Edward James was not a member of the Surrealist movement
but he has left the most extraordinary legacy of Surrealism.
He was very very close to the artists that he supported
and he thought of himself as not just a patron
but as somebody who was intimately involved.
He invented objects, he invented interiors
and he invented all kinds of strange things.
Edward James: If I'm a Surrealist it's not because I got linked with the movement
it's because I was born one.
A great number of people are Surrealists without ever having heard of the movement
But it is people who were close to their subconscious
the world is not completely logical all of the time
they make the illogical logical and they make it more vivid than life
in the way dreams can sometimes be more vivid than actual actuality.
Professor Dawn Ades: There were echoes of his childhood that clearly haunted him when he was grown up.
He talks about the
the memories that he has when he hears tissue paper rustling
he's transported back to his childhood as a little boy
watching his sister pack ball gowns into a suitcase.
He has very...very sharp memories
even if his childhood was probably quite lonely.
Edward James: I was made to sleep in my perambulater and I couldn't sleep
of course, I wasn't allowed up in the morning.
I remember in Scotland, in a wonderful fine day in August
and the sun pouring through the blinds at seven
and I wanted to get out of my little bed
but I was hemmed in by big brass rails
and run out into the garden and down to the beach
but I wasn't allowed to until nanny woke up
which wasn't until 8.30.
So I would have from 7 until 8.30 in which I'd have to invent a world
and therefore all my blankets became a flying city
and I made domes out of the pillows and I would get under
and imagine that I was in a series of halls
and this was Aladdin's Palace flying over the world.
Professor Dawn Ades: Edward James came into contact with Surrealism through the
very major aristocratic patrons in Paris
the Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Noailles
Charles de Noailles had funded the two great Surrealist films by Buñuel and Dalí
An Andalusian Dog and L'Age d'Or
and through them met the Surrealists
and met above all, Salvador Dalí.
Edward became very close to Salvador Dalí and Gala in about 1935.
He kept a very close eye on Dalí and eventually signed a contract with him
to purchase his entire production for one year.
He thereby amassed one of the greatest collections
of paintings by Dalí in the world.
There are quite a lot of portraits of James
Magritte's are the most outstanding.
Magritte, you know, thought of Edward as a sort of active sounding board
on which he could…he could try out
various extraordinary thoughts he had for... for paintings.
He was regarded by Edward, as, you know, a quite exceptional genius
both Magritte and Dalí of course
and it was really Edward's gift to have found them
and to have supported them at a crucial time in their careers.
I think it's true to say that Edward had a much greater role
in the creation of the Surrealist objects for which Dalí is so famous.
There is a story that a little group of people were eating lobsters
gathered round James' bed
and they were throwing lobster shells about
and one landed by chance on the telephone
and then, perhaps it was Edward, perhaps it was Dalí, said
Ah look, there's a ... you know, there's a Surrealist object.
The actual fabrication of these objects then was up to Edward
He was extraordinarily imaginative and inventive
in the interiors that he created at Monkton House
and at West Dean.
Francine Norris: So here we are in the tower suite
which is one of the rooms at West Dean that most reflects his interior style.
He was responsible for the design of this space in the late 1940s
so the drapes in the room, date from then
as does the window treatment and various other things.
So what we see in terms of the objects and paintings around the space is an eclectic mix
of some of the most fabulously significant Surrealist works.
In Edward's collection of paintings, there are an extraordinary number of works by female artists
and he was very close to a number of the women artists
who were linked to Surrealism or who were Surrealists.
The position of the women artists in Surrealism
was notoriously difficult.
To an extent they were encouraged
but there was always a little bit of a sense
that they were preferred as lovers or as muses
supporting the work of their spouses or their partners.
They had to separate themselves a little bit from the movement
in order to establish themselves as artists.
Edward James: You ask me why I wear two socks and two shoes
as one foot is turning into a cloven hoof
and the other into a parrots claw.
Narrator: Besides a testing, but lasting friendship
Leonora shares Edward's love of cautionary verse.
Leonora Carrington: It was called... what was it called?
The one about the Frigidaire?
Do you remember?
Well, I remember the one about
"When Baby's cries were hard to bear, they popped him in the Frigidaire"
Professor Dawn Ades: In the period after the war
he began to travel a great deal in Mexico.
He was very, very interested in plants and in animals
He met somebody who said "well there is the most extraordinary
microclimate valley where where there are orchids
growing in abundance on the trees"
and so Edward went to see this place and fell in love with it immediately.
Eventually he bought it and started to create
his extraordinary Surrealist sculpture garden there.
Edward James: All creative people work from a subconscious outwards
and intellectuals work from their intellect inwards, you see
I'm not an intellectual at all
in fact most intellectuals resent me
they all realise I'm not one of them
and they're quite nasty.
To them I'm a sort of overgrown child
and I always try and, now that I'm old, say
"I'm in my second childhood, you must excuse me"
But of course that's not strictly true
because I've never grown out of my first childhood.
Professor Dawn Ades: I think he always thought of himself
or wanted to be thought of, as a poet
but I think he also left a legacy in West Dean itself
because he managed to basically save the house
and turn this great estate into West Dean College.
He turned out to be an incredibly thoughtful preserver
of an extraordinarily beautiful piece of West Sussex