Leonora Carrington 1917-2011

22 x 30 cm / 9 x 12 inches:
Available for sale: $2500

This painting is a tribute to the surrealist artist, Leonora Carrington.
 
I first met Leonora Carrington ( UK 1917-Mexico 2011)  when investigating female surrealist painters of the 40s.  
(Carrington, along with Leonor Fini and Varo make up the  triumfeminatus of brilliant female surrealists working during those years.)
 
When  Carrington’s lover, surrealist painter Max Ernst, was arrested (first by the French, then by the Nazis) in France in the early 1940s, Carrington made her way to Mexico.
 
It was here, she became part of the Mexican surrealist movement- a movement that was riotously productive during the 1940s 50s and 60s.
Lenora, like Varo, was fascinated by the esoteric. Just recently, a deck of tarot cards she designed and painted for her own personal use have come to light.
 
In April 2024, one of Carrington’s paintings – Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) – was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $28.5m, making her the highest-selling female artist in British history.
 
As well as being a painter and writer, Carrington was also a sculptor, a creator of tapestries and jewellery, a maker of lithographs, a playwright and a designer of stage sets and theatre costumes.
 
 As an artist, Leonora mixed in circles with notable artists of the day. She considered Frida Kahlo a close friend.
 
I came to love Leonora when I was researching another surrealist painter heroine of mine - Remedios Varo. Both of these women were sensitive individuals who channelled this quality through their work. In doing so they built themselves a world of  independence, lore, beauty and enchantment. I encourage you to find out more about Leonora and her circle- and further enrich your life, as she has enriched mine.

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