Sunday, January 1, 2012

one of several legs



Sheila Legge, who was the "surrealist phantom" in a few photographs and live performances in 1936, remains the surrealist phantom in her elusiveness. Biographical data about her are very scarce, and when you are searching for them, you end up in more traces of others' similar and similarly futile quest than in any answers.


Sheila Legge was, according to her contemporaries, an important presence in the early English Surrealist Group in 1936. She was a good poet, she had a secret affair with René Magritte, she made her famous appearances as the surrealist phantom, and she disappeared. She came from Oxford to London, but her birthdate remains unknown just like all the details of her background and later life.


Among the false leads surrounding this absence of biographical information, a few Sheila Legges or Leggs have died in recent years (though all seem too young to be her). Sometimes there will involontarily gleam forth some perhaps surrealist humor even in her independent namesakes. The Glasgow Herald of 19/3 1988 reported that "Meningitis victim Mr Andrew Buck, 24, has been brought out of a deep coma by his neighbour's bark. Mrs Sheila Legg sat at Mr Buck's Bristol hospital bedside mimicking her two dogs as he lay unconscious for four days."


MF

7 comments:

  1. Wonderful to se someone out there taking interest in Sheila Legge and her surrealistic world and life...

    Sheila died however 1948 in Spain at the age of 39
    Will send over all correct information about her and her extraordinary life

    Kind regards
    Eric legge / Grandson of Sheila Legge

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    Replies
    1. Hi Eric, I would love to talk to you more about your grandmother and her work. What is the best email to get you on?

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    2. Hello Eric - would you know if Sheila had a brother named David Legge, who was a friend of Dylan Thomas?

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    3. Eric - just re-read your comments. I wold be fascinated to hear more, as I am currently finishing a book-length text about Dylan Thomas and the surrealists and it would be great to have your quoted input. Please contact me.

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    4. Hi Eric, I wrote a book on Rene Magritte, and am working on women artists associated with surrealism. I'm giving an interview in the next couple of days relating to Magritte, and it'd be great if I could actually give more accurate information on Legge than the few things that seem to be known about her. My email is patricia.allmer@ed.ac.uk

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  2. Found this just now...

    My email is : eric@dvgnt.com

    Kind regards
    Eric Legge

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  3. She certainly lives on in advertising and theatre design: women with flower orb heads were featured in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival production of As You Like it in 2010; and the other day I saw a shop display of rose orb headed mannequins in Toronto.

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