Reading the Art World: Joanna Moorhead

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Listen to our podcast conversation with Joanna Moorhead, author of Surreal Spaces: The Life and Art of Leonora Carrington, published by Princeton University Press. Her book tells the dramatic story of an artist who lived life on her own terms in a way that was radically modern for the 1930s, 1940s and later how her life and art are inextricably entwined. Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) is one of the vanguards of Surrealism—one of the few women artists in the largely male circle of artists of that movement. Challenging the conventions of her time, Carrington abandoned family, society, and her home in England to embrace new experiences and forge a unique artistic style in Europe and the Americas.

“She arrived in [Paris] the autumn of 1937, and it was this great moment to be in Paris because surrealism was in its mature moment, and everybody who was anybody in that Western art world at the time was there. Picasso was there, Dalí was there, Breton was there, Duchamp was there. Man Ray was there. All these big names of 20th century art.

There were a few other women, but they were mostly men, and Leonora was by far the youngest of the group. And that was her introduction, really, to this whole new world, a world in which she could be the person and the artist that she felt she'd been born to be.” – Joanna Moorhead

Author Joanna Moorhead's career spans decades in the world of journalism. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian, The Observer, The Times (London), The Art Newspaper and many others. In her art writing, Joanna has cultivated a unique expertise for unraveling the mysteries behind artists' lives and their work, which led her to the heart of surrealist art, where she meticulously uncovered the fascinating story of Leonora Carrington, who also happens to be her distant cousin.

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