Joanna Moorhead on Leonora Carrington
In\xa0Episode\xa006\xa0of The Great Women Artists Podcast, Katy Hessel interviews journalist Joanna Moorhead,\xa0the long lost cousin, biographer and world expert of one of the greatest surrealist painters ever to exist, LEONORA CARRINGTON!!!\n\nAnd WOW, will it shock you to find out that Joanna only found out about her long lost cousin a mere THIRTEEN years ago, by which point the great artist was 89. Determined to track her down, Joanna flew straight to Mexico to find her cousin \u2013\xa0who was never allowed to be spoken about in her family since her dramatic exit in 1937...\n\nBorn in 1917 in a large gothic mansion \u2013 that inspired many of her later paintings \u2013\xa0Carrington had an isolated childhood. The only girl of three brothers, age 15 Carrington was sent to London be a debutant, but she resisted, only to head straight to art school where she ended up falling in love with Max Ernst, the married Surrealist painter 26 years her senior...\n\nAfter a huge row with her family \u2013 she never saw her father again \u2013 she headed straight for Paris. But this was 1936 and war was imminent. And it wasn't going to be easy for the young Leonora to venture out on her own. Listen now to discover how the young Leonora escaped Europe for Mexico, the country where Carrington resided until her death in 2011... \n\nI couldn't be more delighted to interview Joanna about Leonora and her fantastically surreal paintings \u2013 many of which echo her childhood \u2013 and to find out first hand about the artist's life and take on her work, and of course, their meeting in 2006. \n\nWORKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:\xa0\n\nSelf Portrait (In of the Dawn Horse), 1937\u201338https://www.metmuseum.org/en/art/collection/search/492697\n\nPortrait of Max Ernst, 1939https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/164061/portrait-max-ernst\n\nDo You Know My Aunt Eliza?, 1941https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/carrington-do-you-know-my-aunt-eliza-t11911\n\nGreen Tea, 1942https://bit.ly/31N9PoY\n\nCrookhey Hall, 1947https://bit.ly/2BNPhC8\n\nGrandma Moorhead's Aromatic Kitchen, 1975https://bit.ly/2PnZGMV\n\nFurther reading \u2013\xa0\nJoanna's book:\xa0https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/joanna-moorhead/the-surreal-life-of-leonora-carrington/9780349008776/\nArticle on the book:\xa0https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/05/the-surreal-life-of-leonora-carrington-joanna-moorhead-review\nBBC documentary:\xa0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxEF1bjgt5Q&t=1121s\n\nThank you for listening!! This episode is sponsored by the Affordable Art Fair: @affordableartfairuk\n\nFollow us:\nKaty Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel\nArtwork by @thisisaliceskinner\nSound editing by @_ellieclifford \nMusic by Ben Wetherfield