Sphinx: The Life and Art of Leonor Fini

Artist Leonor Fini was said to have once brazenly asked Picasso why he kept doing "the same old shit." Fini's refusal to defer to the art world or to its artistic royalty is one of the many reasons she is so intriguing...and so hard to pin down as an artist. Her style can be described as something between dreamy surrealism, ornate rococo, and sensual decadence. Much of her work focuses on solitary female figures and uncanny animals in personal dreamscapes akin to the deeply psychological world of fellow-surrealist Frida Kahlo.

Fini was friends with many of the early 20th centuries pre-eminent surrealist artists: De Chirico, Bresson, and Max Ernst, among others. Despite her association with these acclaimed men, Fini would not accept the 'role' of muse, choosing instead to go her own unique way {CFM Gallery}. Her independent spirit has long baffled critics who attempt to place her in a particular style or "school" of art. She was recently called "the most undervalued artist of the 20th Century" by the Art Dealers Association of America.

"The questions as to what "school" of art she belongs to; to whom can she be compared, is she a painter, an illustrator, a designer, a feminist, a mystic, a voluptuary are superfluous. Her answer would have been that she is Leonor Fini." ~Neil Zukerman

::To learn more about Leonor Fini, read here and here, or purchase the gorgeous new book by Peter Webb here. To purchase Leonor Fini original art {yes, you can still buy her art}, visit Idbury Prints.