A Childhood with the Surrealists Falmouth Art Gallery

  [ ends 3rd March ]

As one might expect from the title this is a show of unusual things which invite close inspection and are often witty. Anthony Penrose and Andrew Lanyon have collaborated and it contains many of their intriguing works. There is a wonderful photograph taken by Lee Miller of Henry Moore looking at the people gathered in the London underground tunnel to sleep there and be safe from enemy bombs  during World War Two.

However, what makes Falmouth Art Gallery [above the library] so unusual is the inclusion of work by children, which has usually been done at the gallery. While I was there a noisy enthusiastic group were painting in the next room and we could inspect their paintings which were laid out to dry on the floor. When the Tate in St.Ives opened we used to have a class there in which adults painted, using the studio space where the information room is now. We would take our work and put it on the floor in the curved gallery .Happy days, long gone, in which direct influence from the art on show to the artists in the class was a visible reality.

There is a work by a child of three in this Falmouth show and several by older ones, which clearly show us why Picasso and others admired the spontaneity of children and tried to get this in their own work. In this case there is a Picasso print on the same wall

Freddy Martin, age 5, 'Azur Eye'