Leonora Carrington, Kitchen Garden on the Eyot and Surrealism in Mexico
Speaker: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank
A surrealist artist in Mexico
Modern surrealist artist Leonora Carrington often turned to alchemy, magic, mythical creatures, the occult, folklore, fairy tales, and more. Her egg tempera painting "Kitchen Garden on the Eyot" depicts a walled garden with egg-shaped forms, ghostly figures, mystical symbols, and perhaps hidden meanings. She painted it while she was pregnant and living in exile in Mexico City. In this video, we discuss why eggs are a major symbol here, what a walled garden has to do with the Virgin Mary, how alchemy connects to cooking and creation, and why a six-pointed star might be hiding in the garden.
Leonora Carrington, The Kitchen Garden on the Eyot, 1946, tempera on wood panel, 11 3/4 × 19 11/16 in. (30 × 50 cm) © Estate of Leonora Carrington. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Photo © Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank
Video chapters
0:00 A strange garden scene
0:58 Eggs
1:46 Pregnancy, Surrealism, and creation
2:44 A mystical scene, and the sacred and supernatural
4:37 A walled garden and the Virgin Mary
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