The countdown begins for the opening of Faro Santander, the new art center in the Cantabrian capital. And one of the exhibitions that will be offered starting September 8 will be that of Leonora Carrington, born in 1917 in Lancashire (England). It is about Symptomatic surrealismthe first exhibition dedicated exclusively to the artistic work that the painter, writer and visionary created during her hospitalization at the Dr. Luis Morales sanatorium in Santander. A psychiatric clinic known for the phil-Nazi methods of its director.
The exhibition is a milestone thanks to the fact that it will host the public presentation, announced today Thursday, of the oil on canvas known as Villa Pilarwhich the artist dedicated and gave to her doctor when she left the sanatorium and which has remained hidden for decades. The painting is property of the Morales family and sees the light of day for the first time, allowing us to deepen and enrich the understanding of a crucial period in Carrington’s career. This work, which represents four anthropomorphic creatures characteristic of the artist’s imagination, had never been exhibited or published before.
“The recovery of Villa Pilar “It is not only a material discovery, but also an opportunity to reclaim an artistic and emotional memory that has remained long hidden,” emphasizes Daniel Vega, director of Faro Santander, in a statement issued by the institution. “During his stay in Santander, Carrington conceives one of the most overwhelming autobiographical testimonies of 20th century literature, Memories from below (Down Below, 1944), and made a series of drawings and paintings that condense the intensity of that experience,” he adds.
Co-organized with the Freud Museum in London, Leonora Carrington: symptomatic surrealism It is the first exhibition to bring together some of the drawings from his notebooks made during his stay in the sanatorium, until now scattered. This period begins with the artist’s dramatic escape from Nazi-occupied France and her subsequent hospitalization in Santander. As part of his treatment at said clinic, from August 24, 1940 until January 1, 1941, the medical staff encouraged Carrington to draw to “organize his thoughts and explain himself to him.” The artist also worked independently in her sketchbooks, making numerous pencil drawings and two oil paintings: Down Below and the one known as Villa Pilar.
Her transfer by paternal order to the Santander psychiatric hospital is one of the darkest moments of the artist’s life. “These works were produced under circumstances completely different from any that Carrington had experienced,” notes the exhibition’s curator, Vanessa Boni. “Villa Pilar It is an oil painting on canvas that represents, on a greenish background and with a landscape of volcanoes, four creatures: the free horse – eternal symbol of Leonora’s alter ego – along with the rebellious hyena, the peacock – symbol of immortality and resurrection – and the white guard dog.
The work will be exhibited next to the emblematic canvas Down Below, which represents several residents on the grounds of the sanatorium converted into hybrid human-animal creatures, a painting that was dedicated and given by the artist in 1941 in Madrid to the Mexican diplomat Renato Leduc, who helped her escape to New York. It will be the first time that the two paintings are exhibited together in the city where Leonora Carrington created them.
Carrington referred to this period of his life as “down below” (“down there”), describing it as an experience similar to “being dead.” “It is not only about hosting the work of one of the most important surrealist artists, but about recognizing and reviewing a chapter of her biography deeply rooted in the city of Santander,” emphasizes Daniel Vega.
Among the highlights included in the show are antiquities of Freud, which he collected and displayed in his studio, the heart of global psychoanalysis, and depicting deities of the Egyptian underworld, including Osiris, king of the dead, and Anubis. The exhibition also incorporates a participatory space that invites the public to explore the symbolic systems that underpinned the work of Leonora Carrington: occultism, alchemy and, in a unique way, the tarot.
Leonora Carrington was a surrealist writer and painter born in the United Kingdom and naturalized Mexican. After a period of psychological crisis, hospitalization in Spain and exile in New York, Carrington emigrated to Mexico in 1942, where she spent the rest of her days until her death in May 2011. She had turned 94 and was considered one of the great artists of the 20th century.