The Musée du Luxembourg in Paris has opened the first major exhibition in France dedicated solely to the work of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Titled 'The Vitruvian Woman,' the show presents 126 works and frames Carrington as a model of innovation and harmony, a deliberate counterpoint to Leonardo da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man.' It explores her artistic journey from her Celtic origins and discovery of Italian Renaissance art to her pivotal involvement with Surrealism in France and her final years in Mexico.
The exhibition is significant as it corrects a historical oversight, providing Carrington with her first major solo show in France despite her cult status in Mexico and growing international recognition. It positions her not just as a surrealist, but as a complete artist, feminist, and spiritual seeker whose work synthesizes human, animal, masculine, and feminine elements. The curatorial approach uses new biographical research to highlight her radical legacy and multifaceted identity as a migrant, mother, and critic of 20th-century psychiatry.