Art review: Searching for the marvellous


Dave Beale

Currently on display in Skipton (North Yorkshire) is a wonderful collection of surrealist art by Peter Harris. For decades, Peter has been creating work for his own pleasure and satisfaction but this has rarely been on public display.

A supporter of the Socialist Party and its forerunner, the Militant, for over 30 years, Peter Harris is a founding member of Blackburn Contemporary Artists and active participant in the English Surrealist group. Of the surrealists, Peter says: “They had utter contempt for capitalism’s cultural elitism and the artists and poets who provided innocuous comfort for the existing repressive order.”

Using mixed media – collage, photographs and boxes – Peter is provoked by bitter struggles against injustice and oppression but also his love of mountain walks and nature.

Of the 50 pieces in the exhibition, some are black and white photomontage, others diversely coloured with various small objects fixed to the surface of multi-layered photographic images, or sometimes fixed to the glass itself.

There are works in response to the horrors of the Vietnam war and the Chilean dictatorship, as well as Peter’s own political experiences as a victim of expulsions from the Labour Party in 1980s Blackburn. In contrast to some very unsettling, even violent images, there are also tranquil aspects of landscapes and wild land.

Peter points out: “The surrealists saw the importance of the writings of people such as Marx, Lenin and Trotsky and identified themselves with the cause of working-class self-emancipation, through a political revolution. Only then will society be able to move on to really begin refashioning human understanding and profoundly changing the lives we lead.”

This exhibition is well worth a visit!

‘Searching for the marvellous in an age of isolation, fear and hate’ is at Mill Bridge Gallery, Skipton until 25 April (possibly longer). Check for opening days and times at www.millbridgegallery.co.uk