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Untitled, from "VVV Portfolio"

Leonora Carrington Mexican, born England
Printer Atelier 17 American
Publisher VVV, New York
1942 (published 1943)
Not on view
This untitled print, as well as many of her works, includes images of various animals, such as dogs, cats, horses, and hybrid creatures, thus speaking to the strong connection she felt with animals since the time she was a young girl. As with many of her works, animals would have different meanings and associations; while some served as representations of women (including the artist herself), others make reference to medieval bestiaries or fantastical creatures from works by artists such as Bosch. Throughout her oeuvre, however, Carrington attempted to dismantle divisions between animals and human and stress that humans not only inhabit the same spaces as animals, but are, in fact, animals. Featured in this print is a cryptic composition involving text, mathematical formulae, animals, and diagonal lines that serve to both connect and confine. The images have several associations, such as that of the dog tied to the tree, which is frequently read as an allegorical self-portrait. Carrington also included short passages such as the texts, produced upside down, that reads “To Study the Numbers/Seventy Nine/The Dogs of the Sleeper.”

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Untitled, from "VVV Portfolio"
  • Series/Portfolio: VVV Portfolio
  • Artist: Leonora Carrington (Mexican (born England), Clayton Green, Lancashire 1917–2011 Mexico City)
  • Printer: Atelier 17
  • Publisher: VVV, New York
  • Date: 1942 (published 1943)
  • Medium: Etching
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 9 7/8 × 14 7/8 in. (25.1 × 37.8 cm)
    Image: 7 7/8 × 9 3/4 in. (20 × 24.8 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Bertha and Isaac Liberman Foundation Gift, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.179
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Illustration from Leonora Carrington, La dame ovale (Paris: G.L.M., 1939)
Multiple artists/makers
1939
Self-Portrait, Leonora Carrington Mexican, born England, Oil on canvas
Self-Portrait
Leonora Carrington
ca. 1937–38
Horse, Leonora Carrington Mexican, born England, Watercolor, opaque watercolor, and graphite on paper
Horse
Leonora Carrington
n.d.
Costume design for the play ¦Penelope¦: Fantastic Figure with Leaves, Leonora Carrington Mexican, born England, Opaque watercolor on board with prepared ground
Costume design for the play ¦Penelope¦: Fantastic Figure with Leaves
Leonora Carrington
1959
Chiki, ton pays (Chiki, Your Country), Leonora Carrington Mexican, born England, Oil, tempera and ink on canvas
Returned to lender
Chiki, ton pays (Chiki, Your Country)
Leonora Carrington
1944

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