Edward Burra : complete catalogue

Causey, Andrew

Oxford, England: Phaidon, 1985. Hardcover. Blue dj with white text and color illustration. Black clothbound boards with white text on spine. 207 pp. Bw and color illustrations. VG. Item #211675
ISBN: 9780714823232

Edward Burra is one of those great English artists whose independence and quirkish originality have placed him outside the mainstream of modern art, but whose style and interest have always found favour with the general public. This book constitutes the first study of his life and work and the first complete catalogue of his pictures - most of which are in watercolour. He was a voracious reader and an avid enthusiast of films, ballets and pantomimes. His observations of the sleazy and sinister side of his life, or his seemingly more conventional landscapes and still lifes are all characterized by an extraordinary poetic imagination that was also capable of producing works of great beauty. Being badly crippled by arthritis from childhood probably ensured that his own life was not dramatically eventful, although he travelled abroad widely in the 1920s and 1930s. He acquired an unusual number of interesting friends in the fields of art and literature such as Paul Nash, Conrad Aiken, and Malcolm Lowry. With all of them he maintained an entertaining correspondence of letters and postcards, which was highly spiced by his sketches and comments on people and the contemporary arts." - from dustjacket.