Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1906 London, England

Died: 1972 Bexhill on Sea, England

Biography

Artist and writer Reuben Mednikoff was born on 2 June 1906 in London, the son of Russian Jewish parents who had emigrated from Russia in the late 19th century to escape violent anti-Jewish pogroms and discriminatory legislation, notably the oppressive May Laws under Tsar Alexander III. Although Mednikoff showed early promise academically, his parents initially discouraged his interest in art, believing a business career to be more practical. Nevertheless, Mednikoff enrolled at St Martin’s School of Art in 1920 at the age of fourteen. Here, he received instruction in traditional artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, and poster design, remaining at the school until 1923. Following this, he found employment in advertising and commercial illustration, a role he maintained for over a decade.

By the early 1930s, Mednikoff was active in the artistic and literary circles of Hampstead, a thriving hub in northwest London for avant-garde thinkers that included Roland Penrose, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and émigrés fleeing Nazi persecution, such as Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. While he may not have had direct contact with contemporary figures like Jacob Epstein or Mark Gertler, he was undoubtedly influenced by the broader cultural milieu of Jewish immigrant artists addressing themes of exile, suffering, and identity (Montanaro 2010, p. 59). Epstein’s focus on maternity, religious violence, and spiritual alienation resonated with Mednikoff’s concerns; the expressive distortions of Epstein’s Woman Possessed (1932), for instance, find formal echoes in Mednikoff’s The Stairway to Paradise (1936), with its symbolic intensity and ambiguous corporeal forms. Mednikoff’s early interest in poetry led to close literary friendships, particularly with David Gascoyne and Pamela Hansford Johnson. Gascoyne, already engaged with Surrealism, encouraged Mednikoff’s exploration of Freudian theory and automatic writing. The same year, several of Mednikoff’s surrealist-influenced poems, including Acquiescence and Tradition, were published in the literary column of the Sunday Referee’, ‘The Poet’s Corner’. His poetic style, shaped by subconscious imagery and a rejection of traditional structure, reflected his growing fascination with Surrealism and psychoanalysis.

Mednikoff's visual work was also beginning to receive public attention, notably through two exhibitions at the Keane Galleries in London. The first, in May 1933, included drawings and watercolours, including Cactus and Conscious to the Subconscious (whereabouts unknown); five works were sold, and Cactus was singled out by the Sunday Referee for its imaginative power and artistic daring (Montanaro 2010, p. 69). A second exhibition in November 1934 featured twenty new works and was praised in The Times for Mednikoff’s refined draughtsmanship, economy of means, and strong colour sense (Times 1934, p. 6).

In 1932, Mednikoff experienced a pivotal moment when he met the Freudian psychoanalyst, artist, and surgeon Grace Pailthorpe. Despite their significant age difference (Pailthorpe being over twenty years his senior), the two quickly formed an intense and lasting bond. Their mutual fascination with the subconscious mind and the therapeutic possibilities of Surrealism led to a profound collaboration. Together, Mednikoff and Pailthorpe settled in Port Isaac, Cornwall, to undertake rigorous psychoanalytic research through artistic production. Their partnership led to participation in several major exhibitions, most notably the landmark International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, after which they became formal members of the British Surrealist Group. Their work appeared regularly in influential Surrealist publications such as the London Bulletin. They exhibited alongside other British Surrealists at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 1938, and participated in the notable Living Art exhibition in London in January 1939, followed shortly after by a major display of 69 collaborative works at the Guggenheim Jeune Galleries, which coincided with their psychoanalytic manifesto in the London Bulletin. Their insistence on interpreting Surrealism as a therapeutic and scientifically-oriented practice, however, alienated them from their Surrealist contemporaries. The British Surrealist Group, under the leadership of E. L. T. Mesens, formally expelled them in 1940.

After their expulsion, Mednikoff and Pailthorpe relocated first to New York in 1940 and later to Vancouver, Canada, continuing their psychoanalytic and artistic explorations throughout the Second World War. It was during this period Mednikoff began referring to himself as Richard or Ricky, and Pailthorpe formally adopted him as her son, prompting him to legally change his name to Richard Pailthorpe (Morris 2022, p. 152). Returning to England in 1946, the couple pioneered the practice of art therapy, founding Britain’s first School of Art Therapy in Dorking, Surrey, in 1950. Despite recognition in this field, they largely withdrew from mainstream artistic life. Mednikoff briefly ran an antique shop in Battle, Sussex, and the couple eventually settled into relative obscurity. Renewed scholarly interest led to major retrospectives of their work: Leeds Museum and Gallery (1998), Steven Joseph Pollock Fine Art (2001), National Galleries of Scotland (2008), and Camden Art Centre (2019), which celebrated their distinctive fusion of psychoanalysis and Surrealism. Reuben Mednikoff died in Bexhill on Sea, England in 1972. In the UK public domain, his work is represented in the British Museum, Tate and National Museum Cardiff, among others.

Related books

Lee Ann Montanaro and Alberto Stefana, Psychorealism: The Sluicegate of the Senses (London: Routledge, 2024), pp. 4-10
Lee Ann Montanaro and Alberto Stefana, ‘Reuben Mednikoff’, in Surrealism and Psychoanalysis in Grace Pailthorpe's Life and Work (Abingdon: Routledge, 2024), pp. 7-15
Desmond Morris, ‘Reuben Mednikoff’, in The British Surrealists (London: Thames & Hudson, 2022), pp. 149-153
Michel Remy, 'Grace Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff', in Surrealism in Britain (London: Routledge, 2021), pp. 205-208
Michel Remy, ‘Grace Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff’, Surrealism in Britain (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), pp. 205-208
Lee Ann Montanaro, Surrealism and Psychoanalysis in the Work of Grace Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff, 1935-1940, dissertation, The University of Edinburgh, 2010
Susan Hogan, Healing Arts: The History of Art Therapy (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2001), pp. 76, 78, 80
Rachel Campbell-Johnston, ‘Around the Galleries’, The Times, 11 February 1998, p. 29
Sluice Gates of the Mind: the Collaborative Work of Pailthorpe and Mednikoff (Leeds Museum & Gallery, 1998)
‘A Natural Talent for Symbolism’, The Times, 11 June 1985, p. 9
Peter Stone, 'Second Thoughts on Surrealism', The Jewish Chronicle, 12 November 1971, p. 27
‘Five Bogy Men’, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 11 January 1939, p. 1
‘Cooling Galleries’, The Times, 29 November 1934, p. 6

Public collections

Related organisations

St Martin's School of Art (student)
British Surrealist Group (member)

Selected exhibitions

A Tale of Mother's Bones: Grace Pailthorpe, Reuben Mednikoff and the Birth of Psychorealism, Camden Art Centre, London (2019)
The Scientific Aspect of Surrealism: The Work of Grace Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff, National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh (2008)
Grace Pailthorpe & Reuben Mednikoff, Steven Joseph Pollock Fine Art, (2001)
Grace Pailthorpe & Reuben Mednikoff, Leeds Museum and Gallery, Leeds, Yorkshire (1998)
Sluice Gates of the Mind: Reuben Medlikoff and Grace Pailthorpe, Mayor Gallery, London (1998)
The Surrealist Spirit in Britain, Whitford and Hughes, London (1988)
A Salute to British Surrealism 1930–1950, The Minories, Colchester; Blond Fine Art, London, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull (1985)
Pailthorpe and Mednikoff: Works of Psychoanalytic Research, Guggenheim Jeune Galleries, London (1939)
Surrealist Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (1938)
International Surrealist Exhibition, New Burlington Galleries, London (1936)
Decorative Paintings and Drawings, Keane Galleries, London (1934)
Today’s Art, Keane Galleries, London (1933)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Reuben Mednikoff]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Reuben Mednikoff artist