The British-born artist and writer Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) is one of the vanguards in the history of women artists and the history of Surrealism. The interests of this visionary—feminism, ecology, the arcane and the mystical, the interconnectedness of everything—are now shared by many. Challenging the conventions of her time, Carrington abandoned family, society, and England to embrace new experiences and forge a unique artistic style in Europe and the Americas. In this evocative illustrated biography, writer and journalist Joanna Moorhead traces her cousin’s footsteps, exploring the artist’s life, loves, friendships, and work.
Leading readers on a personal journey across Britain, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United States, and Mexico, Surreal Spaces describes the places and experiences that would become etched in Carrington’s memory and be echoed, sometimes decades later, in her art and writing—whether her grandmother’s kitchen with its giant stove; a remote Cornish hideaway where she holidayed with Max Ernst, Lee Miller, and Man Ray; the Left Bank of Paris; an asylum in Santander, Spain; New York, where she lived among other European exiles; or Mexico City, her final sanctuary. “Houses are really bodies,” Carrington wrote in her novella The Hearing Trumpet. “We connect ourselves with walls, roofs and objects just as we hang on to our livers, skeletons, flesh and blood streams.”
Featuring photographs, drawings, and paintings of the spaces that so richly influenced Carrington’s work, Surreal Spaces is an intimate and vivid portrait of a fascinating artist.
Awards and Recognition
- A Millions Most Anticipated Book
"In this illustrated biography, the brilliant artist and writer Leonora Carrington . . . finally gets her due."—Sophia Stewart, The Millions
"[An] illuminating biography [about] the personal life and artistic evolution of surrealist painter and sculptor Leonora Carrington. . . . [Surreal Spaces] is a revealing and accessible introduction to a noteworthy artist."—Publishers Weekly
"Illuminating."—Francesca Peacock, Spectator World
"Surreal Spaces offers a wealth of new information."—Matthew Gale, Art Newsaper
"[Surreal Spaces] has a great deal to commend. . . . Moorhead’s account . . . is suggestive and moving."—Keith Miller, The Telegraph
"[A] sumptuously illustrated biography. . . . As we read about Ms. Moorhead’s discovery of her cousin’s life and art, and are privy to their conversations, it is as if we are in one of Carrington’s beautifully crafted rooms. The tone of this biography is loving and seems to stem from a desire to share a family member and great artist with the rest of us."—Carl Rollyson, New York Sun
"A superb illustrated biography of Leonora Carrington. . . . The painting, the ideas and her life are fascinating, and time spent with them expands the admiration and appreciation of her work."—The Bookseller
"Carrington’s many selves dazzle at every turn in this evocative study of the spaces and places of the artist’s life and work."—Susan Harrow, The Conversation
"A beautifully crafted volume. . . . Fans of both Carrington and Moorhead, as well as the newly curious, will snap up this nicely paced introduction to a famous surrealist artist/writer. . . . What makes this unique among the plethora of books about Carrington is Moorhead’s personal and reflective perspective of family and shared space, despite some distance and time."—Library Journal
"In Surreal Spaces, the journalist Joanna Moorhead explores the physical places in which Carrington lived and worked. From the posh grimness of Crookley and the wild warmth of her grandmother’s kitchen in Ireland, through the sites of her astonishing artistic travels. . . . Moorhead’s insights are intimate and welcome."—Jesse Dorris, Surface Magazine
"Readers unfamiliar with the life, art, and writings of the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington will get an exceptional introduction in Surreal Spaces .... Carrington called surrealism the belief "that nothing is ordinary; that everything in life is extraordinary." That spirit permeates every page of this handsome book."—Shelf Awareness
"Fans of both Carrington and Moorhead, as well as the newly curious, will snap up this nicely paced introduction to a famous surrealist artist/writer, which is also an account of a deepening familial relationship. What makes this unique among the plethora of books about Carrington is Moorhead’s personal and reflective perspective of family and shared space, despite some distance and time."—Choice
"A captivating portrayal of Carrington that evokes her unique position in the surrealist movement and the aspects of her history and qualities of her art that have earned Carrington increasing scholarly attention."—Choice
"[a] direct and welcome biography of Carrington.... The book is generously illustrated with many of her paintings in color...a fabulous array of her witty world of ecclesiastical animals, totem birds, and extraordinary encounters."—Joy Williams, Book Post
"The stories of Carrington’s extraordinary life cannot help to beguile, amplified by the tender words of her cousin."—Alice Godwin, Brooklyn Rail
“Leonora leaps off the page in this fascinating biography of Britain’s peripatetic Surrealist. Moorhead’s fresh and personal account is every inch as compelling as Carrington’s mesmeric paintings.”—Charlotte Mullins, author of A Little History of Art
“Enjoyable and important. . . . Moorhead recounts Carrington’s life as if a collection of stories, each one building to produce a memorable impression of the eccentric and wonderful Leonora Carrington.”—Katy Hessel, author of The Story of Art without Men
