Emmy Bridgwater

Emma Frith Bridgwater, known as Emmy Bridgwater, was a renowned poet and painter.

Biography of Emmy Bridgwater

Emmy Bridgwater was born in Birmingham in 1906. She studied art at Birmingham Art School under Fleetwood Walker, the local art school in Oxford, and briefly at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art under Ian McNab.

In 1936, Bridgwater visited the International Surrealist Exhibition in London, which profoundly transformed her approach to art. By the late 1930s, she joined the "Birmingham Group of 7" artists, including Conroy Maddox and John Melville, and later became part of the London Surrealist Group in 1940.

During the war years and afterward, she lived in London, contributing surrealist-style poems to publications. Her first solo exhibition took place at Jack Bilbo's Modern Gallery in London in 1942, followed by participation in the International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris in 1947.

In the 1960s, Bridgwater returned to the Midlands, living in Birmingham and later in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she co-founded the "2-D" Group and exhibited locally. She moved back to London in the 1970s before finally settling in Solihull in the mid-1980s.

The artist died in 1999 in Solihull.

Emmy Bridgwater's Art Style

Emmy Bridgwater was a notable figure in the surrealist movement, recognized for her contributions to "automatic drawing," a technique guided by the subconscious. Her style featured swirling lines, plant forms, and vaguely suggestive shapes that seemed to emerge from deep within the mind. The transformation in her work began after attending the International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936, leading her to adopt a purer surrealist approach.

Her works were included in exhibitions by the London Surrealist Group, and her drawings were praised by Andre Breton for bringing "a new purity of outlook to British surrealism." Toni del Renzio described her pictures as emotionally stirring, capable of evoking a visceral response from viewers. Michel Remy, a professor of art history, highlighted her influence on British surrealism, equating it to Dalí's impact on French surrealism.