Leonora Carrington’s mystical menagerie has a new home at Almine Rech.
The gallery is now the exclusive partner of the Consejo Leonora Carrington in France, giving its global network—with locations in Paris, London, Shanghai, New York, and beyond—access to the fantastical paintings and sculptures that cemented her place in the Surrealist canon.
Almine Rech will mark the collaboration with the debut of a bronze sculpture cast from a life model Carrington created in 2010 at Art Basel this June. The Basel presentation will be followed by a solo exhibition at the gallery’s Paris Turenne location in September. Organized in collaboration with the Consejo Leonora Carrington, founded by Carrington’s son, Pablo Weisz Carrington, and the art advisory firm Rossogranada, the exhibition serves as a strong introduction to Carrington’s shape-shifting practice, bringing together paintings, drawings, sculptures, tapestries, and writings.
Based on the images shared by Almine Rech, it’s a safe wager that the Basel-bound sculptures will make the booth a must-see. Carrington, who died in 2011, devoted the final 17 years of her life to creating bronze figures and masks, conjuring her chimeric cast out of the canvas and into our own. La Hija del Minotauro (The Minotaur’s Daughter, 2010) is a “magnificent example” of that translation, in the gallery’s words. The titular figure—a willowy woman crowned with sun rays—drifted out of the interdimensional dinner party depicted in Carrington’s 1953 painting And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur, a jewel of the Surrealist galleries at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Leonora Carrington, Mujer con Zorro, 2010.
© Consejo Leonora Carrington – Courtesy Consejo Leonora Carrington, rossogranada and Almine Rech
Carrington was prolific across disciplines (she even penned a children’s book, The Milk of Dreams), but her sculpture practice has more recently received greater institutional attention in the United States and Europe. In a rare stateside showing, a selection of bronze works and jewelry is currently on view at L’Space Gallery in New York, in collaboration with the Consejo Leonora Carrington. The Minotaur’s Daughter would find like-minded company among the group at L’Space Gallery, which includes a bird-headed goddess and a giddy, two-legged sun.
Almine Rech notes in its announcement Carrington’s fascination with mythology (particularly Celtic), the occult, and, like her Surrealist peers, the dreamlike subconscious. Born in England, she is often defined by her fateful visit to the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, where she encountered the work of Max Ernst and other artists who would become peers and collaborators (a new film offers a fictionalized account of Carrington’s journey from London to Mexico).
The gallery, as the newest custodian of her legacy, doesn’t seem interested in smoothing that story into a neat arc.
“Leonora Carrington is often discussed through the lens of Surrealism, but what stands out to me is her extraordinary independence,” Almine Rech told ARTnews. “She moved effortlessly between mediums because she was never interested in fitting into a category. Looking across her works, you encounter not only a remarkable artist but a singular personality. Carrington famously rejected the role often imposed upon women in the arts, declaring, ‘I didn’t have time to be anyone’s muse. I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist.’”
