‘It had nothing to endow it with the title of studio at all,’ was Edward James’s first impression of Leonora Carrington’s Mexico City workspace in 1946. ‘The place was combined kitchen, nursery, bedroom, kennel and junk store. The disorder was apocalyptic: the appurtenances of the poorest. My hopes and expectations began to swell.’
Carrington blended Egpytian, Mayan, Mesopotamian and Celtic legends learned at her nanny’s knee
Over six decades in the creative chaos of this house on Calle Chihuahua, Carrington would paint some of her best-known works and write her quirky serio-comic novella The Hearing Trumpet, which is narrated by a 92-year-old woman. If you want to understand Carrington’s art, read her stories: to get the full picture you need to hear that posh authorial voice, as insouciantly piquant as a hat pin – a tone instantly recognisable in the filmed interview with the nonagenarian artist that closes Newlands House Gallery’s current exhibition.
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