Lee Miller, Nude bent forward [thought to be Noma Rathner] Paris, France, 1930. © Lee Miller Archives, England 2018. All rights reserved.

Exhibition exploring Lee Miller’s involvement in British surrealist circles

Lee Miller, fashion and art photographer and photojournalist, was one of the most original photographic artists of the 20th century. Miller arrived in Paris in 1929, where she became Man Ray’s apprentice, muse, and collaborator and quickly became part of the Surrealist network, creating striking and experimental surrealist photographs.

Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain will be the first exhibition to explore Miller’s involvement with the surrealist circles in Britain, where the movement burgeoned in the late 1930s. London became the destination for many artists leaving increasingly troubling political situations on the continent in the immediate post-war period, and for a brief but intense time, Britain was a Surrealist centre.

The exhibition will tell the story of Surrealism in Britain through Miller’s lens, focusing on the artists she knew, photographed, and exhibited alongside. 

It will feature sculptures, paintings, photographs, collages and works on paper by artists including Eileen Agar, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, and Henry Moore alongside Miller’s photographs to explore the creative networks and productive collisions during this exciting time.

Miller’s and Man Ray’s photographs documenting Penrose, Paul and Nusch Éluard, Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst and ELT Mesens during their ‘sudden Surrealist invasion’ of Cornwall in 1937 will be displayed alongside artworks that highlight the shared motifs and creative dialogue between these artists. 

Lee Miller, Portrait of Space, Nr Siwa, Egypt, 1937. © Lee Miller Archives, England 2018. All rights reserved.

During the Second World War, Miller was employed by British Vogue as a freelance war correspondent. Working with the likes of David E. Scherman, Miller captured thought-provoking images of Hitler’s secret apartments and the harrowing atrocities of wartime living with her particular surrealist eye. A selection of these photographs including Lee Miller in Hitler’s Bathtub (1945) will be displayed, alongside her unique surrealist take on fashion and commercial photography from the same period.

Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain runs at the Hepworth Wakefield from 22 June to 7 October 2018. Admission is free.