Our lecturer

The lecture

Antony Penrose

Antony is the son of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose and, as the director of the Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection, he has been working on the conservation and dissemination of his parents' work for most of the thirty years that have elapsed since they died. He began by writing his mother's biography, entitled The Lives of Lee Miller. Then he edited Lee Miller's War, and wrote The Legendary Lee Miller. To even things up he wrote the memoir of his father entitled Roland Penrose, The Friendly Surrealist, followed by a book about them both and their life at Farley Farm in his book The Home of The Surrealists, in which he shares with us what life was like growing up amongst his parents' surrealist friends. In addition to his writing, Antony lectures and organises exhibitions of his parents' work world-wide and has written and produced an award winning play The Angel and the Fiend based on Lee Miller's life.

Current projects include a book, exhibition and documentary film on Lee Miller's life and work in Egypt - 1934 to 1939.  

A feature film based on Antony's book The Lives of Lee Miller and directed by John Maybury is planned for release in 2012.

Photograph: Tony Tree © Farley Farm House, England, England 2011. All rights reserved.

The Legendary Lee Miller

Twentieth century photographer and surrealist. This lecture outlines the life of Lee Miller and her circle which included Man Ray, Roland Penrose, Pablo Picasso, David E Scherman, her father Theodore Miller and her son Antony Penrose. It embraces many different levels of the history of art and photography, social commentary and emotional connection with the subject.

The lecture covers her career from a top fashion model in New York to a surrealist photographer in the vibrant Paris of the late 1920's, then on through her own studio in New York and her life as an ex-patriot desert traveller in Egypt. One of the most defining moments in her life was the war, when she became a combat photographer with the US Army. The final chapter in this rich life covers her recovery from alcoholism and her emergence as a top gourmet cook with some disturbingly surrealist recipes. 

Photograph: Unknown photographer © Lee Miller Archives, England 2011. All rights reserved.