The Invisible Painting: My Memoir of Leonora Carrington

Since her death in 2011, the legendary Surrealist Leonora Carrington has been reconstructed and reinvented many times over. In this book, Gabriel Weisz Carrington draws on remembered conversations and events to demythologise his mother, revealing the woman and the artist behind the iconic persona. He travels between Leonora's native England and adopted homeland of Mexico, making stops in New York and Paris and meeting some of the remarkable figures she associated with, from Max Ernst and Andre Breton to Remedios Varo and Alejandro Jodorowsky.

At the same time, he strives to depict a complex and very real Surrealist creator, exploring Leonora not simply in relation to her romantic partners or social milieus but as the artist she always was. A textured portrait emerges from conversations, memories, stories and Leonora's engagement with the books that she read. Using the act of writing to process and understand the death of his mother, the author has produced a moving and fascinating account of life, art, love and loss.

Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 1917 – 25 May 2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of the 1930s. Carrington was also a founding member of the women's liberation movement in Mexico during the 1970s.

Gabriel Weisz Carrington was born in Mexico in 1946 to Leonora Carrington and the Hungarian photographer Emeric Weisz, better known as Chiki. His unofficial godmothers are the painters Remedios Varo and Alice Rahon.

Gabriel is a writer and has published poetry, essays and other works of literature and theatre in different parts of the world. He teaches classes in literature and theatre at UNAM, and is president of the Fundación Leonora Carrington A.C. (Leonora Carrington Foundation) in collaboration with his partner and son.

• Dimensions 14.7 x 22.3 x 1.9 cm
• ISBN 9781526153937
• Hardback Yes
• Number of illustrations 16 Colour, 18 B&W
• Publisher Manchester University Press
• No of pages 152