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LEONORA CARRINGTON (Mexican) Etchings

Leonora Carrington (Mexican, b.1917)

The Dark Book [Poetry by Gabriel Weisz and original prints by Lenora Carrington].

Etchings. 1996. #42 of edition of 60. Signed in pencil by both Carrington and Weisz; editioned in pencil. Velin Arches. Full margins. Fine impression. 10 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. (260 x 165 mm). Fine condition. Printed by Tiempo Extra Editores. The British-born surrealist painter and writer Leonora Carrington was introduced to the artist Max Ernst at a party in London in 1937. They became lovers, settling in the Provence region of France shortly thereafter. When Ernst was arrested by the Nazis in 1940, Carrington fled to Spain, where she suffered an emotional collapse at the British Embassy in Madrid. At the request of her parents she was institutionalized and administered shock-inducing drugs. She was eventually discharged to the custody of a nurse, whom she promptly escaped, finding refuge in the Mexican Embassy in Lisbon. She traveled to Mexico in 1942 with a Mexican diplomat whom she married as part of the arrangement. Carrington remained in Mexico for over forty years, where her circle included Diego Rivera, Octavio Paz, Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo and others. In 1947 she achieved instant celebrity as the only female English painter to participate in the international exhibition of Surrealism at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. Many of her works demonstrate an impassioned interest in the occult, often alluding to agnostic doctrine, Celtic mythology, and divination techniques. Carrington moved to the United States in 1985. She is considered one of the most prolific and important female artists of the 20th century.