LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011) - photo 1
LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011) - photo 2
LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011) - photo 3
LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011) - photo 4
LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011) - photo 5

LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011)

Sold
€ 541 800
Auction dateClassic
23.04.2024 14:00UTC +02:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
France, Paris
Archive
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Archive
ID 1190225
Lot 65 | LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011)
LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011)

Levitasium

Signé 'LEONORA CARRINGTON.' (en bas à gauche)

Huile sur toile

55.2 x 30.1 cm. (21 ¾ x 11 7⁄8 in.)

Peint à Mexico City vers 1950





Provenance

Acquis auprès de l'artiste en 1956.



Literature

C. Palencia, ‘El arte de Leonora Carrington,’ in NOVEDADES, 4 mars 1956 (illustré).

A. Breton, dir., Le surréalisme, même I, Paris, 1956, p. 127 (illustré).

A. Brenner, 'A Critics’s View', in The Atlantic, mars 1964, p. 131-141 (illustré en couleurs, p. 140; titré 'Opus Animus').

C. Gironella, 'El Mundo Mágico de Leonora Carrington', in SIEMPRE La Cultura en México, juillet 1966, p. 36-37 (illustré en couleurs; titré 'Levitación').

M. Avila Camacho, Interview with Leonora Carrington Part 2, “La Vida hay que Vivirla como Venga, con Ideales, Temores y Problemas, Dice Leonora Carrington", 11 février 1974, p. 1 (illustré; titré 'Levitación').



Exhibited

Mexico city, Galeria de Arte Mexicano, Leonora Carrington, février-mars 1956, no. 18.



Further details

LEONORA CARRINGTON (1917-2011), LEVITASIUM, SIGNED 'LEONORA CARRINGTON.' (LOWER LEFT), OIL ON CANVAS, PAINTED IN MEXICO CITY CIRCA 1950.

Cette œuvre sera incluse au catalogue raisonné des peintures de Leonora Carrington en cours de préparation par Dr. Salomon Grimberg.

"Leonora n'a en effet cessé de parcourir la longue ascension de son développement artistique : une sorte de Mont Carmel de la discipline, escaladé avec l'aide d'une sorcellerie délicieusement accomplie. [...] Le fait est que l'inspiration de cette peintre est aussi intemporelle qu'elle est sans âge. Carrington a exploré les thèmes de la magie et de la transformation au cours de huit décennies de peinture, décrivant une réalité à la fois animiste et miraculeuse. Leonora incarne la femme de notre dernière Renaissance [...]. Elle est, je le crois fermement, un précurseur de l'ère du Verseau"
Edward James dans Leonora Carrington, A Retrospective Exhibition, cat. ex., Center for Inter-American Relations, New York, 1976, p. 11, 13 et 20.

"Leonora has indeed not ceased to travel the long ascent of her artistic development: a sort of Mount Carmel of discipline, scaled with the help of exquisitely accomplished sorcery. [...] The fact is that this painter’s inspiration is as timeless as it is ageless. She seems to recall scenery from incantations prior to this one… Carrington explored themes of magic and transformation across eight decades of painting, describing a reality at once animist and miraculous. ‘Leonora epitomizes the woman of our latter-day Renaissance [...]. She is, I firmly believe, a forerunner of the Age of Aquarius’
Edward James in Leonora Carrington, A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., Center for Inter-American Relations, New York, 1976, p. 11, 13 et 20.

Née en 1917 d’une mère irlandaise et d’un père anglais, Leonora mène une enfance et une adolescence assez mouvementée. Après deux renvois successifs, ses parents l’inscrivent dans un pensionnat à Florence puis à Paris. Elle devient en 1936 l’une des premières élèves d’Amédée Ozenfant, qui crée l’Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts à Londres et rejoint l’année suivante les Surréalistes. Carrington s’impose rapidement comme une figure majeure du groupe, au côté de Max Ernst, Nush et Paul Éluard, Man Ray ou encore Lee Miller.
L'œuvre de Leonora Carrington prend un tournant majeur en 1949, suit à sa lecture de The White Goddess, A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth de Robert Graves. Cette étude des religions archaïques des déesses aura en effet un impact direct sur l'œuvre de Carrington ; elle écrit à ce sujet que “la lecture de The White Goddess a été la plus grande révélation de ma vie" (W. Chadwick, Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, New York, 2021, p.186).
Résonant avec son désir de créer un art au pouvoir psychique et spirituel, cette lecture rappelle également à l'artiste son héritage irlandais et ses croyances philosophiques et mystiques. Elle fait ainsi résonner en elle les histoires celtiques que sa grand-mère maternelle Moorhead lui racontait petite, histoires selon lesquelles sa famille descendait du peuple légendaire irlandais des fées appelées les Tuatha dé Danaan, soit le peuple de la déesse Dana. Il s’agit, selon la légende, d’une race blanche et élancée, dotée d’une grande beauté et d’une grande intelligence, de grâce et de pouvoirs magiques mais surtout d’une capacité à se métamorphoser.
On ne peut dès lors s’empêcher de penser que les figures de Levitasium résonnent avec cette légende celtique chère à Leonora.

Born in 1917 to an Irish mother and English father, Leonora had a rather turbulent childhood and adolescence. After two successive expulsions, her parents enrolled her in a boarding school in Florence and then in Paris. In 1936 she became one of the first pupils of Amédée Ozenfant, who founded the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts in London, and the following year joined the Surrealists. Carrington quickly established herself as a major figure in the group, alongside Max Ernst, Nush and Paul Éluard, Man Ray and Lee Miller.
Leonora Carrington's work took a major turn in 1949, following her reading of The White Goddess, A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth by Robert Graves. This study of the archaic religions of the goddesses had a direct impact on Carrington's work; she wrote that "reading The White Goddess was the greatest revelation of my life" (W. Chadwick, Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, New York, 2021, p.186).Resonating with her desire to create art with psychic and spiritual power, this reading also reminded the artist of her Irish heritage and her philosophical and mystical beliefs. The Celtic stories told to her as a child by her maternal grandmother Moorhead, according to which her family descended from the legendary Irish fairy people known as the Tuatha dé Danaan, the people of the goddess Dana, resonate within her. According to legend, they are a slender, white race endowed with great beauty and intelligence, grace and magical powers, but above all the ability to metamorphose.So we can't help thinking that the figures in Levitasium resonate with this Celtic legend so dear to Leonora.
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