����ֱ��

Art history students visit Leonora Carrington exhibition

Posted by karah.kemmerly

On October 9, 2024, students from ART210: Women in Art visited “” at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in Portland’s Pearl District to look at lithographic prints by Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington that depict costume designs for S. Ansky’s play The Dybbuk. Students were able to observe works of art face-to-face, to practice visual analysis of the images, and to learn about Carrington’s artistic practice influenced by her British heritage, World War II and her Jewish partners, and her life in Mexico.

One student wrote that Leonora Carrington’s “work offers escapism and adventure to the viewer.” In reflecting on the depiction of gender in Carrington’s prints, another student wrote, “The female figures in The Magic World by Leonara Carrington were depicted as beautiful and true integral characters of a make believe society. . . . Given this, it’s a well reasoned assumption that [art critic] Carol Duncan would appreciate how the female-like figures . . . are portrayed in a positive light. [Carrington’s] examples show how female artists have reclaimed the use of female imagery as a way to drive wholesome associations with women.” And, another student reflected, “Leonora Carrington . . . portrayed women in empowered, mythical roles. Her surrealist approach with dreamlike figures and vivid color schemes challenged conventional portrayals of women as objects.”

For further reading about Leonora Carrington’s series of 11 lithographic prints from 1974 illustrating costume designs for S. Ansky’s play The Dybbuk, see Matt Stromberg’s Hyperallergic article ““