Animal Myhts in Surrealist Paintings
Leonora Carrington’s long career as a painter has celebrated the mystery and mythology of animals both real and imaginary.
Leonora Carrington’s totem animal, and the animal most commonly seen in her work, is a white horse. Carrington is an example of a female artist who identified strongly with animals, and used them constantly in her work throughout her career. Creatures both real and imaginary populate her canvases in great numbers.
Carrington’s work evokes “an alternative world of harmony, where humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects are on an equal footing”. These animals are usually portrayed as benevolent messengers from a parallel fantasy reality in which form is not constrained by physical laws. While some of Carrington’s creatures are beings of pure fantasy, and as such could be viewed as distortions of the real, they do not exhibit the harsh aggression against the corporeal which is often evident in the work of male Surrealists.
The painting And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur demonstrates this peaceable approach. Carrington’s interest in animals, mythology, and the connection that women have to these things is evident here. Janice Helland writes that “most of the components of the painting are symbols for female deities or magic: the white dog and the grain are symbols of the Greek goddess Demeter; the butterfly can be associated with the Minoan goddess or with a female deity in general…The image is serene, calm, commanding, and sovereign. Dread, debasement, and erotic violence are absent.”
A World Without Technology
Interestingly, machines are absent as well. Carrington’s dream architecture, populated by crystal balls, children in dark capes, and a mysterious white dancing figure, all beneath a ceiling of clouds, evokes an archaic place very far removed from the technological violence of the twentieth century. This absence of machines and technology is all the more striking when one considers their prominence in the work of male contemporaries such as Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Max Ernst. Ernst, in particular, was a very important figure in Carrington’s life both personally and artistically, and yet her art shows little or no influence from him.
Carrington’s well known Self-Portrait reinforces the theme of the mythical animal. In this painting, Carrington’s image of herself reaches out toward a hyena while looking at the viewer. Her advocacy of a world where “fabulous animals share the existence of the portrayed Leonora” is clear. The rocking horse behind her, and the white horse which can be seen galloping across the landscape through the window, speak of escape and a return to a world of nature. The work as a whole “gives animal and mythical expression to newly found love and freedom”.
Rather than rebelling in a violent way against those who would control her, Carrington creates a parallel reality in her paintings in which, represented by animals and female deities, she is in a position of strength where she is not in danger of being used as a vehicle for the schemes or motives of someone else. Rather than confronting reality and attempting to overcome it, Carrington retreats from the struggle and creates another reality in which she feels more at home.