Eileen Agar, British painter of Argentine birth. She arrived in England in 1906 and studied art at the Byam School of Art, in 1924 she continued her studies under Leon Underwood (1890–1975), and later attended the Slade School of Fine Art, London, from 1925 to 1926.I n 1926, Agar met the Hungarian writer Joseph Bard whom she married in 1940. In 1928, they lived in Paris where she continued her studies. There she met the Surrealists André Breton and Paul Éluard with whom she had a friendly relationship.. She became a member of the London Group from 1933, and her work was selected by Roland Penrose and Herbert Read for the International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London, in 1936. Agar exhibited with the Surrealists both in England and abroad. From 1936 she experimented with automatic techniques and new materials. After World War Two, Agar started a new productive phase of her life, holding almost 16 solo exhibitions between 1946 to 1985. By the 1960s she was producing Tachist paintings with Surrealist elements. She died in London. Agar has paintings in the collection of several British institutions.
