member of:Observers of the Interdependence of Domestic Objects and Their Influence on Everyday Life


This group has been active for a long time and has already made some remarkable assertions which render life simpler from the practical point of view. For example, I move a pot of green color five centimeters to the right, I push in the thumbtack beside the comb and if Mr. A (another adherent like me) at this moment puts his volume about bee-keeping beside a pattern for cutting out vests, I am sure to meet on the sidewalk of the avenida Madero a woman who intrigues me and whose origin and address I never could have known...
--Remedios Varo


(Slideshow is of Artwork by Remedios Varo)
By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
--Franz Kafka

Friday, May 27, 2011

Leonora Carrington



I hope for time to write something soon, but cannot simply ignore her passing here...



Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, both of whom I've written about before on this blog, were very close friends who formed two ends of a female surrealist "triumverate" in Mexico after they fled there from Europe during World War II. Carrington and Varo spent a lot of time writing alchemical recipes, which they tried out on their unsuspecting friends, and bizzare and magical stories which often included suspiciously familiar characters. "The Hearing Trumpet" is a fascinating book, full of magic and a very dry humor, and highly, highly recommended. I have sometimes felt that surrealist art tries so hard not to make sense that it doesn't, and surrealist writing has been the same. But this book succeeds in both worlds; it is not limited by reality, but it still can be enjoyed and comprehended by those of us still living in reality :)







(photo from Carrington's obituary in the Guardian)


Carrington's paintings are filled with meticulous details, and her color work is amazing, but there are also her sculptures to enjoy--her other-worldly creatures peel themselves off the canvas and fill out into three-dimensional reality... photos of sculptures from this blog...

Far from dying early and penniless as her father ferociously forecast when she announced her plans to run off to be an artist with Max Ernst, who was twice her young age, she passed yesterday much mourned, a national treasure of Mexico, a treasure in every way, at 94 years of age.



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3 comments:

  1. yew tree nightsMay 27, 2011 at 11:27 AM

    My husband was waiting for me with the sad news when I got home from work a little while ago. It's a huge loss. It always made me happy to think she was alive and creating in Mexico after all this time.

    What a good way to have lived though!

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  2. ☆sapphireMay 30, 2011 at 6:41 AM

    Thanks for this beautiful tribute, zoe.
    I didn't know that she had passed away.
    I'd like to read her book, "The Hearing Trumpet" that you recommend.

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  3. Sharmon DavidsonJune 4, 2011 at 11:06 AM

    So sad, to lose such a great artist. She has always been one of my favorites, and I didn't know she had passed away. Thanks for sharing this,

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