{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1069051"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1069051/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD1125/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD1125/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PD1125","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PD1126","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PD1124","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1069051","accessionNumber":"P.16-1971","objectType":"Collage","titles":[{"title":"Discussing Dress","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"John Banting (1902-1971) was a British artist associated with both the Bloomsbury group and Surrealism, who also experimented with theatre design. This painting was made in 1937, the year after he participated in the first International Surrealist Exhibition in London the Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where fashion design and window display was exhibited alongside Surrealist painting. In this work, two floating forms evoke drapery in fashionable colours of pale blue, pink, red and mauve, suggesting the influence of fashion and costume design on Surrealism in Britain in the 1930s. According to his fellow Surrealist Eileen Agar, Banting worked for a time as a department store window dresser, often wore extravagant clothing and dyed his hair green (Eileen Agar, A Look at My Life, 1988, p. 116). The work features techniques associated with Surrealism, including a collage element of printed paper resembling an electrical diagram emerging from the figure on the left. The background of the interior setting is produced through decalcomania, in which paint is pressed between two sheets of paper and the top layer is then removed to reveal a textured pattern, an ‘automatic’ process popular with artists like Max Ernst for its ability to trigger unconscious associations and imagery. The title of the work, ‘Discussing Dress’, refers to the recurring theme of ‘conversation’ in Banting’s work, exemplified by his 1946 ‘Blue Book of Conversation’. This illustrated text featured satirical depictions of ‘haute couture’, with monstrous, skeletal figures resembling the exaggerated silhouettes of luxury fashion. ","physicalDescription":"Gouache and collage depicting two abstract figures in an interior space. A printed paper collage element resembling an electrical diagram flanks the figure on the left. The background is produced through a technique known as decalcomania. Commonly used by the Surrealists, it is a process by which paint is pressed between two sheets of paper. The top layer is then removed to reveal a textured pattern. Signed and dated by the artist, lower left. On the reverse are black crayon drawings of three figures.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"John Banting","id":"A34090"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gouache","id":"AAT70114"},{"text":"crayon","id":"x30605"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"}],"techniques":[{"text":"collage","id":"AAT138699"},{"text":"drawing","id":"x32498"},{"text":"watercolour painting","id":"THES250889"},{"text":"decalcomania","id":"AAT53426"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Collage with gouache, and pencil. Background is produced through decalcomania.","categories":[{"text":"Collages","id":"THES49040"},{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Surrealism","id":"THES285500"}],"styles":[{"text":"Surrealism","id":"AAT21512"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2025PD1125","2025PD1126","2025PD1124"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SAINS","id":"THES276095"},"free":"","case":"WS005","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Collage","id":"AAT138699"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1937","earliest":"1937-01-01","latest":"1937-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"36","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"John Banting 1937","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed and dated lower left"}],"objectHistory":"The painting was exhibited in two exhibitions at the Hamet Gallery, Cork Street, London, in 1971, shortly before the artist’s death in 1972, although not included in the catalogue. A retrospective of the movement, ‘Britain’s Contribution to Surrealism of the 1930s and 40s’, 3-27 November 1971, was followed by a one-man show of Banting’s work: ‘John Banting’ 1-24 December 1971. In 1985 it was included in the exhibition in Madrid, Acuarelas Del Siglo XX: Coleccion del Victoria & Albert Museum de Londres.  \r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Collage, Discussing Dress, by John Banting, gouache and collage, 1937.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"John Banting, London: Hamet Gallery, December 1971. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Banco De Bilbao, Acuarelas Del Siglo XX del Victoria & Albert Museum de Londres. Sala de Exposiciones de Madrid, January, 1985."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Michel Remy, Surrealism in Britain. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999. pp. 127-28."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"figures","id":"AAT189808"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.16-1971"],"accessionNumberNum":"16","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1971,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-06","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}