Leonora Carrington belongs to that small group of artists who are not content with developing an original visual language, but who transform the very way the world is seen. Born in England in 1917, involved with the Surrealists in the 1930s and later emigrating to Mexico during the Second World War, Carrington built over the course of her life a figurative universe in which mythology, esotericism and metamorphosis engage in dialogue with feminist thought and a profound inner quest. Her work is never merely illustrative, but an interweaving of symbols, narratives and hybrid forms in which human and animal, consciousness and the unconscious permeate one another. The major retrospective currently on view at the Musée du Luxembourg offers, for the first time in France, a broad and nuanced reading of this complex and multifaceted figure. Structured around a framework that combines chronological and thematic approaches, the exhibition conveys the density of Carrington’s work through paintings, drawings and materials that testify to her travels, her spiritual explorations and her constant ability to reinvent herself. The curatorial project highlights the connections between her work and the influence of Celtic mythology, Italian Renaissance art and esoteric practices that accompanied her from the very beginning. Throughout the exhibition, works emerge in which the human figure is no longer an isolated subject but a transforming element, immersed in an imaginary bestiary populated by hybrids, symbolic animals and enigmatic presences. Carrington’s work reveals a constant tension between the real and the irrational, where visual narration intertwines with the psyche and pictorial language becomes a means of access to subtler dimensions of human experience.
