Visitors to London’s Freud Museum encounter Leonora Carrington’s art in an intimate, dimly lit space for the exhibition The Symptomatic Surreal. This marks the first UK showcase of the British-Mexican surrealist’s work in 35 years. Unlike vibrant displays in Mexico, where Carrington resided from 1942 until 2011, this show spotlights sketches from her 1940 internment at Peña Castillo sanatorium in Santander, Spain.
A Life Marked by Rebellion and Turmoil
Born in 1917 in Chorley, northwest England, to a wealthy textile family, Carrington rejected societal expectations of debutante life. She pursued art and surrealism in Paris, forming a relationship with married German surrealist Max Ernst. The pair settled in Provence, but World War II disrupted their lives. Ernst’s arrest as an enemy alien and detention in Camp des Milles forced Carrington to flee advancing Nazi forces.
Crossing into Spain via Andorra, Carrington suffered a mental breakdown upon reaching Madrid. She spent about six months in the sanatorium, later describing the ordeal as “being dead.” In a conversation with friend Marina Warner, she explained: “I’d suffered so much when Max was taken away to the camp, I entered a catatonic state, and I was no longer suffering in an ordinary human dimension.”
Curatorial Focus on Suffering and Rebirth
Curator Vanessa Boni emphasizes Carrington’s unsafe period, including three Cardiazol treatments that induced seizures to enforce compliance. The exhibition weaves themes of death and transformation, linking sanatorium sketches to Carrington’s future Mexican influences. Statuettes of Egyptian deities—Anubis, Isis, Horus, and Osiris—from Sigmund Freud’s collection highlight shared fascinations with death as rebirth.
Personal letters to her father, excerpts from her 1944 memoir Down Below, and related artworks trace her psychological journey. Both Freud and Carrington explored the “down below,” or underworld, evoking Mexico’s Mictlán—a transformative realm post-death where mortality integrates into daily life.
“I didn’t know where I was going. This seems to be a recurring thing in my life. I think it’s death practice.”
Key Work: The Painting Down Below
The centerpiece, Down Below (1940), depicts lounging, eyeless figures before a circus tent under darkening skies. Vibrant elements—red stockings, yellow tights, a white goose-feathered body, and Carrington’s green horse alter-ego—contrast the trauma behind its creation.
The Symptomatic Surreal deepens appreciation of Carrington’s oeuvre across painting, drawing, sculpture, and writing. Housed in Freud’s former home, it examines the unconscious, mental health, and mortality through precise curation. The exhibition runs at London’s Freud Museum until June 28, 2026.
