Leonor Fini color litho of Sphinx, Ileria, c1972

Frame: 28 3/4" x 36"
Litho: 21 3/4" x 29 1/4"

Leonor Fini
(Weinstein Gallery): Leonor Fini was arguably the most ferociously and heroically independent woman artist of the 20th century. Fini herself never accepted the label of "woman artist," and likewise, never considered herself a Surrealist. She never sacrificed her independence to André Breton, the leader of the movement, and abhorred his misogynist views. Nonetheless, her works have been included in nearly every major Surrealism exhibition from 1936 to present. Fini was born in Argentina in 1907. Her mother spirited her away to her Italian homeland of Trieste. For the first seven years of her life, Fini was disguised as a boy whenever she left home to foil the kidnap attempts of her father. Raised by intelligent women and artistic personalities, it was not long before she decided to become an artist. By the time she relocated to Paris in 1931, she was already an intimate of Giorgio de Chirico and his circle. In Paris she was quickly 'adopted' by Max Ernst and the Surrealists that surrounded him. Fini became a sensation not only as an artist but also as a personality. She lived life like an actor in a play, creating a persona of drama, mystery and intrigue. The list of people she knew, collaborated with, or who were influenced by her over the following decades is itself a remarkable inventory of the thinkers and artists of the 20th century: Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, Joseph Cornell, Dora Maar, Anna Magnani, Albert Camus, Jean Genet, Federico Fellini, John Huston, and Georges Bataille, to name only a few. Fini came to incorporate many different lines of inquiry into her art. These were questions of beauty and age; of dark figures in conference that emerge out of murky waters and mottled landscapes; of an inexplicable silence that persists among those who attempt communication; and of the true nature of love and sex. Very few artists could be as simultaneously frank and enigmatic over a seven-decade career.

EIn a sense my paintings have always been my autobiography. A revealing autobiography because my paintings do not interpret either my conscious development or my experiences; rather, they ‘unmask’ a being inside of me (often with strange projections into the future).--Leonor Fini

Leonor Fini is considered one of the most important women artists of the twentieth century and also one of the most misunderstood. Frequently labeled a surrealist she was never a member of that group or movement, preferring to stake her own claim on modernism with a vision that owes more to the farthest shores of her imagination than to any affiliation with art trends, schools or movements. The originality of her art as well as her intelligence, famous wit and charisma accorded her celebrity status in the Paris art world and beyond beginning in the late thirties. Often eclipsing and even compromising her standing as a major artist was the originality and impact of her personal style. Her panache and glamour, once they found a place in the collective imagination of the time, turned her into a much-publicized fashion and feminist icon. Always controversial, with as many detractors as admirers, she lived and painted consummately on her own terms. Not always in critical favor, her art continues to fascinate, captivate and is currently the source of an enthusiastic re-evaluation. Born in Buenos Aires of mixed Spanish, Italian, Argentine and Slavic blood, Leonor was raised in Trieste by her single mother where she absorbed the multi-ethnic and mixed cultural heritage of that cosmopolitan center. If her formal education ended when she was an adolescent, she nevertheless traveled widely in Italy, visited many of the museums of Europe and read voraciously from her uncle’s large library. As a young woman she exhibited her paintings in Trieste and Milan, received commissions for portraits and formed close friendships with some of the leading Italian artists of the day. Leonor Fini, photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1936Leonor Fini, photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1936In 1931, with an Italian prince who was her fiancé, she moved to Paris to forge a career as an artist. She quickly abandoned the prince, proclaimed her independence and formed friendships with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and the writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues who became her lover. She had her first one person show in Paris when she was twenty-five at a gallery directed by Christian Dior. Her work caught on fast and was included in the pivotal and groundbreaking Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism exhibition at the MOMA in 1936 while at the same time she had her first New York exhibition at the avant-garde Julien Levy Galley. In Paris in 1939 she curated the inaugural exhibition of her friend Leo Castelli’s first gallery (of surrealist furniture) and shortly thereafter, just before the German occupation, she traveled with André and a new lover to Arcachon in the southwest of France to begin waiting out the war. She remained there for almost a year with Salvador and Gala Dali before moving to Monte Carlo where she met the young Italian diplomat, Stanislao Lepri who became one of the great and enduring loves of her life. As the war intensified she moved with Stanislao to Rome where she lived, worked and formed close friendships with Anna Magnani, Luchino Visconti and other leading figures of world of art and letters. After the Liberation of Paris in 1944 she returned there to live and work for the remainder of her life.

Good condition overall