Ignota Hosts: ‘The Tarot of Leonora Carrington’ with Susan Aberth and Tere Arcq

On 25 May 2021, the tenth anniversary of Leonora Carrington’s (1917–2011) passing into the spirit world, Ignota hosted a special event with Susan Aberth and Tere Arcq celebrating the publication of their new book The Tarot of Leonora Carrington by Fulgur Press. 

While researching for Leonora Carrington: Magical Tales (2018, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City), curator Tere Arcq discovered a Major Arcana tarot deck painted by the artist. In this illustrated talk, Tere Arcq and Susan Aberth speak about the creation of their new book and the centrality of the tarot to Carrington’s overall creative process and life, followed by a conversation with Pam Grossman, author of Waking the Witch: Reflections of Women, Magic, and Power (2019). 

The Tarot of Leonora Carrington is the first book dedicated to this important aspect of the artist’s work. It includes a full-size facsimile of her newly discovered Major Arcana; an introduction from her son, Gabriel Weisz Carrington; and a richly illustrated essay from Tere Arcq and Susan Aberth that offers new insights ­—­­­ exploring the significance of tarot imagery within Carrington’s wider work, her many inspirations and mysterious occult sources.

The Major Arcana by Leonora Carrington (introduced by Rachel Pollack) and The Tarot of Leonora Carrington by Susan Aberth and Tere Arcq (introduced by Gabriel Weisz Carrington) are published by Fulgur Press.

Susan L. Aberth is the Edith C. Blum Professor in the Art History and Visual Culture Program at Bard College. She received her BA from UCLA, MA from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and her PhD from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The Tarot of Leonora Carrington (Fulgur Press, 2020) co-authored with Mexican curator Tere Arcq; Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art (2004, Lund Humphries). Contributed to Surrealism and Magic, Guggenheim Venice (2022); Not Without My Ghosts (2020, Traveling exhibition in England); Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist (Phoenix Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2019), Juanita Guccione: Otherwhere (Napa Valley Museum, 2019), Surrealism, Occultism and Politics: In Search of the Marvelous (Routledge Press, 2018), Leonora Carrington: Cuentos Magicos (Museo de Arte Moderno & INBA, Mexico City, 2018), Unpacking: The Marciano Collection (Delmonico Books, Prestel, 2017), and Leonora Carrington and the International Avant-Garde (Manchester University Press, 2017), as well as to the Journal of Surrealism of the Americas.

Tere Arcq is an Art Historian and independent curator based in Mexico City and specialized on women artists and Surrealism in Mexico. She worked as Chief Curator at the Museo de Art Moderno (MAM) in Mexico from 2003–08, and since then has organised various exhibitions, among them Remedios Varo. Five Keys (2008) and Alice Rahon. A Surrealist in Mexico (2009) for MAM; Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna (2010), for the Pallant House in Chichester, UK; In Wonderland. The Adventures of Women Surrealists in Mexico and the United States (2012) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Musée Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Quebec, and MAM; Frida Kahlo. Connections with Surrealist Women Artists in Mexico (2015) for the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Sao Paulo, and Fundación La Caixa in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. Her latest exhibitions are Leonora Carrington. Magical Tales (2018), a retrospective at MAM and MARCO (Monterrey) Surrealism in Mexico (2018) for Di Donna Galleries in New York and Alice Rahon. Poetic Invocations (2019) at the Museum of Contemporay Art North Miami (MOCA). She is currently advising various museum shows on Surrealism and women, and co-curating a Carrington retrospective for the MAPFRE Foundation in Madrid and the ARKEN Museum in Denmark. She has lectured in museums and galleries internationally and has published widely in exhibition catalogues. Her latest book, co-written with Dr. Susan Aberth, The Tarot of Leonora Carrington, has just been released.  

Pam Grossman is the creator and host of The Witch Wave podcast, the author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power and What is a Witch, and the co-editor of the forthcoming WITCHCRAFT volume of Taschen’s Library of Esoterica series. Her writing has appeared in such outlets as The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, Ms., and her occulture blog, Phantasmaphile. She is cofounder of the Occult Humanities Conference at NYU, and her art exhibitions and magical projects have been featured in such publications as Artforum, Art in America, and The New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two feline familiars. You can find her at PamGrossman.com and @Phantasmaphile.