John Banting and His Circle

“He is surrealist in the unexpectedness of his invention but lacks the solemnity that makes most surrealists so tedious.” The New Statesman’s judgement of 1938 could apply as much to Banting’s life as to his art. From the Bright Young People parties of Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies to Republican Spain with Nancy Cunard to observing the Anschluss of 1938 with Humphrey Spender. Banting was the archetypal outsider artist with connections. But as the British surrealist movement ebbed after the war, he ended his days in squalor in Hastings, largely forgotten. In this generously illustrated review, Joanna Ward demonstrates that the contribution of Banting and surrealism to the artistic and intellectual life of Britain should now be acknowledged alongside the kitchen sink realism and other ‘isms’ that contributed to our current identity. “At last-a fascinating book about a fascinating man-John Banting-one of the great eccentrics of British surrealism-an artist who made life itself a surrealist event.” – Desmond Morris, zoologist, ethnologist, artist and author of The British Surrealists.