The Variable Costerwoman
Ceri Geraldus Richards 1903 - 1971
Summary
Surreal abstracted figure of a woman, assembled from pieces of painted wood, string, metal and other materials including buttons, curtain rings and sandpaper. The assembled figure is laid against a ground of wooden floorboards, with painted in body and hair.
Display Label
Gallery text panel Tradition and Experiment Early Twentieth-Century Art 1900 - 1939. In Britain, the beginning of the 20th century coincided with the end of the Victorian age. Artists and designers experimented, challenging traditional ways of seeing and making; now trying to create a new art for a modern era. In painting, it was often traditional subject matter such as portraits, landscapes and interiors that would be tackled in new ways. The bustle and the brutality of urban life was an inspiration or something to escape from. Boundaries became increasingly blurred between design and decoration, painting and making and individual expression replaced academic authority. Art was made to be affordable and at a scale that would fit into ordinary homes. Some called the celebration of the modern into question after the horrors of the First World War. Traditional imagery was simplified or became childlike and slowly broke down into fragmented visions. Dream and chance tapped into subconscious anxieties and in 1939, world war intervened once again.
Object Name
The Variable Costerwoman
Creators Name
Date Created
1938
Dimensions
Wood: 78cm x 75.8cm
accession number
1971.151
Place of creation
England
Medium
painted wood and assemblage (string, metal, buttons, sandpaper)
Legal
© Manchester Art Gallery