Ithell Colquhoun
Genius of the Fern Loved Gully
Amy Hale
Strange Attractor Press 2020
Pb, 336pp, £20, ISBN 9781907222863
Ithell Colquhoun’s star is in the ascendant. Born in India in 1906, she lived a life amongst the Surrealists in the Thirties and early Forties, had a productive career as an artist and writer throughout her life and spent decades in the milieu of occult groups and secret societies. However, following her death in 1988, she had been almost forgotten.
Now, following a landmark group exhibition, The Dark Monarch, at Tate St Ives in 2009, which featured her esoteric library and a small group of paintings, she has been the subject of a rediscovery. After a 2016 retrospective at Penlee House, Penzance, her two major travelogues have been reprinted by Peter Owen and her artistic archive has transferred from the National Trust to the Tate, which hints at a major show in the near future.
Colquhoun scholars have until now relied on the solid biographical and cataloguing work of specialists, Dr Richard Shillitoe and the late Eric Ratcliffe. Dr Amy Hale’s longanticipated Genius of the Fern Loved Gully is a first attempt at a full-length biography of this enigmatic and fascinating figure. And it has certainly been worth the wait.
Whilst Colquhoun never fitted neatly into any literary or artistic category during her lifetime, this eclecticism has been something of an advantage to those seeking to rediscover her diverse and intriguing output. This book willpsychogeographers, Surrealists, occultists and to anyone interested in the life and work of one of Britain’s most prolific – but until now, least understood – artists and writers.
