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A review by thecommonswings
Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art by Leonora Carrington, Susan Aberth
5.0
Two of my current projects deal with houses, in a way, and particularly with houses as unsafe and mysterious places, riddled with mysteries and strange happenings behind locked doors. In essence, I’m trying to replicate something of the experience of seeing Carrington’s images in prose without leaning too heavily on her own writing: and the illustrated project tries to capture something of her magic without copying it. Which, I assure you, is really sodding hard especially when you’re being inspired by almost literally the best
Ardath’s writing occasionally falls into overheated academic nonsense, but it becomes more and more apparent as you read on that this is because Carrington’s art is hard to explain or do justice to in simple terms. Ardath is incredibly astute and has some really fascinating insights into images I know very well and it feels like the best kind of art criticism - knowledgeable, witty, thoughtful, intelligent and very enthusiastic. Although Carrington’s art can seem forbiddingly obtuse and tricky to connect with at first, Ardath manages to locate a universality in it for everyone to see how extraordinary this artist and writer really was. A glorious book
Ardath’s writing occasionally falls into overheated academic nonsense, but it becomes more and more apparent as you read on that this is because Carrington’s art is hard to explain or do justice to in simple terms. Ardath is incredibly astute and has some really fascinating insights into images I know very well and it feels like the best kind of art criticism - knowledgeable, witty, thoughtful, intelligent and very enthusiastic. Although Carrington’s art can seem forbiddingly obtuse and tricky to connect with at first, Ardath manages to locate a universality in it for everyone to see how extraordinary this artist and writer really was. A glorious book