ALYSSA ALEKSANIAN
Leonora Carrington (1917- 2011)
Oil on acm panel, 42 x 31cm
I met Leonora Carrington when investigating female surrealist painters of the 40s.Carrington, along with Leonor Fini and Remedios Varo make up the triumfeminatus of female surrealists working during those years.When Carrington’s lover, painter Max Ernst, was arrested (by the French, then the Nazis) in France in the early 1940s, she moved to Mexico.Here, she became part of a riotously productive surrealist movement during the 1940s & 50s.Lenora was fascinated by the esoteric. Recently, tarot cards she created for her own personal use were uncovered.Carrington was also a writer, jeweler sculptor, a creator of tapestries, playwright, costume and stage-set designer.Leonora mixed in circles with notable artists of the day - Frida Kahlo a close friend.Leonora, along with other surrealist painter-heroines of the era, were sensitive women who channelled this quality through their work. They built themselves a world of independence, lore, beauty and enchantment.