LEONORA CARRINGTON

Carrington’s paintings, sculptures, and writings explore transformation, magic, and the subconscious. Born in England, she spent time in Paris, Spain, and New York and later settled in Mexico City, where she passed away in 2011.

Early Years

Born on 6 April 1917 in Clayton Green, Lancashire, England, Carrington was raised in a wealthy Irish-Catholic family. From a young age, she exhibited a rebellious spirit and penchant for folklore, fables, and Lewis Carroll, resisting the societal expectations imposed upon her. Expelled from multiple convent schools, she eventually pursued art studies in Florence and later at the Ozenfant Academy in London, founded by painter Amédée Ozenfant. ​

Relationship with Max Ernst

In 1937, Carrington met German surrealist artist Max Ernst at a London party, sparking a passionate relationship that led her to Paris and deeper into the surrealist movement. Their partnership was both personal and artistic, with Carrington creating works that began to define her unique voice within surrealism.​ The pair were separated by the development of WWII when Ernst was temporarily imprisoned.

Spain and Mexico

Following a traumatic period in occupied France, Carrington moved to Spain. After experiencing extreme emotional distress, she was institutionalised in Spain in 1940 and experienced harrowing psychiatric treatment. Her time in Spain culminated in her escape to Lisbon, where she found passage to New York with the help of diplomat Renato Leduc, whom she briefly married.

After a year in New York during the early 1940s, Carrington and Leduc relocated to Mexico City in 1943, along with many other artists who had fled Europe due to the war. In Mexico City, Carrington reconnected with Remedios Varo, another surrealist artist she had met in Paris. She would later divorce Leduc, marry Hungarian photographer Emeric ‘Chiki’ Weisz, and have two sons.

Friendship with Remedios Varo

In addition to her visual art, Leonora Carrington is also renowned for her book The Hearing Trumpet, in which an older woman discovers a plot by her family that sends her to an institution. It is considered that the two main characters are modelled on the artist’s friendship with Remedios Varo.

In Mexico City, Carrington and Varo saw each other daily, cooked, cast spells, and pranked dinner guests, developing a deep friendship and their mature visual language—fusing alchemical symbols, mythological hybrids, and esoteric lore into complex compositions.

Style and themes

With an irreverent and profound tone, Carrington blends the mystical with the every day, using figuration fused with symbolism and dream logic to probe identity, madness, and spiritual rebirth. Her practice spans painting, writing, and sculpture, unified by a commitment to subversion and metaphysical inquiry.

Self-Portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse) (1937–38)

This early painting depicts Carrington seated with a hyena at her feet and a white horse in the background. It was painted during her years living with Max Ernst and is considered to be one of her first truly surreal works. The inclusion of animals such as horses and hyenas, both animals that Carrington felt an affinity for, is interpreted as symbols of wildness and defiance against traditional female domestic roles.

The Giantess (The Guardian of the Egg) (1947)

This painting portrays a towering female figure in a red dress, haloed by a bristly golden wheatfield of hair, delicately cradling an egg while geese fly from within the woman’s large white coat. The landscape at the woman’s feet features tiny people and animals amidst trees, and a roiling seascape in the background features boats, ships and sea creatures.

Leonara Carrington’s Exhibitions

Carrington’s work has been showcased in numerous exhibitions worldwide. A selection is provided below:​

Solo Exhibitions

• Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Massachusetts (2025)
• Leonora Carrington: Mythopoesis at Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco (2025)
• Leonora Carrington: Revelation, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark and Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, Spain (2022–2023)
• Leonora Carrington: Magical Tales, the Museo de Arte Moderno (2018)
• The Celtic Surrealist, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2013)

Group exhibitions

• A Mysterious Vision: The Uncanny and Lingering Influences of Surrealism in Contemporary Painting, Robilant+Voena, New York (2025)
• Surrealism Beyond Borders, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2025)
• Enchanted Alchemies: Magic, Mysticism, And The Occult In Art, Lévy Gorvy Dayan, London (2024)

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Ocula | 2025