Today would have been Leonora Carrington's 100th birthday. I've spent many of my own words explaining how important she is to me, and why. Getting to show her painting, "El Nigromante," in my "Language of the Birds" exhibition was one of the highlights of my life, and one of my most treasured possessions is the elephant ear plant that I grew out of a cutting from her garden, which was given to me by a dear friend. She is, to put it simply, one of my matron saints.
Today, I'll let her speak for herself though:
“The true duty of the artist is to know what she is doing and transmit her knowledge with precision. The artist must always lift up the skirts of Venus or her twin-sister Medusa; if she is incapable of that, she should consider changing professions.
Let’s thus seek out the possibility of having subtle organs that will allow us to spread a beneficial magic or receive it while cultivating the protections against the multiple venoms of the invisible world. It is only in the strange magic ocean that we can find salvation for ourselves and our sick planet.”
- Her response to a questionnaire for L’Art magique, 1957
And what a way with words she had. Though most are familiar with her exquisite, occultic paintings, her wonderful - and often hilarious - writing is finally getting its due, thanks to several books which are being released in celebration of her centennial:
"
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington" is out from Dorothy today, and it has a lovely intro by Kathryn Davis.
Later this month is her memoir, "
Down Below", with an intro by Marina Warner, and her illustrated children's book, "
The Milk of Dreams" is out next month, both from New York Review Books. Read them if you like twisted whimsy and surrealism with a feminist bent.
If you're in the UK, today also marks the release of "
The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington", a biography of sorts by her cousin, Joanna Moorhead, as covered in the Guardian
here.
And I imagine many of you have read her jewel of a novella, "
The Hearing Trumpet," already. But worth a reminder, just in case.
Finally, I must mention once more that if you'd like to learn about her life and work, you can do no better than the splendid and insightful monograph, "
Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy, and Art," written by the greatest Carrington scholar on the planet,
Dr. Susan L. Aberth. Come for the pictures, stay for the prose.
Happy birthday, Leonora, wherever you are, whomever you were. I'm so grateful to have your art and your witchly gifts in my life. Thank you for enchanting us all with your blazing brazenness and bizarre beauty. Blessed be.
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