Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Life and Work of Leonora Carrington, Activist and Artist

Life and Work of Leonora Carrington, Activist and Artist Leonora Carrington (April 6, 1917–May 25, 2011) was an English artist, novelist, and activist. She was part of the Surrealist movement of the 1930s and, after moving to Mexico City as an adult, became a founding member of Mexicos women’s liberation movement. Fast Facts: Leonora Carrington Known For: Surrealist artist and writerBorn: April 6, 1917 in Clayton Green, Clayton-le-Woods, United KingdomDied: May 25, 2011 in Mexico City, MexicoSpouse(s): Renato Leduc, Emericko WeiszChildren: Gabriel Weisz, Pablo WeiszNotable Quote: I didnt have time to be anyones muse... I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist. Early Life Leonora Carrington was born in 1917 in Clayton Green, Chorley, Lancashire, England, to an Irish mother married to a wealthy Irish textile manufacturer. In a family of four children, she was the only daughter, alongside her three brothers. Although she was educated by excellent governesses and sent to good schools, she was expelled from two different schools for rebellious misbehavior. Eventually, Carrington was sent abroad to Florence, Italy, where she studied at Mrs. Penroses Academy of Art. When Carrington was ten, she first encountered Surrealist art in a gallery in Paris, which cemented her desire to pursue a career as an artist. Her father strongly disapproved, but her mother supported her. Although she was presented at court when she came of age, Carrington was mostly disinterested in the niceties of society. Newcomer to the Art World In 1935, Carrington attended the Chelsea School of Art in London for one year, but she then transferred to London’s Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts (established by the French modernist Amà ©dà ©e Ozenfant), where she spent the next three years studying her craft. Her family was not openly opposed to her artistic pursuits, but by this point, they were not actively encouraging her either. Carringtons greatest champion and patron at this time was Edward James, the noted Surrealist poet and art patron. James bought many of her early paintings. Years later, he still supported her work, and he arranged a show for her work at  Pierre Matisses New York gallery in 1947. Relationship With Max Ernst At an exhibition in London in 1936, Carrington encountered the work of Max Ernst, a German-born Surrealist who was 26 years her senior. Ernst and Carrington met at a London party the following year and quickly became inseparable, both artistically and romantically. When they moved to Paris together, Ernst left his wife and moved in with Carrington, making a home in the south of France. Together, they supported each other’s art and even made works of art, such as quirky animal sculptures, to decorate their shared home. It was during this period that Carrington painted her first clearly Surrealist work, Self-portrait  (also called  The Inn of the Dawn Horse). Carrington depicted herself in dreamy white clothes and with loose hair, with a prancing hyena in front of her a rocking horse flying around behind her. She also painted a portrait of Ernst in a similar style. When World War II began, Ernst (who was German) was immediately treated with hostility in France. He was soon arrested by French authorities as a hostile foreign national and was released only because of interventions of several well-connected French and American friends. Things only got worse when the Nazis invaded France; they arrested Ernst again and accused him of creating â€Å"degenerate† art. Ernst escaped and fled to America with the help of art patron Peggy Guggenheim- but he left Carrington behind. Ernst married Peggy Guggenheim in 1941, and although their marriage soon fell apart, he and Carrington never rekindled their relationship. Institutionalization and Escape Terrified and devastated, Carrington fled Paris and headed to Spain. Her mental and emotional state deteriorated, and ultimately her parents had Carrington institutionalized. Carrington was treated with electroshock therapy and strong drugs. Carrington later wrote about her horrific experiences in the mental institution, which also reportedly included assault, abuse, and unsanitary conditions, in a novel, Down Below. Eventually, Carrington was released to the care of a nurse and moved to Lisbon, Portugal. In Lisbon, Carrington escaped the nurse and sought sanctuary in the Mexican embassy. Renato Leduc, a Mexican ambassador and friend of Pablo Picasso, agreed to help get Carrington out of Europe. The pair entered a marriage of convenience so that her path would be smoother as a diplomat’s wife, and they were able to escape to Mexico. Aside from a few journeys north to the United States, Carrington would spend most of the rest of her life in Mexico. Art and Activism in Mexico Carrington and Leduc divorced quickly and quietly in 1943. Over the next couple of decades, Carrington spent time in New York City as well as in Mexico, interacting with the art world at large. Her work was unusual among the Surrealist community in that she did not use the works of Freud as a major influence. Instead, she utilized magical realism and the idea of alchemy, often drawing on her own life for inspiration and symbolism. Carrington also went against the grain with regards to the Surrealists’ approach to female sexuality: she painted as she experienced the world as a woman, rather than the male-gaze filtered depictions of many of her counterparts. In the 1970s, Leonora became a voice for the women’s liberation movement in Mexico City. She designed a poster, called Mujeres conciencia, for their movement. In many ways, her art tackled concepts of gender identity and feminism, making her an ideal fit to work with their cause. Her focus was psychological freedom, but her work was primarily towards political freedom for women (as a means to this ultimate goal); she also believed in creating cooperative efforts between the movements in North America and Mexico. While Carrington was living in Mexico, she met and married the Hungarian-born photographer Emerico Weisz. The couple had two sons: Gabriel and Pablo, the latter of whom followed in his mother’s footsteps as a Surrealist artist. Death and Legacy Carringtons husband Emerico Weisz died in 2007. She survived him by about four years. After a battle with pneumonia, Carrington died in Mexico City on May 25, 2011, aged 94. Her work continues to be shown at exhibitions across the world, from Mexico to New York to her native Britain. In 2013, Carringtons work had a major retrospective at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and in 2015, a Google Doodle commemorated what would have been her 98th birthday. By the time of her death, Leonora Carrington was one of the last-surviving Surrealist artists, and undoubtedly one of the most unique. Sources Aberth, Susan. Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art. Lund Humphries, 2010.Blumberg, Naomi. â€Å"Leonora Carrington: English-Born Mexican Painter and Sculptor.† Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonora-Carrington.â€Å"Leonora Carrington.† National Museum of Women in the Arts, https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/leonora-carrington.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

History of Golf and Golf Equipment

History of Golf and Golf Equipment Golf originated from a game played on the coast of Scotland during the 15th century. Golfers would hit a pebble instead of a ball around the sand dunes using a stick or club. After 1750, golf evolved into the sport as we recognize it today. In 1774, Edinburgh golfers wrote the first standardized rules for the game of golf. Invention of Golf Balls Golfers soon tired of hitting pebbles and tried other things. The earliest man-made golf balls included thin leather bags stuffed with feathers (they did not fly very far). The gutta-percha ball was invented in 1848 by Reverend Adam Paterson. Made from the sap of the Gutta tree, this ball could be hit a maximum distance of 225 yards and was very similar to its modern counterpart. In 1898, Coburn Haskell introduced the first one-piece rubber core; when professionally hit these balls reached distances approaching 430 yards. According to The Dimpled Golf Ball by Vincent Mallette, balls were smooth during the early days of golf. Players noticed that as balls became old and scarred, they traveled farther. After a while players would take new balls and intentionally pit them. In 1905, golf ball manufacturer William Taylor was the first to add the dimple pattern using the Coburn Haskell ball. Golf balls had now taken on their modern form. Evolution of Golf Clubs Golf clubs have evolved from wooden shaft clubs to todays sets of woods and irons with durability, weight distribution, and graduation utility. The evolution of clubs went hand-in-hand with the evolution of golf balls that were able to withstand harder whacks. History of Carrying and Caddies During the 1880s, golf bags first came into use. The beast of burden is an old nickname for the caddie who carried golfers equipment for them. The first powered golf car appeared around 1962 and was invented by Merlin L. Halvorson. Invention of Golf Tees The word tee as it relates to the game of golf originated as the name for the area where a golfer played. In 1889, the first documented portable golf tee was patented by Scottish golfers William Bloxsom and Arthur Douglas. This golf tee was made from rubber and had three vertical rubber prongs that held the ball in place. However, it lay on the ground and did not pierce the ground like modern golf tees. In 1892, a British patent was granted to Percy Ellis for his Perfectum tee that did pierce the ground. It was a rubber tee with a metal spike. The 1897 Victor tee was similar and included a cup-shaped top to better hold the golf ball. The Vicktor was patented by Scotsmen PM Matthews. American patents for golf tees include the first American patent issued to Scotsmen David Dalziel in 1895, the 1895 patent issued to American Prosper Senat, and the 1899 patent for an improved golf tee issued to George Grant. Rules of the Game In 1774, the first standardized rules of golf were written and used for the first golf championship, which was won by Doctor John Rattray on 2nd April 1744 in Edinburgh, Scotland. You must tee your ball within one clubs length of the hole.Your  tee  must be on the ground.You are not to change the ball which you strike off the tee.You are not to remove stones, bones or any break club for the sake of playing your ball, except on the fair green, and that only within a clubs length of your ball.If your ball comes among water, or any watery filth, you are at liberty to take out your ball and bringing it behind the hazard and teeing it, you may play it with any club and allow your adversary a stroke for so getting out your ball.If your balls  be  found anywhere touching one another you are to lift the first ball till you play the last.At  holeing  you are to play your ball honestly for the hole, and not to play upon your adversarys ball, not lying in your way to the hole.If you should lose your ball, by its being taken up, or any other way, you are to go back to the spot where you struck last and drop another ball and allow your adversary a stroke for th e misfortune.No man at  holeing  his ball is to be allowed to mark his way to the hold with his club or anything else. If a ball  be  stoppd by any person, horse or dog, or anything else, the ball so stoppd  must  be played where it lyes.If you draw your club in order to strike and proceed so far in the stroke as to be bringing down your club; if then your club shall break in any way, it is to be accounted a stroke.He whose ball  lyes  farthest from the hole is obliged to play first.Neither trench, ditch or  dyke  made for the preservation of the links, nor the Scholars Holes or the soldiers lines shall be accounted a hazard but the ball is to be taken out,  teed  and  playd  with any iron club.