The Balsall Heath Bohemians

Specials

Specials

Stewart Lee takes us into a world of life-sized chess pieces, alcohol-guzzling nuns and crucified naked bespectacled men. The story of British Surrealism began, not in Bohemian north London, but in a Birmingham suburb. Today, the tradition continues with Birmingham artist Cold War Steve, whose work is featured on the website. His detailed collages evoke the surrealist world of the original Birmingham Surrealists. The seminal moment for British Surrealism was the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition when Salvador Dali donned a diving suit and walked through Piccadilly. But art historian and critic Ruth Millington reveals that the actual crazy beating heart of British Surrealism had already begun. A Birmingham group of artists refused to take part in that Exhibition, viewing the other British artists chosen as 'overnight surrealists'.