The Strange Country
Maddox has dedicated himself to the original, radical intentions of the Surrealist movement since 1935. He severely criticised the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London for including artists he thought were neither committed to, nor informed about, the movement: Roland Penrose, Paul Nash and Herbert Read. In contrast to Read’s interpretation of Surrealism, Maddox is avowedly internationalist. This work echoes the irrational events and space of Rene Magritte’s paintings. The head of one figure is replaced by a balloon, while the muscleman seems to emerge from within a frame. A huge match seems to replace the sun.
Jean Tinguely
1962