Sphinx: The Life and Art of Leonor Fini
- Artist: Leonor Fini
- Published: 2009
- Publisher: The Vendome Press, New York
- Edition: -
- Format: Hardback
- Height: 32cm
- Pages: 304
- Illustrations: Includes 160 full-color and 139 black-and-white illustrations
£60.00
Add to basketSphinx: The Life and Art of Leonor Fini
Talented, glamorous, and controversial, Leonor Fini (1907-1996) was one of the most influential women artists of the mid-twentieth century. From her opulent, bohemian childhood in Trîeste, to her debut in a group exhibition at the age of seventeen, to her life in Paris and prominent place in the international art world—is stunningly depicted by Peter Webb, an art historian and Fini’s close friend, in this lavish volume. Vibrant full-color plates of her paintings and period photographs of the artist, her friends, and contemporaries offer a rich accompaniment to the text.
Leonor Fini was legendary for both her vivacious personality and her provocative subjects. She developed close relationships with the Surrealists and and other avant-garde artists and writers including Giorgio de Chirico, Joseph Cornell, Jean Genet, Meret Oppenheim, Leonora Carrington, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and Max Ernst. Central themes of Fini’s art—sphinxes, felines, priestesses, and nudes—are bold proclamations of female sexuality that make a powerful contribution to surrealism as well as to feminist art theory . In addition to her paintings, Fini was renowned for her theatrical set designs, costumes, and posters. Photographs in Sphinx depict these works as well.
From early childhood sketchbooks to paintings created throughout her career to captivating photographs—including Henri Cartier-Bresson’s nude portrait of Fini in a pool, which recently sold at auction for a record sum—Sphinx offers a fascinating portrait of a magnetic woman who lived her life with panache and elegance, deftly wrapping drama into her art.
