Surrealism - Leonora Carrington - Essay Example

Surrealism: Leonora Carrington Introduction Leonora Carrington was a British who was born in Mexico in 1917. For this reason she spent most of her time in Mexico and that is where she died in the year 2011. She was a painter come a novelist. Most of her paintings are branded surrealist paintings which were as a result of the surrealist movement of the 1930’s (Dawn Ades 20). Due to her gender, her father thought that she would not make it in the art industry and therefore most of the time was opposed to her artistic character. However, she got most of her morale from her mother who encouraged her to participate in art. Besides encouraging her, her mother played an important role in shaping her daughters career. In 1936 she gave Carrington Herbert Read’s book titled surrealism. This played a major role in encouraging her to turn up to be a surrealist. In 1937, Carrington met Max Ernst the person who had influenced her into surrealism before he even met him. This led to their marriage as Ernst separated with her wife to settle with Carrington. Most of her paintings were images of beast something that she attributes to have learnt from her culture in Mexico. She also depicts pictures of horses in most her diagrams something she affirms as a woman’s source of strength. Her main aim of painting and writing was to engage in unconscious forms of art as a philosophy of the surrealism. This paper is going to analyze the artistic background of Leonora Carrington. The paper looks into her influence in surrealism and tackles most of her novels and paintings. Surrealism Just like any other artist, Carrington was attracted to surrealism with the interest of resolving contradicting conditions of dream and realities. This was the main aim for many artists mostly painters and novelist to join the surrealism movement. Most of these artists attribute their works to the influence of philosophers. For example, when Sigmund Freud developed his work of free association, dream analysis, and the unconscious, the surrealist felt an urge to develop methods of liberating the imagination something that they did through paintings and writing. Surrealism also played a major role in criticizing the World War II. Most of the surrealists during this time were opposed to the dictatorship of Fascism and Nazism. This saw Max Ernst suffer from arrests due to his critics in terms of painting and writing. With influence from philosophers like Marx, Hegel, and Freud Surrealism aimed at advocating for dynamism in dialectical thoughts (Chadwick 38). Carrington was obsessed with horses and most of her paintings included horses. Max Ernst paints is one of her great works. She did this work in 1939. The painting is a simple painting but unique in nature. The painting below is titled Max Ernst of 1939 by Leonora Carrington. The image size is 261×700px. The piece of art has been retrieved form her collections of The Celtic Surrealist collections which contains 50 main paintings. She was influenced to do a portrait about his husband Ernst whom she loved so much. When the two separated due to constant arrests of his husband as a result of his artistic works Carrington ended up with a nervous breakdown something that affected her career so much. In this picture we also recognize the inclusion of the horse besides the portrait of her husband. Another interesting work by Carrington includes the Ulu’s Pants of 1952. By this time most of the paintings were being done using oil and tempera as panels of paintings. The painting is a classical form of 3D. The title of the above painting is Ulu’s Pants of 1952. The size is 55×91 cm painting of oil and tempera. The source of the art is Celtic Surrealism collection of Carrington which consist of her 50 main paintings. Most of these paintings are considered as an influence of imagery from her Mexican culture. In this painting we see figures of different types of creatures. For example there is a horse with no head, elongated women, people changing into birds and many others. Most of her works aimed at defining moments of consciousness blending with others. This reflects the great works of Sigmund Freud of the unconscious. Besides painting, Carrington also involved herself in novel writing. She wrote several books. One of the most interesting books is the stone door which she released in 1977. The book notably identifies her as a classic painter and writer. The book discusses her influence on other women during the surrealism movement. In this book, the author also identifies that she was the only professional British female painter during the surrealism period. In this book she explores her life and her artistic works. She talks of her paintings of half human beasts mostly women. She attributes her choice of women as a sign of strengthening the female gender. Her thoughts in painting and writing were aimed at influencing women to fight for radicalization of the society. Her connection to the beastly nature is assumed to be a provocation of the beastly manner in which politics and governments tortured people especially during the World Wars. In addition to this, her influence in animal or beastly imagery was a result of her culture in Mexico where she studied so much about symbolism. She partnered with Remedios Varo to study alchemy, kabbalah, and mytho-historical writings in Guatemala (GRIMES). According to the author, the horse is a source of power and strength hence the reason she included the picture of a horse in most of her paintings. The author also mentions her 1939 painting which she calls her first surrealist work. The painting depicts a woman seated in an empty room extending her hand to hyena. On the wall of the room is a picture of a horse on the run. Image size 550× 850cm Title: The Meal of the Candlestick of 1938 by Leonora Carrington The source of this image is the Celtic Surrealist From the painting we can conclude he imagery se of beastly images. The horse can be seen very clearly painted in white. Half human being images can be seen buried under the soil. Carrington wanted to emphasize on the importance of women in the society and the images of the horses all over reminded her and other women about the horse power they need in order to revolutionize the world. This would be supported by the philosophies of the surrealist movements in addition to great philosophers like Freud, Marx, and Hegel. On the other hand Carrington was sending a message maybe to the parents regarding her attitude. She was born in a wealthy family and her parents wished that she could become a nun based on their strong catholic religion beliefs. However, Carrington was expelled from the convent several times before deciding to quit. It was not her wish to be a nun but she wanted to be an artist. Provoked by her father’s rigidity she defied the rich wealth at home and decided to marry Ernst who was 25 years older (Bond). This painting is a reflection of one of her books she wrote titled the Debutante. In this book the author talks of a hyena and a young woman in the society. The young woman must fight the hyena in order to take her place at a ball. The hyena however wears a face it had torn from a maid. When the hyena reaches the ball it is recognized by its smell and decides to eat the face and laves in disgust. This story is related to the above painting where a woman extends her hands to the hyena. The painting is also a reflection of the triumphant victory that women need in the society. Hyena wearing a mask is also a representation of challenges that women face in the society. Besides this her story about Little Francis is a reaction of what she underwent at the convent while still a child. She explains her rejection to religion something she did not regret at all. She also expresses her strength and urges women to admire her strong character. In the book Little Francis she writes, “I did not have time to be anyone’s muse, I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning about art” (Gaensbauer 271). During the World War II when she was on the move running for safety after her husband suffered major arrests she decided to dwell in curving of some sculptures. She used wood in most of her carvings. As expected she ended up curving a horse shown as jumping. However, between 80-90’s she resorted to use bronze carvings which were mostly from beasts. It is also argued out that her decision to dwell in beastly imagery is also as a result of her husband’s influence who also engaged in painting beasts. Down below is also one of Carrington’s artistic works. The title down below is an indication of the traumatic events she underwent after suffering a nervous breakdown. Completing the book was a difficult task and it took help of neurosurgeons and surrealist Pierre Mabille to complete the book. The author highlights instances of physical and sexual abuses in this book. Her decision to stay in Mexico was to be able to paint. She notes that, “I never really got hungry, I had no time; I was tormented by the idea that I had to paint, and when u was away from Max and first with Renato, I painted immediately” (Aberth, Barnet-Sanchez and Carrington 84). Conclusion From this paper we can conclude several things about Carrington. She was a strong lady who managed to fight off her feminism and end up as a radical. She defied her father’s wishes of being a nun and enrolled in art where she expressed freely her mind. She played a big role in radicalizing women. She was strong and was encouraged to pursue surrealism even after facing a nervous breakdown. From her pieces of art she loved beastly images. This is evident from the few examples described above. She loved images of horses something that is evident from most of her paintings. According to Carrington, she managed to pursue her dreams. She married a man she had admired so much who also influenced her artistic background. She also managed to produce wonderful classical surrealist images which are embedded in museums to date as her memoirs. Works Cited Aberth, Susan, Holly Barnet-Sanchez and Leonora Carrington. "Leonroa Carrington: The Mexican Years, 1943-1985." Art Journal (1992): 51 (3): 83–85. Bond, Paul. Surrealist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). 22 June 2011. 2014 . Chadwick, Whitney. "Leonora Carrington: Evolution of a Feminist Consciousness." Womens Art Journal (1986): 7 (1): 38. Dawn Ades, with Matthew Gale. Surrealism; The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke: Oxford University Press, 2001. Gaensbauer, Deborah. "Voyages of Discovery: Leonora Carringtons Magical Prose." Womens Studies (1994): 23 (3): 271. GRIMES, WILLIAM. Leonora Carrington Is Dead at 94; Artist and Author of Surrealist Work. 26 May 2011. 2014 . Read More