Leonora Carrington - Britain's Lost Surrealist | TateShots
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- Опубліковано 24 лис 2024
- Featuring rare archive footage, this short film follows Leonora Carrington’s cousin and journalist, Joanna Moorhead, exploring the artist’s story.
Leonora Carrington was one of the most prolific members of the Surrealist movement. After rejecting her upper-class upbringing in northern England, Carrington embarked upon a relationship with Surrealist artist Max Ernst, and became central in the Surrealist circles of France and New York.
After hanging out with celebrated names such as Andre Breton and Pablo Picasso, the artist then moved to Mexico where she spend the rest of her life painting, as well as making sculpture, tapestry, writing poetry and designing for theatre and film.
This film is republished with kind permission by The Guardian.
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"You are trying to intellectualize something ...
desperately ...
and you are wasting your time"
Leonora Carrington
*intellectualiSe
(US) intelectualize
(UK) intelectualise@@notgadot
…davidl6332: English lesson> ‘and YOU’RE ( abbreviation of ‘you are’) wasting your time’.🙂….
Merci pour prendre le temps@@cristelelizabethjohn1661
@@cristelelizabethjohn1661
Oh shut up
I love how resistant she is to intellectualizing her art.
What she means by intellectualise is not really genuinely intellectual. The cousin is trying to oversimplify the work by fitting it under broad rubrics. That's not particularly intellectual. And actually it's the artist who is doing the real intellectualising here.
Kata Khresis Creative people are full of shit, and you learn to love this fact, I think, but it’s what they do that matters, if it manages to matter at all; and if it manages to matter at all, then it is only in the taste of that particular beholder IMO. It’s all IMO.
@@katakhresis2796 the function of art is experience, spatial relation, and personal relation. Trying to come up with a reason or explanation for art is for people afraid to feel
@@losttobooze Not surprising, that's a myth that exemplifies what Coleridge, a knowing myth maker, terms willing suspension of disbelief. Art is always second-hand to the actuality of experience, since it is a representation of experience, often times a hallucinatory recollection of experience fraught with repression, in your case the repression of the rational side in favour of superstition. The effect of art 'lies' in its affect, the ability to make people feel, that is to play on their emotions, to manipulate their feelings, which serves an ideological agenda that is often hidden, by indoctrinating them into particular biases. Anyone who practises an art seriously knows the affects that produce the magical effects attributed to works of art by a gullible public are largely the result of technical applications. Only a naive artist would think he is a shamanic conduit for some higher power that he cannot himself explain.
@@katakhresis2796 I sell paintings when I finish one, but now I'm afraid.
My tender little baby-heart feelings don't know what to do. I wish I was naive. I'd drink Evian.
There is a higher power, more than the electricity and magnetism in our brains.
It looks like love is the best conductor, as we leave the flesh for the light.
There are Sons and Daughters of the Gael, who speak Gaelic. Bay-an-uck-let, blessings on you.
I love how in her paintings the animals are beings and have souls with feeling just as valid as the other human-like beings. This is the way it really is; their feelings are real, too.
Her paintings are of a surreal dreamscape from another dimension that are haunting, imaginative, beautiful and somewhat morbid.
Some of her paintings, at first glance, remind me of the stories by Edith Nesbit (1907: The Enchanted Castle) Wondering if Leonora was influenced by her?
@@onion6foot she would never admit that
As a boy in the 1970s I had quite an appreciation for Surrealist art, I came across her at that time in a book of Surrealist paintings. Delighted to learn more about her and hear her speak. Thank you.
Even if it is a complex situation for the interviewer all the artist’s answers are true.
She makes no compromises in her replies.
She talks with the experience and the wisdom which goes with it.
I am full of admiration. She is intimidating but fascinating. My love for her work. ❤️🙏🏻❤️
It's been been a privilege to watch this interview and listen to the artist's views on art.
As an artist I hate vast swathes of Art but Leonora Carrington's work is excellent - both Frida K. & this lady were seriously good. God bless them, wherever they are.
I wonder why I have seen in recent times so many things online referring to Leonora Carrington as "lost" or like some new amazing find. Since I first started exploring surrealism in 1980, I have had no problem finding her fiction, books of her artwork, references to her and various books on surrealism, etc. She is perhaps among the best known woman surrealists. A few other woman surrealists of note: Remedios Varo, Toyen, Claude Cahun, Penelope Rosemont, Gina Litherland, Rikki Ducornet, Annie Le Brun, Gale Ahrens, ... the list could go on. All worthy of looking into, the last five, still living and still practicing surrealism as a way of life.
Ichabod Heranow thank you kind sir
Thank you for this list. I shall improve my knowledge and enjoyment of surrealism because I shall look up these artists you recommend. I’m sorry to disappoint you in my complete lack of knowledge in this subject but I hope you will be happy to know that I will be an enthusiastic explorer!
@Ichabod Heranow Couldn't agree more. Carrington's work was in my undergrad art history TEXTBOOK back in the '80s. Such rediscovery pretensions are a product of present day art history, where young female art historians must prove their feminist ardor by "discovering" a female artist we the public don't know because patriarchy denied them venues to show their work. While art history sadly includes thousands of such scenarios, from a practical research POV there isn't much archive material to work with, as these female artists' lives were mostly private with careers often brief (raising children), so "rediscovering" a Carrington is easier, and her own life story of leaving the competitive European art world for "exotic" Mexico (in reality not so) seems to parallel nicely the stock feminist narrative of woman artist rejected by patriarchy but richer for it.
@@magistra137 I am sorry if I seemed too ... critical. I just tend to be very protective of surrealist history, especially that of surrealist women. I am actually glad that you posted your post, and my intention was mostly to let people know of how many women have been very active in surrealism.
Ichabod Heranow; there are levels of awareness among the populace for an artist. I believe what is being expressed about Leanora Carrington is that she is now being discovered by the wider public. Bringing up that an artist years ago was known by you or that her work was published in various books does not invalidate the claim that the general public was not aware of her three decades ago.
* Why such campaigns to increase an artist’s popularity? It's core reason is not a devious conspiracy. It's economics. Take Jackson Pollock. He was well known in the art world in the 1950s but at that time his paintings were only selling for thousands of dollars. With wider popularity by the 70s his paintings were selling for over $1 million. Besides the art market, there is also the economics of museums. If an artist is popular, then exhibitions will receive more attendance bringing more money to the museum.
Another surrealist who was equally smitten with Mexico was Remedios Varas. I recommend viewing her work.
Remedios Varo* :)
@@nahneh7977 Remedios Varo is so up there to
She is my very favorite visual artist ever. I have written tiny stories (perhaps prose poems) inspired by her paintings.
@@jesusayala8932hi, I know this is really old comment, but have you ever published these stories, or is there any way to read them? Sound so interesting! (Sorry for my English)
in addition to anything else, there is an example-lesson here in making your point when the other conversant isn't letting you completely unfold your message.
“Don’t try to intellectualize art”...and yet the art “critics” and art gate keepers throw so many mumble-jumble of words around art and design that it interferes with the emotional appreciation of art. Unfortunately, many of the art gate-keepers actually reside at the Tate.
Majority of humanoids need vocal explanation about what they should accept. Bunch of Fuckin' tasteless robots.
A partir de un proceso histórico la búsqueda por la producción de piezas que apuntasen al intelecto del espectador fueron, para muchos artistas, un objetivo más relevante que el de generar piezas visualmente placenteras o ambiguas en cuanto a su sustento teórico, dicho esto, no deja de ser en ningún momento cierto que una pieza debe evocar sentimientos en el espectador y eso es algo también, digno de reconocer y difícil de lograr, saludos y excelente día c:
The lady being interviewed was constantly being interrupted by the interviewer. My opinion is that the interviewer was not listening to the artist Leonora. Leonora repeatedly had to tell the interviewer not to intellectualise art and that art is visual.
Beautiful painter and I enjoyed hearing her speak even if I did not enjoy the interruptions. Leonora appeared to be a very down to earth woman unfazed by her commercial success whilst the interviewer appeared to be impressed because of the commercial success of the paintings.
If anyone knows of any other interviews by this artist I would appreciate a link to the interview. The paintings that I have looked up so far are so beautiful. I will enjoy finding more of her paintings and would enjoy hearing her speak more about herself and her experiences.
Stay safe everyone.
☘️🌝🌲
It was her cousin. They were having a conversation. 🙄
Mutter mutter scrape ponder we do, then someone says, "Look". Look at what? No, just look.
indeed; the lady was not really listening to what the Leonora was telling.
This is a full length documentary about her
ua-cam.com/video/SxEF1bjgt5Q/v-deo.html
The interruptions were annoying but the woman is not a professional journalist, just a relative of the artist.
I wish the cousin would be quiet and listen...I could listen to this amazing woman for a long, long time.
you are right, we are only watching a highly edited 9 min clip of an extended visit she made. you think she went to visit Leonora for 9 mins? blame the editor
A true Bohemian! I love her. Her sculptures are even more impressive than her paintings, maybe. I'll have to look into her work more. Thanks for the video!
Cheers mate
remarkable interview with a remarkable artist
This excellent documentary is marred by the "background" music that is so loud as to make it impossible to decipher the important verbal content describing the artist.
I find her work to be just so captivating! She definately invokes a feeling of excitement and intrigue for me
She feels the intrigues from her past in the UK
Falling in love with Leonora, her vision and skill. The problem with intellectualising art is that our society is trained to value intellect/thinking over everything, not just art.
She wrote short stories too, the complete collection published last year. Go for them 🐗
True. And, "The Debutante" is one of the greatest short stories. So funny and angry. A brilliant social class allegory.
Thanks for the tip!! I'm gonna look out for them 😁
Leonora Carrington - Britain's Lost Surrealist | TateShots 0506am 2.5.23 tired wit re: relationships - whether artistic or physical... she must be a very spiritual person, then, if she thinks along the lines of extraneous forces influencing one's work - which is obviously surrealistic in tendency. also worth asking: why the heck did they all bugger off, these artistes, to the Americas as Nazism rose and bared it's fangs?
Leonora is absolutely my favourite painter, favourite genius and favourite badass!
Remarkable woman. How great that she got some attention before she passed. Her opinions about the sources or inspirations of creating art were spot on. Artists rarely ever choose to explain their work or ideas, nor should they. As she says, it comes from within.
She has been known for decades in Mexican and Latinamerican artistic circles, she was justly praised very early on her career. Sorry but the world doesn't revolve around the UK, knowing both artistic traditions I would say that Mexico was the place to be in the first 2/3 of the 20th century.
@@Tzctplus She only known in mexico and south america lol . The world class artists are known in the UK. mekzico never gave birth to any artist.
I LOVE her personality. I LOVE her perspective on art. Never heard of her before this interview, but she seems AWESOME.
I am very happy that I just happened upon this video about Leonora Carrington. I love the paintings shown and I’m so glad that commenters have also mentioned her writing. I am excited to experience more of this great artist’s work.
The visual world and emotions is what the life of an artist is, she is so correct. 💜💜💜
Hoenstly props to the interviewer for embarrassing themselves like this, we wouldnt have gotten the raw insight into Leonara's perspective without pissing her off
What a brilliant artist and personality. And I am not usually a fan of surreal art, but hers somehow connects with me.
I love the way she is so certain in her ideas about art. I could learn from her.
I can tell if I went on a date with her she would ask me not to call her again.
Britains loss was Mexico's gain. México became a haven for artists like Leonora and Remedios Varo. Their works got the recognition they deserved there.
Pac_0 easy availability of mind-altering drugs
@@johnlawrence2757
Not this cases ,
Not at that period of time !
Alberto Garcia are you serious?????
@@johnlawrence2757
Surrealism is not exactly related to drugs.
Alberto Garcia shoes aren’t related to feet, you mean
Two in the morning and I’ve listened to someone I’d never known existed, seen some of her art and I’m left curious.
Thanks. 🐋
I hope you will read her books too! I recommend you "The acoustic trumpet"
As an artist myself, I do not intellectualize my art but most people I know try to encourage me to do simplistic art pieces or go backwards in my skills as an artist just so they can afford a painting or sculpture.
this made my day, i had to watch it couple of times, really great
Glad to hear it!
I just read her novel "The Hearing Trumpet" which is fantastic! truly.
Renato Leduc, more than a diplomat he was a poet and writer. When he accompanied Leonora Carrington to Mexico, a latter comment in a conference I attended was that he had never seen before such a fragile person as her. Probably loosing Max Ernst, the nazi invasion of France and the ultraright government of Franco together with her present situation were devastating for her at the time.
She was fragile because she left her family behind.
As one artist once said, if I could say what I wanted to say without painting it I would. I think that also includes explaining the final product.
She was never “lost” though. 🤷♀️
She's very well known in Mexico. There are even statues in the streets of Mexico city that commemorate her paintings.
Great point! If she was nudged out of view in the US it wasn’t really entirely successful. She is rightfully revered around the world.
Truly. Since 1938 (and up to the year the YT video was uploaded), there were exhibitions of her work outside of Mexico... in France, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, England, Switzerland, and Ireland... and with _numerous_ exhibitions in some of the countries listed. She may have been "lost" to the extent that there was not some general public knowledge about her work, at least in the same way that Ernst, Dali and Miro were known.
Beautiful by "Tate", and the work by Leonora, which I knew before, but this great critic essay, show me her wonderful aproach to "Surrealism" by or from the greatest proto-surrealists: Hyeronomus Bosh and Peter Brueguel ... I really enjoy it. Thanks a lot
Good for her. Intellectualizing art is a way the art snobs can keep art all to themselves. If you not smart enough you can’t appreciate great art. That’s bull shit
Una gran mujer y gran pintora. Amiga de Remedios Varo, surrealistas en Méjico ❤️
Beautiful and well done. Her insistence on a visual world rather than an intellectual one is
in line with Tibetan Buddhism
I wish the interview had been longer. I felt she was saying something very important, and it was cut short. The interviewing was a little clumsy, which irritated her, but also prompted her to make the points she did more clearly. The material value of her art, and the fact that she is a female artist were not important to her. The material value is imposed by a system that is motivated more by financial gain than to reflect the artistic merit of the piece in question. The gender of artist should be immaterial; a great piece of art is a great piece of art, no matter who painted it. If the gender of the artist and the material value of the painting are things in the mind of the beholder when they are looking at a painting, the values they attach to these points will influence their judgement, and prevent them from seeing the true artistic merit of the painting for what it really is. I was aware that I instantly warmed to her when I heard her speaking. Thank you for posting this on youtube.
I love that she hates the idea of Art being intellectualized. So much in the Art world is turned into myth, which to me insults the Artists life. The real deep human side of creating Art. The deep emotional side of the Artist. It is characterized, and the myth repeated over and over, which tends to by-pass the real person. Fascinating woman. Fascinating Artworks.
*intellectualiSed *characteriSed
I feel there are a bunch of people in the comment section who are responding to her rejection of "intellectualizing art" without actually knowing much about Surrealism OR Leonora Carrington.
There's a lot of deliberate meaning and symbolism in her work, but it's very personal. She combines Surrealism and Magical Realism...she is just rejecting her cousin's efforts to fit where art "comes from" into a little materialistic box. I imagine she was especially offended by the idea that her talent could somehow be owed to a family that clearly didn't understand her.
She's not really a "lost" artist at all, btw, she is quite famous.... she was just lost to her family.
Well, that was very worthwhile.
I won't be able to help but to start consciously seeing individual things in space.
the Tate is a treasure trove of surprises from all over the earth
Intellectualizing. Intelittle. Visual world. Moving in space. Object in space.
we are always looking for some sort of truth and we can get caught up in the many words people attach to art but in the end our own intuition will tell us more than any rhetoric. spirit communicates through thoughts and our thoughts influence our emotions, and then we feel so deeply and that is entirely the point, that is enough
I feel pulled into her art the way I feel pulled into my dreams.
i agree completely
The figures' eyes give reference points to jump to. A lot of details that flow: like cats or whatever climbing up stairs that at first seemed like a piece of the wall.
*rolls eyes*
@@beanstaIkjack have you ever experienced lucid dreaming?
wonderful insight into this incredible artist! wow.
I think I understand what she means when she is so adamant about not intellectualizing her art and instead keeps saying it is a visual thing. I think that through art she turns her emotions into visual art, if that makes any sense. Maybe it's like the same way a writer might write his emotions in a journal with a pen, but she uses a paint brush and paint and a canvas. Just an idea.
*intellectualiSing
This was wonderful, thank you.
'Against Interpretation'! Interesting interview
Leonora Carrington so simple and direct and right when she says that paintings are part of the visual world and not to be intellectualised. Talking about paintings or artists can be interesting but the image should work regardless of any added information. If you look at a painting and feel nothing then the painting has failed.
So enjoyed getting to know this artist!
Lost? Mexicans have her on high esteem, some of her paintings are in the Museo de Arte Moderno hanging side by side with Frida Khalo's, and many other 20th century artists of renown in Mexico. Considering that Mexico has 130 million people and the UK 66 one really wonders in which planet working in Mexico could be considered to be lost. A bit of residual mental colonialism it seems.
Touche😄
Good on you for seeking out and finding your brilliant relative.
I do agree, Mexico is surreal...
hermoso país
@@davidl6332 A veces. Puede ser hermoso y un lugar tan horrible.
@@Dai827 Como cualquier parte del mundo
@@Travelsandmore333 Si, pero te cuento esta anecdota. Mi abuela la atroppello un taxi, hasta rompio el parabrisas. Mi abuela no murio. Mi familia decidio retirar los cargos y cuando llegaron les dijeron que mi familia tenia que pagar el parabrisas que rompio mi abuela con la cabeza. Supongo que en muchos lados puede ser asi. Pero no me vas a negar que eso rayo en lo surreal.
This elderly lady is giving us some incredible words of knowledge, and her cousin/interviewer simply can't shut up for a minute and listen. She just says yeah...yeah... and doesn't listen. It's sad, it simply shows that she is not interested in her long-lost aunt and her talent, but only in her fame...
I agree that this world is visual because that's how the world just is. And I love how she keeps on interrupting the interviewer. Maybe she doesn't hear that well but she's sassy and I love that.
thanks for this so much
So beautiful so brilliant. I do disagree with her on intellectual interpretation of art though. There is somthing magnificent to be gained from the depths of understanding that can be obtained through intellectual dissection of an artistic piece. In art, nothing is taboo.
Her art looks awesome
absolutely fascinating .....loved her work.
I have always contented that if your visual art needs an explanation it fails as art
Not necessarily: the vast majority of people have no idea at all what they are looking at when they view a painting and only a tiny minority of those respond positively when offered guidance in this matter
ua-cam.com/video/NYiCFibANJo/v-deo.html
Come to this after reading the book written by Joanna Moorhead about her cousin Leonora. Both are great. What a splendid person she was - faults true but haven't everyone. Read the book. I'd love to see some of the work - have to track it down.
I love what she said about not intellectualising art. She is so right. It should be only about the way it makes you feel.
I’m glad she’s still with us!!
She died in 2011....
There is a woman who knows her own mind. The only thing I don’t like about the art world is others trying to constantly claim they understand the theory, techniques, colour, shape, and narrative of certain artists more than others. Art is a feeling. Art critics are constantly giving opposing theories and opinions about every piece. ANYONE can be an art critic. And the fact people study art without any input available from the actual creators....just boggles my mind. If Van Gogh heard what art professors teach about his colour theory he would tell them they are stupid. Art is an extracarporial state of mind. It is a magic.
If you really think anybody can be an art critic then I wonder how much you actually know about both art and criticism.
Everybody can have an opinion, talking is cheap, but not everybody can provide informed criticism, that requires insight that is acquired by study and more than casual art appreciation.
@@Tzctplus that’s exactly what I said
i think she has a very good point. ...more brutally honest art from within please♥
Her work is amazing!
I find her to be quite simple. We overcomplicate things to the point of over explaining ourselves. It was why she was so disappointed in the wording of a woman artist... Raising up for the sake of a minority will never equalize, never will there be a balance. She equalized all beings in her paintings. I can respect her way of life, simple, not complicated. Surreal in it's way.
I'm seeing a lot of comments here, that, as a musician-artist, come from tender little baby-heart feelings.
If I'm tired of anything it's everyone else not caring about left-handed people. Look how complicated all
electronic use is becoming, as far as hand-helds to power tools, and it only makes it hurtful for lefties.
Ten percent of the people born in Canada are left-handed, but we don't have ten percent manufacturing,
we have forced bilingualism where I had to learn the language of a people who never defeated my ancestors.
I'm starting to get very tired of all of it. It's not surreal enough.
One of the best sculptors ever, i like a lot more than her paintings.
Love her artwork so much
It's a visual world. I like what she said about people trying to intellectualize art.
Many art critics were heavily invested in the artists that they promoted. Some art criticism is just advertisement for an artist or art movement that they’ve linked their fate to.
Adalberto Perez male or female
Delightful Work!
I love this woman, she's a great artist, but there are things that can be known through the intellect.
She's incredible
Far superior to her peers even. She's absolutely incredible
People always be looking for some kind of epiphany in pieces of Art, it either meets you there or it doesn't - if it doesn't, keep looking - no biggie.
Saw the Remedios Varo exhibition in Mexico City that was excellent too if you like LC's work.
She is genius!
Her work looks like Hieronymus Bosch meets the band Genesis's early album covers.
Mmmmate i thot the same (bosch), has to be in there as one of LC's influences
WoW A rare treasure of a woman and of her art
Amazing!
Very poor interviewing tactics. The artist was right, that the interviewer kept trying to label her and put what she was doing into words and descriptions, to "intellectualize" it, as she said. As if one could capture the artistry of a visual thing through a paragraph on a page. It's like she was trying to reduce the artist's impressions of the world they saw into a format that could be relayed to the blind, or to people listening about it on the radio. Such a translation is not only impossible, but by attempting it, the interviewer sought to reduce what the artist had done into a medium that it was not intended for.
The artwork is not about what the artist was thinking, it's about what they were feeling. So don't ask what they were thinking when they painted or drew it. Ask yourself what you feel when you look at it. What does it evoke in you? And don't try to answer it with words, just feel the answer for yourself. That is how you enjoy and appreciate art.
Thank you from Wisconsin.
One of my favorite artist, along with Remedios Varo. Please, check out this chilean artist: Carmen Aldunate. Greetings from Chile.
Carmen Aldunate has nothing to do with surrealism. Her work is well-done, but the surrealist imagination is certainly not evident. It looks like updated Renaissance painting.
I want to write a story around her painting with the three old ladies and the flower! (The one with the eyeglass reminds me of Granny Weatherwax...)
The relative (cousin) of Leonora couldn't be further removed from leonora. Quite hysterical. Like chalk and cheese. And it is wonderful how Leonora speaks to her during the interview as though she were a half-wit. It's certainly not in the genes, that's for sure. Great video, by the way, thanks. Noel
Wow, how brilliantly refreshing to hear her disdain.
I’d love to just hear from her to be honest. The intrusion about an auction at the end told me the documentarian didn’t hear a word from her.
Marvellous artist...
She's such an intimidating figure haha
Amazing art ❤️
I see echoes Bosch and Balthus in her work. I completely understand how she would bristle at the thought of being pigeonholed as a woman artist.
I like her ...she's a good notch above most people in her appraisal of "reality." It's almost a given that the feminist aspect got applied immediately ...not the soul that just happened to inhabit a female body. It just makes art devisive; weaponises something that should be immune for the gain of small-minded , unhappy people without visions of their own.
Fascinante mujer.
A real artist,a great lady,a true life....
its better to be creative than to bother creative people....they might blow you off! but the old lady seems to be on to her young cousin's plan to get her hands on some of that artwork!
Irrational revelations unfortunately have no place in societal thought processes. These types of truths, like dreams, hold only personal yet universal meanings. I have a twin who also shares aspects of what some call mental malady. My truths hold different weights than even his, but I no longer doubt his enlightenment. I read Down Below; I saw what you did there, and it explained a lot. Thank you Leonora Carrington. My thoughts are alone in this world, but the individual is never alone. I wish I could have talked to you while you were alive.
Jeremy Ellis wow, something about your comment made me feel calm with my self, thanks