Carrington, Leonora (1917–)

Leonora Carrington is a painter, writer, and sculptor born April 6, 1917, in Clayton Green, England. Against her family's wishes, she attended the academy of the French cubist Amédée Ozenfant (1886–1966), where in 1937 she met the German surrealist artist Max Ernst in 1937 and moved with him to Paris. In 1939 Ernst was arrested by the Gestapo but escaped to the United States with the help of the American art patron Peggy Guggenheim. Carrington fled to Spain, where she suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized by her parents. When she was released to recover in the care of a nurse in Lisbon, she escaped and took refuge in the Mexican consulate. There she met the Mexican reporter and ambassador Renato Leduc; they married and went first to New York City, then to Mexico in 1942. Soon after, the couple divorced amicably, and Leonora became involved with a group of refugee artists, including the painter Remedios Varo (1908–1963). In 1946 Carrington married the Hungarian photographer Emerico Weisz, and they had two sons together.

Leonora's written works include En Bas (Down Below, 1945) and Une Chemise de Nuit de Flanelle (A Flannel Nightgown, 1951). Her graphic works were inspired by Celtic, Egyptian, Syrian, Mesopotamian, and Mexican mythology. She has exhibited her work in Mexico, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and many other cities. Further works include Are You Really Syrius (1953), Habdalah Asejaledha (1959), the mural El mundo mágico de los mayas (The Magical World of the Mayas, 1964), and Tower of Nagas(1991). The sculpture La fuente cocodrilo (The Crocodile Fountain, 1998) was exhibited in Mexico, where she lived as of 2007.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

                              Jorge Alberto Manrique