Book chapter by Dr Anna Reid analyses the work of contemporary artist Lucy Skaer
A new book published by Vernon Press features a chapter on surrealism and the anthropocene in the work of Lucy Skaer, authored by Dr Anna Reid.
Surrealism and Ecology (Curating and Interpreting Culture) is the first volume to consider the intersections of these two fields. It addresses the contribution of the avant-gardes in thinking about the relationship of humans with their environment in the context of massive environmental upheaval in the twentieth century.
Edited by Anne Marie E Butler, Donna Roberts and Iveta Slavkova, this new volume explores the significant role of Surrealist artists and writers within the history of critical thinking about nature and environment over the last hundred years.
The book seeks to build a bridge between studies of Surrealism and the fields of eco-criticism and environmental humanities, and to demonstrate the significant role of surrealist artists and writers within the history of critical thinking about nature and environment over the last hundred years.
Book cover for Surrealism and Ecology, published by Vernon Press. Cover art: Wifredo Lam, La jungla (The Jungle), 1942–43 © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
Dr Anna Reid is a Senior Lecturer in the History of Art in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. She is an environmental humanities scholar and art historian with a focus on nineteenth and twentieth-century local and global British histories, and her research currently focuses on landscape and surrealism.
In the closing chapter of Surrealism and Ecology, Anna opens up a reflection on more recent implications of these topics and surrealist ecology.
Through the lens of the Anthropocene, she analyses the work of contemporary artist Lucy Skaer, who revisits the use of natural materials in the work of Leonora Carrington in conjunction with Paul Nash and Herbert Read’s interest in mid-twentieth-century developments in geo-sciences.
Skaer reanimates fixed notions of the relationship between human and environment through a distinctly surrealist modality. The geophysical forms of Skaer's sculptural works are unsettling counterpoints to the dominant forms that subtend the Anthropocene.
Lucy Skaer, Sticks and Stones, sinker mahogany and other materials, 2015-18, installed as part of The Green Man, Talbot Rice Gallery, 2018. Photo by Ruth Clark (all rights reserved). Image courtesy of the artist.
Anna Reid said:
“The volume includes vibrant new readings of the relationship between Surrealism and ecology by a range of scholars.
“In my chapter, I write on the transformational work of contemporary sculptor Lucy Skaer – her use of historical Surrealism and her invitation to us, in the context of ecological crisis, to "spew forth, foliage, exhale tendrils, weep leaves.”
Lucy Skaer, The Green Man, 2018 Pencil and ink on Henry Bradbury’s ferns. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Anna Reid.
‘SPEW FORTH FOLIAGE EXHALE TENDRILS WEEP LEAVES: Surrealism and the Anthropocene in the Work of Lucy Skaer’ by Dr Anna Reid was published in Surrealism and Ecology (Curating and Interpreting Culture) in January 2026. The book is edited by Anne Marie E Butler, Donna Roberts and Iveta Slavkova.
Full details can be found on the Vernon Press website.
More information
A book launch event for Surrealism and Ecology will take place on Wednesday 18 March (18:30 CET) at the American University in Paris (AUP), together with the AUP Library. Speakers will include Anne Marie E Butler and Donna Roberts.
Find out about Dr Anna Reid’s research.
Feature image
Photo courtesy of Anna Reid.
