"The Flowering of the Crone: Leonora Carrington, Another Reality"

“I didn't have time to be anyone's muse,” said celebrated Surrealist painter and author Lenora Carrington. “I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist." In 1938 she met Max Ernst and within months they moved to France. “From Max I had my education,” she said. “He taught me everything.” After the Gestapo arrested him, she suffered a breakdown and was institutionalized. This experience influenced her story Down Below. To escape, she married a Mexican diplomat and moved to Mexico City where she lived until her death in May 2011. Although friendly with many famed male artists, she was undaunted by the era’s sexism. Once Miró handed her coins and told her to buy him cigarettes. She recounts, “I gave it back and said if he wanted cigarettes, he could bloody well get them himself.”

This video features a reading of her piece The Debutante.