Angry Penguins

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Angry Penguins, an Australian literary and artistic avant-garde movement of the 1940s, stimulated by a modernist magazine published by the surrealist poet Max Harris. While the magazine first appeared in the city of Adelaide, the subsequent radical modernist movement, which took for itself the name "Angry Penguins", was based largely in Melbourne. The name itself was derived from the cryptic line "the angry penguins of the night" in a poem by Harris.

The Angry Penguins became known for the Ern Malley hoax created by James McAuley and Harold Stewart during their time at the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, and the subsequent trial for indecency.

Members of the painting group included John Perceval, Arthur Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Danila Vassilieff, Albert Tucker and Joy Hester. They were early Australian exponents of surrealism and expressionism.