"I didn't have time to be anyone's muse."
April 14, 2022 10:14 AM Subscribe
Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington is having a(nother) moment. (artnews) What you might love about her:
Leonora Carrington was one of the female surrealists who preferred to be painters, (The Guardian) not muses. Her biographer, journalist Joanna Moorhead, discovered at a party that her wayward relative "Prim" had run off with Max Ernst, been rescued from an asylum by her nanny, who arrived by submarine, and that her paintings were selling for millions of dollars. (The Guardian)
For more: Tate Short (video) with Moorhead.
She gave in to her parents' desire to be presented as a débutante at King Edward's court but sat in a corner reading Alduous Huxley instead of dancing. Perhaps it's no wonder she wrote unsettling stories, (New Yorker) and a surrealist novel with a 92-year old narrator (NYT Books) who "is gifted a hearing trumpet by her friend Carmella — just in time to overhear her family discuss shipping her off to an elder-care institution 'financed by a prominent American cereal company (Bouncing Breakfast Cereals Co.)' and portentously known as the Well of Light Brotherhood."
She filled her home with sculpture, now a museum. (The Guardian)
And of course, she painted a lot of neat stuff. (Google images)
Leonora Carrington was one of the female surrealists who preferred to be painters, (The Guardian) not muses. Her biographer, journalist Joanna Moorhead, discovered at a party that her wayward relative "Prim" had run off with Max Ernst, been rescued from an asylum by her nanny, who arrived by submarine, and that her paintings were selling for millions of dollars. (The Guardian)
For more: Tate Short (video) with Moorhead.
She gave in to her parents' desire to be presented as a débutante at King Edward's court but sat in a corner reading Alduous Huxley instead of dancing. Perhaps it's no wonder she wrote unsettling stories, (New Yorker) and a surrealist novel with a 92-year old narrator (NYT Books) who "is gifted a hearing trumpet by her friend Carmella — just in time to overhear her family discuss shipping her off to an elder-care institution 'financed by a prominent American cereal company (Bouncing Breakfast Cereals Co.)' and portentously known as the Well of Light Brotherhood."
She filled her home with sculpture, now a museum. (The Guardian)
And of course, she painted a lot of neat stuff. (Google images)
I was today years old when I learned that this Carrington is different from this Carrington.
posted by dlugoczaj at 11:19 AM on April 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by dlugoczaj at 11:19 AM on April 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'm familiar with her because I'm a fan of her friend, another female surrealist who preferred to be a painter Remedios Varo. I'll check out the links--she's probably prominently discussed there as well. I haven't delved into Carrington's work and story to the extent I have Varo's.
posted by Schmucko at 11:26 AM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Schmucko at 11:26 AM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I came to Lenora via this previously but always good to revisit her. I loved Hearing Trumpet and her art.
posted by Ashwagandha at 1:53 PM on April 14, 2022
posted by Ashwagandha at 1:53 PM on April 14, 2022
The female surrealists were the best surrealists, both as painters and writers... Leonora, Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, Ithell Colquhoun...
posted by remembrancer at 1:56 PM on April 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by remembrancer at 1:56 PM on April 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
I love how amazing and witchy her work is, same for Remedios Varo. There is a beautiful surreal occult magic to her art and I am so here for it.
posted by Kitteh at 2:09 PM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 2:09 PM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Oh I've never seen her art before but this is right up my alley. The unearthly use of gentle curvature and then suddenly a sharp angle, or gentle shaded gradations and then a sharper change--it's really cool!
Beautiful surreal occult magic is exactly the right way of putting it.
posted by sciatrix at 2:53 PM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Beautiful surreal occult magic is exactly the right way of putting it.
posted by sciatrix at 2:53 PM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Leonora Carrington (bio -self link) was boss.
Luis Bunuel proposed that she become his mistress giving her the key to the secret studio that he used as a love nest and told her to meet him the next afternoon.
The next morning, Leonora went to visit the place and taking advantage of the fact that she was menstruating, she covered her hands with blood and used them to make handprints all over the walls in order to provide a bit of decoration for that anonymous, impersonal room.
Her breakthrough 1937 self portrait Inn of the Dawn Horse
Nice post warriorqueen; could you add a leonora_carrington tag please
Just a note to remembrancer that Leonor Fini never considered herself a Surrealist and never accepted the surrealist label.
posted by adamvasco at 4:16 PM on April 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
Luis Bunuel proposed that she become his mistress giving her the key to the secret studio that he used as a love nest and told her to meet him the next afternoon.
The next morning, Leonora went to visit the place and taking advantage of the fact that she was menstruating, she covered her hands with blood and used them to make handprints all over the walls in order to provide a bit of decoration for that anonymous, impersonal room.
Her breakthrough 1937 self portrait Inn of the Dawn Horse
Nice post warriorqueen; could you add a leonora_carrington tag please
Just a note to remembrancer that Leonor Fini never considered herself a Surrealist and never accepted the surrealist label.
posted by adamvasco at 4:16 PM on April 14, 2022 [6 favorites]
Her short stories are wonderful and I'd highly recommend making time for them.
posted by mykescipark at 5:42 PM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by mykescipark at 5:42 PM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Perfect dream-inducing bedtime stories, what a total babe.
posted by sibboleth at 7:34 PM on April 14, 2022
posted by sibboleth at 7:34 PM on April 14, 2022
Fellow huge fan of Remedios Varo, and also Carrington by extension. Thanks for sharing!
posted by taltalim at 7:51 AM on April 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by taltalim at 7:51 AM on April 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington is having a(nother) moment
Indeed, one could call it a Carrington Event.
posted by acb at 10:55 AM on April 15, 2022
Indeed, one could call it a Carrington Event.
posted by acb at 10:55 AM on April 15, 2022
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