Friday 27 May 2011

Death of an Icon


It's with sadness that we heard about the death of Leonora Carrington, a female surrealist artist in a male dominated world. Carrington's work had a dream-like quality with both real and imagined animals featuring regularly in her paintings, many of which have a strong narrative theme.
Carrington was largely ignored in Britain and, after her meeting with the surreal artist Max Ernst, became his muse. Living in  Paris, Carrington suffered many trials including the internment of Ernst by the nazis and a breakdown and admission to a hospital in Spain. Eventually Carrington ended up in Mexico where she lived until the end of her life, appreciated for the fine artist that she was. 

But it's the storytelling element of her work that appeals to me with a combination of folk art and wild fantasy. Carrington didn't like to explain her art which is fine by me as it makes the interpretation more interesting and much more bizarre too.

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