Leonora Carrington
1917-2011 · British-Mexican · Surrealism
Auction record: $28.49M
Les Distractions de Dagobert, 1945 · Sotheby's, New York · May 15, 2024
Source: artnews.com
Biography
Leonora Carrington (1917 to 2011) was a British-born Surrealist painter, sculptor and writer who settled in Mexico in 1942 and became a central figure of its modern art scene. Her paintings build dreamlike worlds of hybrid creatures, alchemy and Celtic and Mexican myth, painted with the precision of old master technique. Long seen as a secondary figure next to Max Ernst, she was reassessed after the 2022 Venice Biennale took its title from her book The Milk of Dreams. The market followed: Les Distractions de Dagobert sold for 28.5 million dollars at Sotheby's in May 2024, and in November 2024 La Grande Dame set a record for her sculpture, placing her among the most valuable women artists at auction.
Recent auction results
| La Grande Dame (The Cat Woman), 1951Sotheby's, New York | $11.38M | Nov 18, 2024 | heni.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temple of the Word, 1954Sotheby's, New York | $4.56M | Nov 18, 2024 | sothebys.com |
Market
- Liquidity: Medium
Museums
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
- Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Sources
- ARTnews: Leonora Carrington record at Sotheby's (05/2024)
- The Art Newspaper: Carrington auction record (2024)
- HENI News: La Grande Dame sells for $11.38m (18/11/2024)
- Sotheby's: Fall 2024 auction results
- Sotheby's lot page: El retorno de la osa mayor (2026)
- Wikipedia: Leonora Carrington
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