Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art

This is one of only two books in English that I know of devoted to Leonora Carrington, a fantastic (in all senses) Surrealist artist and writer who was born in England but did most of her work in Mexico. If you like fantasy/surrealist art and don’t know Carrington’s work, or do know it but have only seen a few examples, I strongly recommend that you purchase this book immediately. I want to praise Susan Aberth and her publisher as well as Carrington, however: this book is everything I think an art book should be—and that too few of them are. The photographs of the art are clear, numerous, mostly full page, and all in vivid color (except for a few photographs of people that were not in color to begin with). Aberth’s text is also illuminating, describing Carrington’s life, bringing out her major themes (such as her blending of myths and symbols from disparate cultures, particularly Celtic [her family background] and Mexican [her adopted background], and her feminist view of alchemy as a form of cooking), and analyzing several paintings in detail. Her analysis almost always refers to features that can actually be seen in the reproductions—which is by no means always the case in art books, I’ve found. Her language is clear and easy to understand, not drowning in academic art-critic-ese. I have admired Carrington’s work for a long time, and I definitely felt that I understood it, and her, better after reading Aberth’s commentary.

I've wanted this book for a while and this paperback version is perfect. The color plates of her artwork are really beautiful.

I loved this book. It really provides a fascinating profile of the artist and shows her stunning paintings and sculptures.

I will be using Leonora Carrington's artwork to inspire an art lesson about mythical creatures.

If you don’t know her, you should! Her work is fantastic and this book is great.

I wish more people recognized this artist for her brilliance. I'm happy this book exists, and that it is an excellent one at that.

I was so excited to receive this book and it is filled with beautiful works as I had hoped. However, it was shipped in a non-protective plastic bubble wrap package and the right corner of the book was bent/slightly damaged when received. I recommend that Amazon ships this book in a cardboard box with filler paper for protection.

Son turned me on to this artist. Love not only looking at the art but learning about her life

This is an amazing and beautiful book. If you like Leonora, you're going to love this book. The images and the text are wonderful.

A lovely collection of a very small amount of this prolific artist's work. Beautiful reproductions of her paintings. Recommended.

Insightful read, show cases the art and skill of Leonora Carrington.

Livre magnifique d'une artiste méconnue et brillante. L'anglais est assez sophistiqué, cependant.

Me hubiera gustado comprar la versión de pasta dura, pero aun así este es una belleza, el papel, las reproducciones, todo el libro es fabuloso.