30 april – 22 june
Rooms 4 and 5. First floor.
Gregg Simpson is well known to the Eugenio F. Granell Foundation. In 2013, the Foundation presented a solo retrospective of his work, The Atlantean Years, 1970-1975, in 2008 the Foundation accepted Simpson’s work into its permanent collection, and in 2005Simpson participated in the group exhibition: West Coast Surreal: A Canadian Perspective.
Gregg Simpson and independent curator, Allan Graubard, who have collaborated on two books, Sirenes and Western Terrace, present an exhibition of Simpson’s preoccupation with the School of Pont-Aven of artists as a surrealist reimagining of that group.
They start with Simpson’s return to arcane imagery and Hermetic symbolsset in the Dream Gardens series of 2018-2019, recently exhibited in Paris, Copenhagen, Rome, Turin, and Padua.
Like Gregg Simpson, many of the Pont-Aven group were interested in Theosophy and delved into the occult and eastern religions, which led to the formation of the Nabis (or Prophets) whose interests in symbolism predated some aspects of surrealism.
The exhibition includes allusions to the “coiffe,” the iconic headgear of the traditional Breton women, whose origins go back to the Celtic Druids. The canvases are precisely defined metaphysical allegories, including works where robed forms appear on pilgrimage, as in Simpson’s painting The Road to Pont-Aven.
The works on paper are in gouache and pastel and are more spontaneously created to begin with, but are completed with a degree of precision.
In the glass cases are displayed The Breton Modules, small works on paper which the artist created while traveling in Italy, and The Landscape Talismans done plein-air while touring Pont-Aven.
Simpson’s prior exhibitions at the Granell Foundation, and their acceptance of his work into its permanent collection, well positioned him for future successes, including his participation in the major exhibition and book, Surrealism Beyond Borders, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Tate Modern, London.
Simpson’s works have also been included in several major studies of post-war Surrealism, identifying him as a major exponent of new surrealist perspectives, among which are:
- Aspects du Surréalisme International Aujourd’hui, Patrick Lepetit, Vocatif 34, Nice, France, 2020
- International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, Michael Richardson, Bloomsbury Academic, London, UK, 2019
- Caleidoscopio Surrealista, Una Vision del Surrrealismo Internacional 1916-2015,Miguel Perez Corrales, La Pagina, Miradas, Tenerife, 2015
- Il Surrealism. Leri oggi, Arturo Schwarz, Skira, Milan, Italy, 2014
- Open Letter: Surrealism in Canada, Gregory Betts, Brock University Press, Ontario, Canada, 2013
- L’Univers Surréaliste, José Pierre, Editions Somogy, Paris, 1983
