Julian Trevelyan, R.A.

London, Bloomsbury Gallery, Julian Trevelyan, March 1934, cat. no.16, illustrated, unpaginated;
London, Royal College of Art, The Imaginative Impulse: Julian Trevelyan 1910-1988, 27th October - 22nd November 1998, un-numbered exhibition, with exhibition catalogue published by the Bohun Gallery, Henley-on-Thames, illustrated p.31 (as Abstract Construction II).

The elements of the work appear sound and securely attached. There is some oxidisation to the metal elements and wire of the collage, and some light scuffs to the metal element. There is some wear and creasing to the painted black card element. There is some staining and surface matter to the paper element at the upper edge of the work. There is some cracking and loss to the plaster element, including around the nail heads on the left side, and some surface dirt and staining. There is some surface dirt and staining, and there may be some discolouration to the cork. The work is presented in the artist's own wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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The present work and Cork Dreams (The Cock Fight) (lot 504) are two of four works from the 'Cork Dreams' series which were exhibited in 1934 and have since remained untraced until surfacing after Trevelyan's death at the Durham Wharf Studio. They demonstrate Trevelyan's interest in the abstract Surrealist dream-images which were also to preoccupy Picasso and Masson at this time. These reliefs were influenced by Max Ernst's collages which Trevelyan had seen in Paris (see Philip Trevelyan, Indigo Days, Macgibbon & Kee, London, 1957, p.52). Trevelyan wrote at the time of the 1934 exhibition: '[They] have opened a new door to me in the use of materials and it is my intention not to close it till I have completed several solid constructions in forged metal' (introduction to 1934 exhibition, unpaginated). The third work from the series is in the Tate, London and the fourth is currently still untraced.