by David Graham There are numerous examples of paintings depicting croquet being played in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, but the game’s significance in surrealist art in the early 20th‐century is generally overlooked. The reason why many of the most important modernist works of art depicting croquet are not better known is that they are rarely displayed in public galleries, but are hidden away in the private collections belonging to the wealthy international croquet playing set. These works were often painted by the most famous of the modernist movement artists, many of whom were enthusiastic croquet players, and command prices in the millions whenever they come onto the market. However, perhaps the most interesting aspect of these paintings is not their value, but the insight they give into the artist’s temperament, including their expressions of frustration with the game that the modern player can easily relate to. The most famous of these painting is The Croquet Player ‐ 1910 by Pablo Picasso (1881‐1973), painted while on vacation in Cadaques, an example of Analytic cubism using monochrome and neutral colours, in which the mallet and hoops form a prominent part in the composition (Fig. 1). He was surrounded by a coterie of writers and poets who shared his passion for croquet, one of whom was André Breton, who often expressed the more surrealistic aspects of croquet in his poems, albeit using heavily disguised symbolism. Perhaps the most evocative expression of the more negative aspects of playing croquet is portrayed in Les joueurs de croquet ‐ 1954 by René Magritte (1898‐1967), in which one player sits out while watching his opponent peg out at dusk, with a full moon and a flight of umbrellas drifting across the night sky. Magritte was not an accomplished croquet player and the rigid form of the seated figure exactly expresses his frustration with the game (Fig. 5). Another artist who felt the need to express his frustration with the game was Edvard Munch (1863‐1944). He painted several versions of The Scream, but perhaps the most poignant of these is one painted in 1905, depicting the reaction of a player who has just wired his ball by getting stuck in the hoop, a scene familiar to many players (Fig. 2). Munch struggled with his mental health, but the crucial part played by croquet in generating his feeling of emptiness and his increasingly impulsive behaviour has only recently been analysed, following the discovery of letters he wrote to friends complaining about the game. Max Ernst (1891‐1976), an obsessive croquet player, painted Der Goldene Reifen (French: Le cereau doré) in 1937, which must be one of the most vivid expressions of frustration at getting stuck in the golden hoop (Fig. 4). Salvador Dali (1904‐1989) was a more accomplished croquet player and his depictions of the game’s frustrations were more humorous. The length of the game is brilliantly expressed in El jugador de croquet ‐ 1931, which notably incorporates his melting clocks, an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time and the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order, something many players will have contemplated while sitting out and watching their opponent run all of the hoops in a single break (Fig. 3). The depictions of croquet in post‐modernist pop‐art tend to avoid the negative aspects of the game expressed by the surrealists, as in The Croquet Player ‐ 1962, by Andy Warhol (1928‐1987), a self‐portrait of the artist playing croquet (Fig. 6). The latest croquet artwork is by the street artist, Banksy, depicting a croquet playing monkey exercising a jump shot (Fig. 7), which mysteriously appeared on the pavilion at Ealing Croquet Club, along with a spate of other works by the artist across London. The identity of Banksy remains a mystery, but the indications are that he is a keen croquet player and may well be a member at one of the London clubs under another name. CROQUET AND SURREALISM THE (UNOFFICIAL) HISTORY OF CROQUET: PART 10
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