Scenes representing parts of life shown in cells of an underground grotto.

Previous title, replaced January 2025: Difficulties and horrors of life shown in cells of an underground grotto. Gouache by W. Kurelek, ca. 1953-1954.

Thirteen interconnected scenes, identified by numbers 1-13 (not numbered on the painting): Top left, four people arguing with each other in the open air (1); They are linked by a chain to the first of several cells acting as underground prisons in a stone dwelling; In the cell nearest the outside (2), two people are trying to force shut the lid of a coffin containing a manacled person who is resisting; In the cell below them (3), a farmer is trying to control a recalcitrant horse dragging a hay stack on a sledge; Above are three interconnected cells: a man digging flaming clods from a field (4), a man studying in a library (5), and a man sawing a tree trunk (6); Top right, a man carrying a pot of paint tiptoes away from a signboard that he has written (7), and below, a big turkey watching its offspring sleeping in a cot in a squalid room (8); Top right, a fractious family at table: a snake is coming out of the woman's mouth (9); Centre right, a manacled person performing obeisance to a draped skeleton.

c.1953-1954

1 painting gouache on paper

Photograph and discussion of work featured in Art as Healing: Edward Adamson and The art of those with lived experience: excavating the Adamson Collection

Photography and interpretation by Edward Adamson published in Art as Healing, Edward Adamson, Coventure: London, 1984, p.23-26.

Creator and work discussed by Adamson in SA/ADC/D/3/4/1: Visit to Ashton by Cambridge Jungian Circle

This work is untitled; the title has been supplied by the cataloguer for identification purposes.

This work is attributed to the creator; the creator was identified by Edward Adamson in other documentation.