Readings on Art
Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington by Joanna Moorhead
Leonora Carrington is one of the most important women artists in the Surrealist movement. Her personal and artistic interests included feminism, ecology, mysticism, and the interconnection of all things. Carrington was born in England but left to pursue art in Europe and the Americas.
This book is well illustrated and covers her personal life as well as her artwork. It follows her travels to France, Italy Spain, Portugal, the United States and Mexico. The book is written by her cousin. Moorhead is a writer and journalist. The book is well written and interesting as well as easy to read.
How to Be Both by Ali Smith
This novel was a Man Booker Prize finalist. It intertwines too stories – that of a Renaissance artist and a modern tourist. The writing is elegant and the story fascinating. Besides the story of art, it explores the question of how to be both male and female, how to know who you are, and how the past lives on in the present. The Renaissance artist trains and achieves success if not monetary award painting frescoes. The modern story follows the creation of a fictional biography of the original artists by a teenager and their mother.
Ali Smith is the author of many works of fiction and has received many literary awards. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
How to be Both by Ali Smith is available in the Geneva Public Library.
