The Uniquely Bewitching Surrealism of Leonora Carrington Captivates New York’s Art Crowd

The sleeper New York art gallery hit of the summer? That would be an exhibition showcasing the sculptures of Leonora Carrington, a tempestuous beauty from an upper-class British family, who ran off with the married Max Ernst at the age of twenty. She had seen his paintings at a Surrealist exhibition in London and fallen in love with him, sight unseen. After the two became an item, she was a habitué among the Paris Surrealists. Always a formidable artist, Carrington was nonetheless often better known for her striking persona than she was for her art. To art historians she remained largely obscured, a footnote in Ernst’s shadow, recognized only towards the very end of her life. This has been changing, ever since Carrington died at the age of 94 in Mexico City in 2011. A quiet show of Carrington’s sculptures, from the latter period of her life, at Chelsea, at L’Space Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower West Side, has become something of a favorite for New York gallery-goers. Curated by the venue’s artistic director, Lili Almog, in collaboration with the Consigna gallery in Mexico City, the show has proven so popular it has just been extended through August 15th. The show’s distinctiveness lies in that it features sculptures, a rarely showcased aspect of her overall body of work, with over fifteen pieces of lost wax bronze figures. Carrington had been primarily known for her painting, deeply hermetic pictures that transpire in some liminal, other worldly landscape. Her figures, often veiled from head to foot, are odd to the point of being off putting. She has Hieronymus Bosch’s talent for making figures of such sublime weirdness you are often left at a loss for words. They always appear intent on performing some undecipherable ritual activity. Leonora Carrington. Courtesy of L’Space GalleryCarrington herself — not to be confused with the Bloomsbury Group painter Dora Carrington — was deeply aware of the strangeness of her work. Never expecting a career or fame during her lifetime, she created prolifically while confined within her own magical realist bubble, a realm to which she alone appeared to have access. Carrington was a mystic, in other words, if not witchlike. Her entire life was saturated with the subliminal, the oneiric, the alchemical, and the symbolic. She spent the second half of her career in Mexico, pursuing these private obsessions in painting, sculpture and writing. The sculptures in this current show reflect her cherished perennial themes: a preoccupation with the animal and spirit worlds, the cryptic symbolism of dreams, and the subtle interactions that can occur between realms. Carrington wants to confront us with her deeply personal vision. More often than not, she succeeds. The show opens with “Ship of Cranes”, a lost wax bronze casting featuring a stately robed crane holding an oar, a figure not unlike Charon, the boatman of the river Styx, and ferrying several smaller cranes in a vessel. Except that the vessel itself is a bird standing on bird feet. It demonstrates Carrington’s talent for visual misdirection. As somber as the bird boatman might be, the whole edifice rests on bird feet, a nod to the blithe absurdity that underpins much of her work. Other pieces, however, are more forbidding. “The Palmist,” a willowy figure with a bird head, geometric halo and outstretched palms, stands in the gallery almost like a guardian spirit. Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s own figures, especially those from “Pan’s Labyrinth,” no doubt have their origin in sculptures like these he has often cited Carrington as an influence. It’s a riveting example of what she does best, forcing the viewer into a confrontation with an otherworldly being . There is also a deer-headed figure in a robe with outstretched hands, simply titled “Unknown.” It also radiates its own totemic power. ‘Cat of the Night,’ Leonora Carrington, 2010. Detail. Courtesy of L’Space GalleryOther figures, such as the mysterious “Cat of the Night” at the far end of the main viewing room, are more subdued but no less mysterious. Her body is embossed with other raised animal human figures and cryptic symbols, much like an Egyptian or Mayan carvings, including two human-animal hybrids that are hidden on her back. The figure, which one could surmise is some iteration of Carrington herself, appears serene, or contentedly saturated with a secret only she is privy to. After spending time with these sculptures, you can see that their effectiveness, even the most imposing ones, rests on subtle details. The figures sport expressive, elongated hands and naked feet, lending humanity to figures that are anything but human. Almost every figure contains smaller secrets, hidden gestures and symbols, doubled faces; the full extent of the aesthetic elements in her work emerge after the initial visual impact has subsided. ‘Tarot Reading Booth.’ Courtesy of L’Space GalleryTheir origin in central America is part of this mystique. In her curation, Ms. Almog has worked diligently to give the gallery space a vegetative, Mexico City-type ambience. Orchids are clustered around many of the figures, giving the feeling of a sculpture garden rather than a gallery interior. The jungle is palpable.Complimenting the sculptures is a room devoted to Carrington’s personal rendition of a tarot deck, which are hung on one wall. Gallery-goers can also select a card from the Carrington deck off a table and dial a corresponding number inside an antique phone booth where there are three old fashioned telephones (representing past, present and future). I selected the star and was told to look out for the ‘bird from the future’. Carrington represented an entirely unique vein of the symbolist and surrealist project, a style of painting and sculpture that she invented and at whose summit she stands alone.It is a vision so peculiar that the art world has taken its time in approaching her body of work. So it is fitting that she returns to the New York art world almost by dreamlike stealth, operating within a space that seems to be stuck halfway between two countries and two worlds.

The Uniquely Bewitching Surrealism of Leonora Carrington Captivates New York’s Art Crowd

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