The Medium of Leonora Carrington: A feminist haunting in the contemporary arts

by Catriona McAra

Before her death, the artist and writer Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) had already garnered a cult following, with numerous creative people making the pilgrimage to meet her at her home in Mexico City. Since then, her fame has only increased.

Thinking across contemporary art media, this book demonstrates how Carrington has posthumously become a medium in her own right, critically haunting the creative intellectuals who met or knew her. It explores the work of a remarkable variety of individuals and organisations, including the artists Lucy Skaer, Samantha Sweeting and Lynn Lu, the actress Tilda Swinton, the novelists Chloe Aridjis and Heidi Sopinka and the ensemble Double Edge Theatre.

This long-awaited study provides essential reading for both new and established members of the burgeoning Carrington fan club.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

248 pages, Hardcover

Published November 29, 2022

About the author

Dr. Catriona McAra is an art historian and curator based in Scotland and working internationally. She is Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Aberdeen. She is an authority on feminist-surrealism, having published books on Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington. Her books are The Medium of Leonora Carrington (MUP, 2022) and A Surrealist Stratigraphy of Dorothea Tanning (Routledge, 2017).