The Surrealist Women in the Geneviève & Jean-Paul Kahn Library

On 3 January 1935, Leonora Carrington (one of the Surrealists chosen by the Kahns) started a diary in the form of a letter addressed to herself. At just 18, she set herself a goal: to be an artist. "Give up dreaming and become a true artist, no matter how bad – but be an artist." She attained her goal, illustrating the essence of the movement on a par with the men. Raised as a member of the British gentry and sent to a boarding school in Florence, Leonora keenly admired the painters of the Quattrocento, particularly Uccello – considered a forerunner by the Surrealists. She resumed her diary on 28 March 1939. Her life then took a completely different turn: for two years earlier, she had met Max Ernst in a London gallery. Her writings reflect their life in Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche. Her pictorial work and fantastical poems, like The House of Fear (1938) illustrated by her lover, as well as this diary (€12,000/15,000), evoke her exclusive and obsessive passion for the German painter. Ernst was arrested in 1940, and she was devastated by the separation. After fleeing to Madrid, she broke down and was hospitalised. She managed to get to the US and went to live in Mexico, where she took…