Course: Tate > Unit 7
Lesson 2: What is an archive?- What is an archive?
- Animating the Archives: An Introduction
- A Juke Box at Tate Britain: Listening to and making audio archives
- Josef Herman's personal sketches of Wales
- Graham Sutherland's hands-on sketchbooks
- How do we document and archive performance? A live art salon
- Archive conservation volunteers at work
- Kurt Schwitters' archives and artists in captivity
- The archives of Eileen Agar, a British surrealist
- Time and Influence: A fashion project with University of the Arts London
The archives of Eileen Agar, a British surrealist
Surrealist Eileen Agar left behind a rich collection of archival material, a series of very personal and original objects that illustrate her creative process and enrich our understanding of her practice. Entering Agar’s archives is almost like entering her mind, as one archivist puts it—within it you can see direct inspirations for specific works she produced throughout her lifetime. Among her sketches and drawings are the bits and pieces that littered her gallery, giving us a full picture of the materials she was engaging with.
But Agar’s archive includes her private correspondence as well, which allows us a look into her personal life. Among her correspondence is a series of love letters from fellow British artist Paul Nash, telling the story of their affair. What value might there be in including personal letters among an artist’s drawings and sketches? Is it simply voyeuristic, or does the intersection of these documents allow us to look at a much broader cultural history?
See more of Eileen Agar's work in the Tate collection here.