The Dreamlike Wedding of Leonora Carrington

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

In Paris, the English Leonora Carrington was close to the Surrealists. Very young, she had an affair with Max Ernst. When came the Second World War, she almost descended into madness, and then took refuge in Mexico where she married twice. She was a key personality of the intense artistic life of Mexico, where she still lives in the same corner after six decades.

In October 1944, she pictorially celebrated her second Mexican marriage, with the Hungarian Chiki. This oil, tempera and ink 90 x 90 cm, French entitled "Chiki, ton pays" (Chiki, your country) was sold 420 K £ including expenses by Sotheby's in London in February 2002. It is again coming at auction, estimated $ 1.2 million, at Sotheby's in New York on May 27.

A giant woman with a very small head occupies the left part of a fantastic landscape, completed with a pond that provides impossible reflections. The newlyweds dominate this dream scene from the top inside of a bright red draped mountain.

This friend of Frida Kahlo is definitely one of the discoveries of this spring. The theme of the small headed giant woman is the main subject of a tempera on panel, circa 1947, 120 x 69 cm, estimated 800 K$ by Christie's in New York on May 28.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

For "Chiki ton pays", the market did not follow the arguments of the auction house on the importance of the work. This painting has not been sold. Surrealism is too complicated to interpret, and it is increasingly difficult to achieve high prices there.

Wait now Christie's lot, less important in the work of the artist, but also less difficult to decode.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

There is no doubt, it is the surprise of the day. Christie's sold their painting, $ 1.5 million including expenses. This result, well above the estimate, is also higher than what Sotheby's was waiting on Chiki.

This Giantess, also called the Guardian of the Egg, is as dreamlike as Chiki, but the simplicity (and thus the strength) of its design enabled it to succeed.