Ithell Colquhoun Between Worlds: Surrealism, Magic and The Mystical 

Tate St Ives will debut an extensive display of Ithell Colquhoun’s work from February 1 to May 5, followed by Tate Britain from June 12 to October 19. Ithell Colquhoun Between Worlds will be the most comprehensive presentation of her work to date, featuring over 170 pieces, including paintings, drawings, writings, and archival materials – many of which will be publicly exhibited for the first time.  

A pioneering artist of her time, Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) played a vital yet frequently underappreciated role in British Surrealism during the 1930s and 1940s. Colquhoun was known to have paved her own path, exploring surrealist techniques of unconscious image-making while boldly immersing herself in the worlds of myth and magic. 

Thanks to Tate’s extensive archive of Colquhoun’s work, the exhibition will explore her artistic journey, from her early Surrealist influences to her profound exploration of art, sexuality, magic and the mystical.

The exhibition will follow a loosely chronological journey, exploring how esoteric and surrealist ideas shaped Colquhoun’s artistic trajectory from the mid-1920s to the 1980s. It will feature early works from her time at the Slade School of Fine Art, such as Judith Showing the Head of Holofernes (1929), where she subverts biblical themes with occult symbolism. Her Surrealist period of the 1930s and 40s will be highlighted through works like Waterflower (1938), which reflect her fascination with the uncanny, and Scylla (méditerranée) (1938), where she merges the female form with natural landscapes using the ‘double image’ technique. The exhibition will also present her storyboard for the unrealised surrealist film Bonsoir (1939) in its entirety for the first time. 

A turning point came in 1939 when Colquhoun encountered Gordon Onslow Ford and Roberto Matta, whose surrealist automatist techniques deeply influenced her shift away from traditional painting. Through the 1940s, she increasingly explored automatism as a spiritual practice, using methods like decalcomania to channel metaphysical forces; works such as Attributed of the Moon (1947) and Gorgon (1946) exemplify this approach and will be displayed alongside their original transfer papers, revealing her process. 

It was during this period that Colquhoun’s engagement with the occult intensified, incorporating alchemy, paganism, and her ideas of gender fluidity into her work. Pieces like The Diagrams of Love (1940-42) reflect kabbalistic, tantric, and alchemical themes, portraying the fusion of male and female energies into an androgynous whole. By the 1940s, Cornwall’s ancient landscape and Celtic mythology became central to her creative vision, inspiring mystical depictions of sacred sites such as Dance of the Nine Opals (1942).

The exhibition will conclude with Colquhoun’s later experiments, including her enamel drip paintings and her Taro card series, a reimagining of the tarot that marks the ultimate synthesis of her artistic and esoteric practices.