LEONORA CARRINGTON 1/4 – A woman who dies and is born in springtime, experiencing and creating – for almost seventy years – in Mexico. She was born into a wealthy family and moved to France, very young, fitting in the movement of the surrealist painters, where he met Max Ernst, her love, the man who was arrested by the Germans, the event that determines, in her, a long depressive period. She arrives in Spain, where it is admitted to the psychiatric hospital. Arrived in Mexico, she knows many surrealist painters such as Gerszo and Peret, Varo and Bate Tichenor. LEONORA CARRINGTON 2/4 – Her creative activity is largely autobiographical, and is an expression that she cultivated throughout his life, even writing, in English, French and Spanish, publishing stories and surrealist plays. She shared the Surrealists’ keen interest in the unconscious mind and dream imagery. To these ideas she added her own unique blend of cultural influences, including Renaissance painting, Central American folk art and Jungian psychology. LEONORA CARRINGTON 3/4 – Her art is populated by hybrid figures, that are half-human and half-animal (or combinations of various fantastic beasts that range from fearsome to humorous). Through this signature imagery, she explored themes of transformation and identity in an ever-changing world.
LEONORA CARRINGTON 4/4 – Inside her work, she touches on ideas of sexual identity yet avoids the frequent Surrealist stereotyping of women as objects of male desire. She drew on her life and friendships to represent women’s self-perceptions, the bonds between women of all ages, and female figures within male-dominated environments and histories. You can see more on Meeting Benches, looking for: LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917/2011), ENGLISH PAINTERS – Perception of reality and exploration of her own femininity
