Leonor Fini: Life and Art

Leonor Fini, a talented, glamorous, and ambitious artist, was one of the most influential female artists of the 1930s. From her opulent, bohemian childhood in Italy to her debut in a group exhibition at the age of seventeen and her rise in the international art world, Fini was legendary for both her vivacious personality and her ethereal subjects.

This comprehensive look at Fini's life and art reveals that her figures—sphinxes, felines, nymphs, priestesses, nudes—are bold proclamations of female sexuality that convey a powerful feminine subconscious. The artist also developed close relationships with other avant-garde Surrealists, including Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and Max Ernst, who became her lover. Renowned for her theatrical set-design, costumes, and posters, Fini lived her life with panache and elegance, deftly wrapping drama into her art.

Fini's work has been widely acclaimed, with reviewers describing her as "one of the most flamboyantly potent female artists of the mid-20th century," "a sort of female Dalí—colourful, extravagant, as famous in her heyday for her personal appearance as her art," and "a sensuous celebration of female sexuality." Her dreamlike paintings have been lauded as "gorgeous" and "exquisite," and her story has been deemed "fascinating" and "compellingly individual."

The first comprehensive look at Fini's life and art, this opulent tome befits the artist's larger-than-life persona. Fêted for her paintings, illustrations, theatre designs, and, above all, her flamboyant bohemian lifestyle, Leonor Fini was a magnetic woman whose greatest work may have been her own life.

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