Dali and Leonora Carrington: Too Surreal
Everyone remembers the melting clock that turned your child's mind upside down; a solid object reimagined as a liquid. What other things in life can I start questioning?
I remember being slightly averse but also intrigued by the illogical images. I thought by staring long enough the mysteries of life would be revealed.
Surrealism is reimagined in a new medium with Photoshop layers and disjointed collages being an easier point of entry instead of paint.
I've always enjoyed art that defies convention and makes me think. It can be weird, wonderful and spectacular as long as it isn’t boring.
Leonora Carrington
I stumbled upon the artist Leonora Carrington through a Lenny Letter article focusing on her lasting impact as an artist.
Two female artists, one in an additional article below, wanted to pay homage to her work with a pilgrimage to her home in Mexico. They visited her shortly before her death to wrap up their creative excursion.
Why have I never heard of this female artist who is as prolific, working and creating for almost 70 years, than Dali who is essentially a household name? Two factors which won't surprise anyone is creating while female and also in Mexico.
Which college class would’ve taught about her? Probably a very niche art history class only open to art history majors completely excluding me.
Two Surrealists
As an amateur art enthusiast, I resist learning about art and artists I'm not intrigued by. I own a Dali calendar which I couldn't throw away after the year was over. I was sure this calendar could be repurposed with the images, hanging or tacking them to the walls, or framing to seem like a person with a very well put together life.
They remain in my closet with other calendars waiting for their day in the sun or on the walls. I didn't get a chance to visit the Meadows Museum yet which has a new Dali exhibit through the beginning of November. I've seen plenty of Dali's work to understand his style differs from Leonora’s.
The differences between Salvador Dali and Leonora Carrington are numerous in style, color, texture and shading but both are intriguing to the eye. They both stay firmly under the umbrella of surrealism where only the highly illogical makes any kind of sense. The battle royale of surrealism should be who creates the strangest and most intriguing new art.
Creative Pilgrimage
The Paris Review featured an endlessly quotable piece by Heidi Sopinka and I will resist from half this post consisting of those very quotes.
The author was intrigued by the Leonora Carrington with her proximity and knowledge of death.
Her guiding question was, “What can I learn from the 92 year old woman who can inform the fictional 92 year old woman I'm writing about?”
I find The Paris Review sometimes revelatory and sometimes incomprehensible, and the writing for this piece is the former.
It will make you want to take a pilgrimage to visit an ailing female creator and master of her craft before she leaves our realm.
For a real deep dive into Dali’s partner, Gala, and all the strange and unusual goings on swirling around them this piece should provide a couple of self conscious chuckles over her description as having, "the libido of an electric eel" among countless others.
I liked this phrase so much I had to create some content in its honor.
