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Marion Adnams

Marion Adnams (1898-1995) was a British artist born in Derby where she lived and worked her entire life, apart from a decade painting in France in the 1960s after she had retired from her teaching career. Her work was initially influenced by her drawing tutor in Derby the 1930s, the Surrealist painter Alfred Bladen, and other influences on her work included the work of René Magritte, Paul Nash and Salvador Dalí. She developed her own Surrealist style, becoming known for her meticulous painting technique and fine draftsmanship.

Adnams started to exhibit in London in 1939, including an exhibition at Jack Bilbo's Modern Art Gallery during the war. Adnams' work art gained recognition, but she continued her teaching career, and in 1946 became Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Derby Training College. She continued to exhibit until the 1960s, when her deteriorating sight forced her to stop painting. Her works feature in public collections in Manchester, Salford, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Wolverhampton and The National Galleries of Scotland. England & Co have included her work in the exhibitions Jack Bilbo and the Moderns: The Modern Art gallery 1941-48 (1990) and British Surrealism. A major retrospective exhibition, Marion Adnams: a Singular Woman, was held at Derby Museum and Art Gallery in 2017-18.

England & Co are always interested to hear about works by Adnams, and will be adding images of other works by the artist to this page soon.

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