Leonora Carrington - our forgotten Surrealist

I'm looking to expand the range of subjects covered by this blog to reflect the things that I'm passionate about. And few things are as important to me as art.

I'm going to start today with someone who deserves to be much better known - Leonora Carrington.

As a child, and as a young woman, she seemed to have an enviable life. Her parents were rich and she lived in a big English country house. She had ponies to ride, beautiful dresses, and was even introduced to the king when she came out at her Debutantes Ball. Her father, who was nouveau riche, expected to marry her off to some aristocrat and thus improve the family's social standing. 

But all Leonora wanted to do was paint. And when she came across the Surrealist art movement, she knew she had found her calling.    

From that point on her life story becomes extraordinary ... art school, escape to Paris, hanging out with Picasso, having an affair with Max Ernst, escaping the Nazis, being placed in an asylum by her father, a marriage of convenience, another escape to Mexico ... it would make an amazing biopic.

You can hear the whole story in this BBC documentary:

I've been a fan of her work for years. It happily straddles the worlds of Surrealism and Art Brut, two of my favourite art movements. For me, it's the purest form of art - it's the painter or sculptor's subconscious mind exposed for all to see. The work is usually utterly original and free from the influence of the art world or art history.

This is an excellent book if you want a good mix of biography and a showcase of her work.

And, just last year, a series of her Tarot Card illustrations were discovered and produced as a book (see here) though that one is a bit expensive for me!

We really should be celebrating this extraordinary British artist who produced work as dark, as surprising and as original as anything produced by Bosch, Kahlo, Dali or Miró.

Give her work a try.

You might just love it as much as I do.