The island-born artist was a leader in the surrealist movement in London and Paris

LITTLE-KNOWN Isle of Wight artist Mary Wykeham – once a shooting star of Surrealism but who fell out of sight in the years after the Second World War – is to have surviving examples of her increasingly popular work on display at the famous Hepworth Wakefield gallery later this year. .

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The exhibition, Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes, will run in the West Yorkshire center from November 23 to April 27 next year.

This will be the largest public exhibition of Mary’s work since her 1945 solo exhibition at London’s Leger Galleries – and marks the artist’s donation of a major work to The Hepworth Wakefield.

Mary became more famous posthumously than she ever was while alive.

She was born in Pitt Place, Brightstone – which is now Brightstone Grange nursing home – in 1909.

Mary was not only a surrealist painter, but also an engraver, poet and sculptor, who worked and exhibited in the 1930s and 1940s in London and Paris.

Omitted from most of his histories, Wykeham was once a shooting star of Surrealism, but faded into the shadows in the post-war years.

She trained at the famous experimental printmaking studio Atelier 17 in Paris, as well as at The Grosvenor School of Modern Art.

Mary’s early work reflects the rural views of the Isle of Wight and the sailboats she often viewed.

When she announced that she wanted to become an artist, her father cut her off financially, but she moved to London and earned a living by babysitting, shop work and nursing.

He eventually established himself and exhibited throughout the Second World War, with solo exhibitions at the London Gallery, the surrealist nerve center of the 1940s, as well as in Paris.

Apple Blossom, by Mary Wykeham (Image: Judith Wykeham)

At the height of her career, Mary decided to become a nun.

After taking her “final vows,” the church ordered her to burn her work, which she did—but that wasn’t the end of her life as an artist.

But after living as a hermit for 15 years, she returned to making art in London – producing works at the age of 81.

Despite her new found creativity, Mary never regained her footing in the art world – until now, her work being re-evaluated as important in the genre.