The Essential Guide to Surrealism's Chloé: Literature, Carrington's Art, and Cultural Impact
By Chloe Bennett
Chloe Aridjis grew up immersed in Mexican intellectual culture as the daughter of poet and diplomat Homero Aridjis. That proximity granted her rare access to Leonora Carrington during the painter's final decades in Colonia Roma. In The Yale Review, Aridjis recounts visits to Carrington’s modest townhouse, a sanctuary marked not by high-art pretension, but by jars of herbs, unwashed paintbrushes, and simmering pots of tea. Carrington had fled Europe during World War II after surviving Max Ernst's arrest and her own harrowing institutionalization in Santander, Spain. In Mexico, she found refuge, building a creative community alongside Spanish painter Remedios Varo and photographer Kati Horna.
Aridjis treats Carrington neither as an untouchable icon nor as Ernst's abandoned muse. She presents an elderly woman who remained wickedly funny, intensely superstitious, and perpetually skeptical of academic analysis. Carrington painted late into the night, using egg tempera recipes straight out of Renaissance workshop manuals to generate hybrid beasts, alchemical kitchens, and enigmatic goddesses. Aridjis’s personal memoir bridges the gap between historical scholarship and human presence, capturing Carrington’s voice before it hardened into museum plaque orthodoxy.
Chloe Bennett explores the intersection of pop culture, streaming entertainment, digital trends, and contemporary lifestyle. Her weekly commentary reaches thousands of culture enthusiasts.
