Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/169626
Edward Burra 1905 - 1976 The shoes, 1929 - 30 Stamped with signature Pencil on paper 17 x 22 in, 44.5 x 55.9 cm Provenance Sotheby's, Works from the Estate of Edward Burra, 3 July 2002, lot 222 Edward Burra travelled frequently to Paris during the 1920s and 30s, placing him in contact with the international avant-garde, most notably the Surrealist group. Through their influence, Burra's work became liberated from classical pictorial conventions and began to take on a wry sense of humour. Most significantly Burra became inspired by the use of collage in the work of Max Ernst and Miró. Using this technique allowed Burra to break free from logical visual associations and to develop a symbolic and formal language of objects. In this way The Shoes functions as a 'drawn collage', cutting and placing a variety of imagery free from traditional illusionistic space. Burra also shared with Surrealism a fascination with the artistic image of woman. For the Surrealists, 'woman' functioned as a symbol, used to explore notions of femininity rather than as a traditional form of portraiture. Miró also created his own individualised visual language of femininity, which was highly influential on Burra for its treatment of female eroticism. Whilst Miró favoured an abstracted simplification of form, Burra retained an expressly realist method, approaching his subject through external objects related to femininity, such as here with the eponymous shoes. Burra continued to be associated with the Surrealists throughout the 1930s, exhibiting at the International Surrealist Exhibitions in London 1936 and Paris 1938. At both of these exhibitions Burra exhibited collages made at the same time as The Shoes, demonstrating the importance he placed on these works and the continued influence of Miró.