layers of the unconscious than by the long drawn-out couch method' and in 1935 she found in artist Reuben Mednikoff her collaborator. Within days of meeting at a party, they had embarked on an extraordinary psychological and artistic journey that set about using 'art as a shortcut to the conscious'. This book charts that journey and their complex involvement with the British Surrealist Group which ended in 1940 with their expulsion from the Group and their departure for the United States. In doing so it sheds new light on the history of Surrealism in Britain and on the nature of their highly charged process of psychoanalytic enquiry, the scientific programme that was at the heart of their artistic project. The primary focus of their research and resulting artwork was the use of paintings and drawings as instruments of deep psychic investigation. The main difference between this and conventional psychoanalysis was that in the latter, the analyst's neutrality and passivity had an inhibiting effect. They revealed an almost direct connection between artistic expression and unconscious material thus released. The stunning array of images presented in the book contain vivid colours and unique, shocking themes which will certainly prove evocative.