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From 11 February to 7 May 2023, the Recoletos Hall at the Mafpre Foundation is hosting the first retrospective in Western Europe that follows the career of this eclectic artist, Leonora Carrington, from her first drawings to her later works. The exhibition has been organised by the MAPFRE Foundation, in collaboration with ARKEN Museum (Copenhagen).

Mary Leonora Carrington (Lancashire, England, 1917 - Mexico City, 2011​) was one of the leading artists in the Surrealism movement.  Painter, sculptor and writer, among other activities, her professional career was always marked by her biography, which, in the eyes of many, turned her into an eccentric and tragic person. In spite of this, her works are the result of an extraordinary imagination and have a meaning that is not always easy for the spectator to decipher.

The artist’s paintings, tales, poems, tapestries or dresses speak of aspects of the human being that cannot always be reduced to simple words.   They focus on abstract concepts, such as fear, pain, joy, surprise or happiness, which fill her artistic creations.  Works filled with magic and mystery in which the public can find a free interpretation and a mirror for the present.

Image Credit:

Leonora Carrington. Arts, 110, 1944. Stanley & Pearl Goodman Collection, donation promised to the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. © Estate of Leonora Carrington / VEGAP, Madrid, 2022