Iris Murdoch artworks from secret room go on display – including self-portrait

For decades, Iris Murdoch’s artworks were hidden in a secret room in her attic, gathering dust. These newly discovered pieces—including her sole self-portrait, four surrealist landscapes, and three sketches of female nudes—will be exhibited for the first time on Friday. Created during her student years at Oxford at the start of World War II, they reveal her early fascination with surrealism and the naked female form. Until now, Murdoch was known to have created only three paintings in her lifetime. Over 80 new artworks were found last year at her former home in north Oxford by Dr. Miles Leeson, director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester. The paintings and sketches were stashed in a hidden room behind a bookcase, inaccessible for decades, suggesting only Murdoch and her husband knew of its existence. Leeson discovered these works after exploring the attic in 2016, uncovering 600 unpublished poems, including lesbian love poems, and additional artworks in 2023. The artworks depict her engagement with surrealism during a formative period of intellectual and political activity at Oxford, reflecting her involvement in student politics and the Communist Party. The self-portrait, dated 1941, shows her at 21, while the surrealist landscapes capture themes of despair and societal breakdown. These pieces align with her later literary works, such as *The Black Prince* and *The Sea, The Sea*, where reality is distorted and self-absorption is central. The exhibition, *Iris Murdoch Amongst the Artists*, at the University of Chichester Library, runs until 10 December and features her major artworks alongside works by British artists who designed her book covers.