When it comes to "Surrealism", which arose between the two world wars, Max Ernst and Salvador Dali have become representatives of this genre, and Rionora Carrington, a British-born Mexican artist, is forgotten in the corner, and her figure is both striking and lonely among male artists.
Carrington's key words in life are "expulsion" and "escape". Born into a wealthy British merchant family, as the only girl of the four children in the family, she did not become a pearl in the palm of her hand, but was ostracized by her brothers; as an adult, she hated to be a famous bridesmaid, her relationship with her father deteriorated, entered the surreal art world, fled to Paris; at the age of 20, she lived with her husband Max Ernst, rebelled against her stern father, was expelled from the house, and came to Mexico several times; and in her only habitat, art, as a woman, she was seen as the muse of the male artists around her. And not an artist with his own ideas and insights.
Because of her feud with her father and brothers, Carrington has been building a world of her own since she was a child, and until the age of 94, she did not think about compromising with the world. Like the absurd but free spirit conveyed by Surrealism, whether it is gender or aesthetic prejudice, she has been breaking through the shackles, not so much that she was expelled for rebellion, but that she was born in the art world she had constructed, so she was incompatible with human beings.
Unpleasant childhood
Carrington was born into a typical motherly and strict father family, she was the only daughter in the family, the daughter who was not expected and always disappointed her father. Carrington's family conditions are good, and from an early age, her father expected her to become a famous woman and find a good marriage in high society, after all, in that era, marriage was Carrington's value to his father. However, Carrington did not follow the trajectory prescribed by her father from an early age, and she became more and more estranged from her father, and the estrangement between the two became more and more obvious.
What do we talk about when we look back on an artist's life? In addition to the style of work and lifestyle, we enjoy tracing the roots. In terms of the original family, posterity can always see that many artists are disobedient to their fathers, which is probably the necessary life experience setting for artists of that era. Knowing that "patriarchy" was equal to authority in that period, if Carrington did not question the father in the small family, how could her future work speak for itself in the wider world? It is not so much that the environment always makes the artist, but that the self is carved into their bones.
Carrington was sent to Catholic boarding school at the age of 11, but was expelled from the school. In monastic schools, she learned not to cooperate because she hated compromise. Carrington, who returned home, was not depressed, and her mother understood her very well. Carrington's strange imagination came from his mother. Her mother is a Celt, the myths, ghosts and ghosts of her mother's native Ireland are what fascinate Carrington, the walls of her room are painted with fairy tales, and in the future she will often see terrifying but interesting monsters in her works, which is the influence of her mother on her.
Although Carrington and the mother are full of strange ideas in their minds, the mother cannot always indulge the willfulness of her daughter, and the parents care about more tangible interests. Carrington was sent to London and began social activities. "First Socializing" is a book she later wrote, and the experience of riding horses and attending dances every day was torture for Carrington. As she wished, no man proposed to her.
Faced with her overwhelmed parents, Carrington has a clear plan for her life, and she is going to London to study painting. There she saw the familiar surrealism, one world interspersed with another, full of dreams and imaginations. The Surrealist artists of the time were not recognized, even notorious, in London, and they were seen as crazy or people who deserved to be locked up, while Carrington wanted to be one of them, to be recognized by them who were similar to herself, and for the first time she wanted to compromise in the art world.
Carrington's intransigence was the cause of her childhood unpleasantness, and was this intransigence good or bad? In Carrington or surrealist artists, rebellion is a way of expressing oneself. We are always taught to say that the minority should obey the majority, but what cannot be denied is that the minority also has the right to speak, anger, ridicule, melancholy, these negative emotions do not exist because the masses do not accept it. We do not say that it is silence, and their artistic expression is brave.
Fly over the insane asylum
At art school, Carrington met max Ernst, a surrealist artist she greatly admired. The excitement is probably like a fan sister meeting an idol she has admired for a long time, and in Carrington's eyes, she appreciates his talent and uniqueness. They soon fell in love, and although Ernst was married, Carrington didn't care when he was his lover.
The surrealist painter plus the husband of a woman, these two labels are fatal to Carrington's father, who desperately tries to prevent his daughter's undignifiedness and tries to get Ernst arrested for the erotic content of the exhibition. However, Carrington has decided that she will live with Ernst. Carrington went to Paris, and her father nearly broke ties with her.
Life in Paris is wonderful, and when she is with the Surrealists, she is very free. They want to break every rule, which is the shackle that Carrington has wanted to escape since childhood. However, is there really no rule in their world?
At the age of 20, Carrington parachuted into the surrealist art scene as the lover of the famous Ernst, and she met the most famous artists of the time, who were avant-garde and modern, but whose ideas about women were still pedantic. For most of them, women are sources of inspiration, sex and beautiful creatures, and they are not artists. Carrington doesn't see women as non-contributors to art, she refuses to fit herself into the male-shaped female template, and no matter how much she likes the circle, she has an uncompromising side. She wants to always remind people that she is an artist, that she is a woman, that she has her own work, that she is not anyone's muse.
During his time with Ernst, Carrington learned a lot. It is blissful to spend every day with the people you love and are interested in, but this time of poetry and distant places came to an abrupt end at the beginning of World War II, and Carrington was about to be imprisoned in a terrible cage.
At the beginning of World War II, ernst of German descent was arrested, and Carrington was stimulated, did not eat or drink, and was on the verge of madness. Her father sent her to a mental hospital, which was the best decision for her emotionally broken. Carrington was tricked into going in, and she was recuperating as if she had walked through hell. She was asked to take a drug that triggered epilepsy, tied up naked, and surrounded by doctors and nurses who looked at her in horror. It was a "family decision" that no one had communicated with Carrington, who thought she was crazy and that she was going to be thrown into a mental hospital and suffer without dignity. Carrington was conscious, and she had not forgotten to escape.
Her diplomat friend Renato Leduc managed to bring her to Mexico to help her get out of depression after she was discharged from the hospital. At this point, Carrington and his family were completely separated from his homeland. Carrington and Leduc came to Mexico with a fake marriage and obtained a passport, but she did not speak Spanish and could not communicate with people. This escape is hasty and hasty, without artistic overtones, and it will be an exotic wanderer with an uncertain future.
People from other worlds
In Mexico, Carrington slowly became acquainted with many intellectuals who had similar experiences to her, who came from different countries and were unable to reunite with their families. At a party, she met Emerik Wiez, a Hungarian photographer. When Carrington saw him, her assessment was that he should be the father of my child.
Carrington and Wiez were both wartime refugees who had escaped from chaotic Europe and settled in Mexico. Because they experience the same pain, they understand each other better. They soon married, and Carrington did not stop painting during her pregnancy, and she had the ability to conceive new lives and create new worlds. Becoming a mother was an amazing experience Carrington had never had before, and she enjoyed the moment of holding her child in one hand and drawing with a paintbrush in the other.
Having children of her own is very important for her because it is the only unconditional love she can have in her life. Perhaps she grew up accustomed to loneliness and fear of loneliness, and her days in a mental hospital and her first arrival in Mexico also made her realize that she was weak alone, and that children would not leave her. Although Carrington's childhood was unhappy, she wanted to be a good mother.
Carrington did not give up her work because she was with her children, she would stay in the studio and wait for the inspiration to appear, but she never talked about her work, let alone coveted commercial interests. She believes that the work is a natural result and does not need so many reasons. If Carrington has insisted on something all his life, in addition to not compromising, but also being true to himself.
When it comes to home, Carrington doesn't believe it's a stable place, whether it's England or Mexico, she can't always fit in, so she's been creating the otherworld that the world laughs at and says is absurd. Before her death in 2011, according to her son, she himself said she saw a fascinating flock of blackbirds on the wall, which may have come for her, taking her to the wonderful world she had created.
Carrington has been running away all her life, and at the end of her life, as she says, she is going to embark on a new journey, and that is death. Carrington was not afraid, and that was the continuation of her escape.
Artists inherently have a unique label, and female artists who circle around male circles are even cooler beings, and Carrington is such a person. Breaking up with her father, not being innocent, going to a mental hospital, and getting a fake marriage, the gimmicks of each of her stories seem to overwhelm the artwork itself. What I appreciated more was Carrington's laid-back attitude, and she never regretted looking back on every decision she had and every bizarre experience in her old age. Carrington has been running away, escaping the unhappiness that she has to compromise, and the artwork is probably a tribute to the reason for each of her escapes and the real criticism, and in retrospect, whether it is the absurd paintings or the stories behind them, they all shine in Carrington's life.