When somebody doesn't react positively to the work of an artist or a creative mind, the first thing we say is that people don't understand them. In a way, we all abuse of this term, as we resent the world and claim it doesn't understand us. A quote by Leonora Carrington, pushes us to go beyond this term. "I am not interested in being understood," she once stated, "I am interested in being felt." The quote resonates even more in a world in which we have all learnt that some human skills may be easily replaced by Artificial Intelligence, yet AI can't certainly feel things.
And perhaps this collective desire we have to "feel" things has led to the recent rediscovery of Leonora Carrington. In 2022 curator Cecilia Alemani moved from Carrington's children book "The Milk of Dreams" for the main theme of the 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice.
In the same year the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen dedicated to her an exhibition; last year, the Wall Street Journal predicted she would be the next Frida Kahlo, and in May this year, her painting "Les Distractions de Dagobert" (1945) was sold at Sotheby's in New York for USD $28.5 million, making her the highest-selling female artist in British history.
An influence on filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, Carrington has also become a fashion inspiration - referenced in Schiaparelli's A/W 17 collection, favored by Maria Grazia Chiuri, who often cites Carrington as an inspiration for her collections at Dior, and an influence on Mexican fashion designer and artist Bárbara Sánchez-Kane.
In June, the art advisory platform rossogranada unveiled a late-period life cast bronze sculpture of one of Leonora Carrington’s "Figuras Miticas", titled "Bailarin" (The Dancer, 1954), at Theaterplatz in Basel.
The event celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist Manifesto (Carrington stated she never read it, but she has been associated with Surrealist art and artists). The sculpture represents an otherworldly archetypal mythical creature combining Mayan pagan elements with Celtic mythology, depicted in an imposing dancing posture.
Today, the exhibition "Leonora Carrington: Rebel Visionary" opened at the Newlands House Gallery in picturesque Petworth, Sussex (until October 26th, 2024). Although not as vast as the 2018 major retrospective "Cuentos Magicos" organized by the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, this event, curated by her cousin, writer Joanna Moorhead, showcases a wide range of Carrington's works.
It features indeed her paintings, but also her surreal fiction and plays. In addition to being a painter and writer, Carrington was also a sculptor, creator of tapestries and jewelry, and designed stage sets and theater costumes. The exhibition at Newlands House Gallery includes examples of these works, many of which have never been seen before in the UK.
Born in 1917 in Chorley, Lancashire, Leonora Carrington spent her childhood in the family mansions of Westwood, Crookhey Hall, and Hazel Wood. Her father was indeed a wealthy industrialist whose company produced artificial textiles.
Carrington's early years were filled with magic and mystery also thanks to her Irish nanny, Mrs. Mary Cavanaugh, who often told her Celtic tales populated with people, animals, fairies, goddesses and druids that had a profound impact on Carrington's imagination.
However, at nine, Carrington's idyllic life was interrupted when she was sent to Catholic convents, a traumatic experience that culminated in her presentation at the British court at seventeen.
Despite her father's opposition, Carrington pursued her passion for art, and studied in Florence and London. Her introduction to Surrealism came through Herbert Reed's book on the subject and was solidified by meeting Max Ernst and other Surrealists.
In London, she connected with the surrealist circle, which included artists like Breton, Tanguy, Peret, and Picasso. Her art, deeply rooted in the magical and mystical, aligned perfectly with the surrealist ethos of imagination triumphing over reality. However, her life was disrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Living in Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, France, with Max Ernst, Carrington fled after he was interned in a concentration camp. Her journey took her to Spain, where she endured a mental asylum (an experience told in her books "Down Below", "The Stone Door" and "The House of Fear") before escaping to Lisbon.
In Lisbon, she sought asylum at the Mexican Embassy, where she married the Mexican ambassador, Renato Leduc, to secure her escape. The couple traveled to New York and later to Mexico in 1942. Although they divorced, Carrington remained in Mexico, where she married Hungarian Jewish photojournalist Emerico "Chiki" Weisz.
Mexico offered Carrington a new and rich artistic milieu and different inspirations thanks to its legends and mythology. Here she produced a significant body of work, including paintings, sculptures, and writings, becoming one of the most esteemed artists in Mexico and a central figure in surrealism. Carrington passed away at 94 in 2011, in Mexico City.
"Leonora Carrington: Rebel Visionary" at Newlands House Gallery features over 70 pieces by Carrington. Her artistic life is recounted through black and white photographs by Lee Miller showing Carrington and Max Ernst in their house in southern France where they lived and worked together, but also through a filmed interview by Moorhead.
The exhibition obviously includes her paintings and sculptures of mythological creatures, ghosts and demons, including the sculpture "The Old Magdalena", a figure with her body covered with hair, and "Daughter of the Minotaur", a horned figure with a gender-fluid body (the Minotaur is a figure dear to Carrington, appearing also in her 1953 painting "And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur", while her works were also featured in the Surrealist journal Minotaure).
Among the other pieces there are also items that fashion designers may find interesting, from a tapestry made in 1979 by Leonora Carrington at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) in Mexico City, to masks inspired by Aztec and Mayan heritage made for a theatrical production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" in the 1950s, and a collection of 1974 lithographs of costumes made for a production of S. An-sky's play "The Dybbuk (Between Two Worlds)", in New York.
Carrington's work as a playwright is also considered through "Penelope and Judith", and "The Story of The Last Egg" (1970), a play in which an apocalypse has decimated all women except one, a former madam of a brothel and the bearer of humanity's last hope - an egg.
Accessory designers will instead rejoice at the jewelry: Carrington with the help of sculptor José Sacal produced a series of 18-karat gold pins and pendants adorned with sapphires from India, emeralds from Colombia, diamonds from Russia, and rubies from Burma. One example is a figure from her lithograph "Tuesday" (1987).
For many women artists, being discovered posthumously is common, and Carrington faced not only gender prejudice ("Women can't paint," Carrington scoffs in a recorded interview included in the exhibition, a comment that misogynists still make to denigrate women painters), but also resistance to Surrealism. Though Carrington hasn't turned yet into Frida Kahlo who is now featured on all sorts of souvenirs and gadgets, she still has achieved widespread recognition and she did so only after her death.
While this acknowledgment should have arrived sooner, the current appreciation of her and her surrealist art holds deeper significance. It points indeed at our inclination, especially in challenging times, to transcend reality and embrace an alternate and more surreal dimension, while reflecting our yearning for artworks that resonate deeply within us and that nourish us, in a nutshell for artworks that we can "feel".
Fashion designers (along with all the other visitors of this exhibition) should not merely be intrigued by the visual impact of her works, they should actually go beyond them. There are two lessons to be learned here: first, never cease experimenting, regardless of others' opinions (or lack thereof...) about you, and continually push creative boundaries by exploring diverse techniques.
Then, be inspired by the "rebel" in the title of this exhibition. Carrington was indeed not a muse in her life, but she was undoubtedly a rebel. She rebelled to her wealth and status, she went against the strict education of the boarding schools where she was placed, she defied societal expectations by falling in love with Ernst instead of pursuing a husband after being presented as a debutante, and she refused to chase after galleries and curators, showing us all that in life it is important to do what you feel like doing and not what others impose you to do.
New audiences fascinated by these lessons and by Leonora Carrington's visionary output should keep an eye on upcoming exhibitions next year, "Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver" to be held at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (22 January 2025 - 1 June 2025) and "Surrealism" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (8th November 2025 - 15th February 2026), where you can bet she will be in dialogue with Schiaparelli's designs from the museum's own collection.
Image credits for this post
1. Leonora Carrington, Les Distractions de Dagobert, 1945
2. Leonora Carrington, Figuras Miticas: Bailarin II, 1954
3. Leonora Carrington, The Dancer, Theaterplatz in June 2024, courtesy rossogranada
4. Kati Horna, Portrait of Leonora Carrington in her studio, 1956 / Leonora Carrington, Woman with Fox, 2010 © Consejo Leonora Carrington and rossogranada
5. Leonora Carrington, Dragon, 1979 © Consejo Leonora Carrington and rossogranada
6. Leonora Carrington, Ave, 2011 © Consejo Leonora Carrington
7. Leonora Carrington, Tuesday, 2008, 18k gold with precious stones © Consejo Leonora Carrington and rossogranada
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