Conroy Maddox

Conroy Maddox (27 December 1912 – 14 January 2005) was an English surrealist painter, collagist, writer and lecturer; and a key figure in the Birmingham Surrealist movement.

He was born in Ledbury, Herefordshire, and discovered surrealism in 1935, spending the rest of his life exploring its potential through his paintings, collages, photographs, objects and texts. Inspired by artists such as Max Ernst, Óscar Domínguez and Salvador Dalí, he rejected academic painting in favour of techniques that expressed the surrealistic spirit of rebellion. Maddox officially joined the British Surrealist Group in 1938.

His creations soon began not only to challenge the conventional view of reality, but also to push pictorial expression to the limits of consciousness. He was even implicated in both scandal and controversy when, during World War II, Scotland Yard suspected him of fifth columnist sabotage and mounted a surprise raid to seize works thought to contain coded messages to the enemy.

Following the war he moved to Balsall Heath and began his most active period. In 1948, he married Nan Burton. They had a daughter and a son together, but had the marriage dissolved in 1955. He died in London, aged 92.

Exhibitions

1938 - Wertheim Gallery, London 1940 - London Gallery, London 1940 - Surrealism Today, Zwemmer Gallery, London 1940 - Artists International Association 1945 - Leicester Galleries, London 1947 - International Surrealist Exhibition, Paris 1949 - Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Galleries 1949 - Bilston Corporation Art Gallery 1951 - Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Galleries 1963 - Grabowski Gallery, London 1967 - Zwemmer Gallery, London 1967 - Exeter City Gallery, Exeter 1973 - Hamet Gallery, London 1976 - Gouaches of the 1940s, Fischer Fine Art, London 1978 - Surrealism Unlimited, Camden Arts Centre, London 1982 - Peinture Surrealiste en Angleterre 1930-1960, Galerie 1900–2000, Paris 1994 - Paintings and Objects, Gallery M, London 2000 - Surrealism in Birmingham 1935-1955, Birmingham Museums 2001 - Conroy Maddox. A Surrealist Odyssey, Belgrave Gallery, London