For the first time in its 127-year history, the Biennale featured a majority of female artists. In May 2023, Carrington’s 1945 painting Les Distractions de Dagobert went for $28.5 million at Sotheby’s, a new record for a British-born female artist.
Now, from January 22 to June 1, 2025, the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University will be giving Carrington her first ever museum exhibition in New England. Titled Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver the exhibition includes over 30 works showcasing a world filled with her magical energies reminiscent of the phantasmagorical scenes in paintings by the early Netherlandish painter, Hieronymus Bosch (c1450-1516).
We spoke with Dr. Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster Director, Rose Art Museum Chief Curator, and Professor of Fine Arts and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, about her admiration for Carrington and her motivation for organizing this exhibition.
“Leonora Carrington has always been a personal favorite. I came to know her through my work on Frida Kahlo.” [Ankori is internationally renowned for her groundbreaking scholarship on Frida Kahlo.] Although Carrington was born in 1917 in Lancashire, England, she spent most of her long and creative life in Mexico City, where she died on May 25, 2011 at the age of 94.