Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy And Art (Hardcover)

by Susan L. Aberth (Author), Leonora Carrington (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This is the first book to survey the life and work of Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington (born 1917). Carrington burst onto the Surrealist scene in 1936, when, as a precocious nineteen-year-old debutante, she escaped the stultifying demands of her wealthy English family by running away to Paris with her lover Max Ernst. She was immediately championed by Andre Breton, who responded enthusiastically to her fantastical, dark and satirical writing style and her interest in fairy tales and the occult. Her stories were included in Surrealist publications, and her paintings in the Surrealists' exhibitions. After the dramas and tragic separations of the Second World War, Carrington ended up in the 1940s as part of the circle of Surrealist European emigres living in Mexico City. Close friends with Luis Bunuel, Benjamin Peret, Octavio Paz and a host of both expatriate Surrealists and Mexican modernists, Carrington was at the centre of Mexican cultural life, while still maintaining her European connections. Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art provides a fascinating overview of this intriguing artist's rich body of work. The author considers Carrington's preoccupation with alchemy and the occult, and explores the influence of indigenous Mexican culture and beliefs on her production.

About the Author
Susan Aberth received her PhD in Art History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; her dissertation was on the art of Leonora Carrington. She is currently Assistant Professor of Art History at Bard College, New York, where she specializes in Latin American Art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers (December 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0853319081
• ISBN-13: 978-0853319085
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 10.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,167 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The bizarre life and exceptional work of an eccentric artist, March 16, 2005

By	Walter O. Koenig "Amoxtli" (San Diego, California, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anyone interested in the Art and the life of Leonora Carrington will welcome this beautiful book. Surprisingly there is next to nothing available about Carrington, and the few books that are out of print only give very little information about her and not enough illustrations of her work. Hence this book was long awaited and is certainly the most extensive book yet published about this original, mysterious and fascinating artist.

In the foreword the author explains that the object of the book is two fold, to outline the artist's life and to provide an overview: "of the full scope of her work
in painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and theatrical set and costume design" (p.9). If both of these objects would have been realized this would have been an extensive work and valuable work.

The biographical portion of the book attempts to give a biographical sketch of Carrington. The first chapter covers her life from her birth in 1917 in Lancashire, England, to a wealthy Catholic family, as a rebellious adolescent, to her insistence against her family's wishes to attend art school. The second chapter describes her relationship with Max Ernst, their life in France and her "induction" at the age of nineteen to the Surrealist movement. Thee third chapter tells of her war time experiences which included being separated from Ernst who was imprisoned as an enemy alien in France, being put in a Spanish Insane Asylum, breaking with her family and marrying a Mexican Diplomat so that she could get out of war torn Europe. The fourth chapter begins with her move to Mexico in 1943, her marriage to Emerico "Chiki" Weisz, about whom we learn next to nothing, and her emergence as a mature artist, which coincides with her friendship with fellow surrealist painter Remedios Varo. Aberth explains that Carrington and Varo were inseparable and saw each other almost daily for decades. They shared interests in bizarre cooking, the esoteric, alchemy, witchcraft, cats, and of course painting. A look at the painting of the two artists from this time shows a remarkable similarity in subject matter, style and colors, yet both remain distinct. It seems obvious that they deeply influenced one another in many areas. These four chapters are the most interesting of the book and read as a most improbable life story. It is also in the first four chapters were the problems of the book start to show. First of all, there is a heavy reliance on the books by Whitney Chadwick who has written several books on Carrington and on Janet Kaplan, the biographer of Remedios Varo. We are given less and less facts about Carrington's life and it becomes increasingly obvious that very little primary research, if any at all went into this book. This becomes most evident in the last chapter of the book that describes the last fifty years of Carrington's life in barely five pages. The readers can also ask themselves what happened in this period when she became recognized internationally as an artist. Did she remain married? Did she continue having mental problems? What did she do after Varo died? Why did she move to the US? Why did she return to Mexico? How did she deal with success? Was she re-united with her family?

The book reproduces about ninety of Carrington's works. Almost all of these are paintings. There are a few sculptures and one photograph of set design and costumes. Only a few paintings are described in any detail, so the readers have to fend for themselves to try decipher the symbolism and meaning. Most of the illustrations are of fairly high quality, but some are too small. The last photograph of Carrington dates from ca. 1960, so we have no idea what she looks like today.

The book fails to deliver on both of its "objects" to provide an overview of both life and work, and in that respect it is disappointing. Very little is said about Carrington's numerous published books, which could have been used as source material to a much better effect.

Still this book is valuable as it is the only book about Carrington and her art currently in print and it will hopefully attract many readers and new admirers. I can only hope that a Catalogue Raisonais similar to the Remdios Varo Catalogue published a few years ago will be forthcoming with more critical information about Carrington's work. A detailed biography would also be welcome. Despite all of my reservations, I still recommend the book highly, because of Carrington's bizarre life and interests and her exceptional original talent as an artist.

Review by Walter O. Koenig

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carrington emerges as a superstar, July 25, 2005

By	Stuart R. Denenberg "Director, Denenberg Fine... (West Hollywood, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This first book in English on the English surrealist, Leonora Carrington is wildly overdue. Her mate, Max Ernst, now the subject of a major retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, chose well. Carrington's sensibility is exquisite, and this new work reveals in a finely balanced and deligthfully readable way the deep nature of her contribution to one of the most undervalued of all art movements in the 20th century. Leonora is now in her 90s and still carries her laundry up many flights of stairs in Mexico City--this monograph is a welcome addition to our understanding of her energy and her accomplishment as a painter of the first water.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leonora Carrington, August 3, 2007

By	K. Zimmerman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Very nice book. Probably the best book I've seen concerning Leonora Carrington and her work.