Eileen Agar Tropicana, 1981

Tropicana is an ink drawing on paper.

The work is composed of various abstract lines and patterns mainly in the color scheme of green, yellow, purple and brown. The lines form flower-like silhouettes and the shape of a face in profile. The composition thus creates a playful collage-like surface.

Speaking about her practice and approach to life, Eileen Agar said “Life’s meaning is lost without the spirit of play. In play all that is lovely and soaring in the human spirit strives to find expression. To play is to yield oneself to a kind of magic. In play the mind is prepared to accept the unimagined and incredible, to enter a world where different laws apply, to be free, unfettered and divine.”

In 1936, Agar gained international recognition through her participation in the International Surrealist Exhibition in London and would go on to be a major figure in the surrealist movement and beyond. Agar captured and reflected the tensions and anxieties her era, including living through two world wars, in a way that still retained a great amount of playfulness and color.