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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

Dwight Ripley's An Alphabetical Guide to Modern Art, part 2 I murmured once to J. J. Sweeney, "Poor Leonor! Completely Fini." 📷 Leonor Fini by John Phillips, 1957 #caturday

Fini poses with a long-haired cat on her lap.
aug 30, 2025, 4:47 pm • 5 1

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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

Desmond Morris talks about the "close intimacy" between Leonor Fini & Henri Cartier-Bresson: "He remarked that his body still bore the claw-marks of Leonor Fini. Whether these were real or metaphorical we do not know." 📷 Fini by HCB, 1936

A photograph of Fini's legs & one arm; she's lying in the long grass.
aug 30, 2025, 4:49 pm • 6 0 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

"In her own apartment, she was soon living in a surreal world, surrounded by as many as twenty-three cats. Her favourite breed was the long-haired Persian & they often featured in her paintings." - Desmond Morris 📷 Leonor Fini's cats by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1961 #caturday

A dozen of Fini's Persians, eating their dinner from many supper dishes in Fini's kitchen.
aug 30, 2025, 4:50 pm • 7 0 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

In The Lives of the Surrealists preface, Desmond Morris says, "The portrait photos have been selected to show them as they were during the heyday of the movement &, wherever possible, I have avoided the more familiar photographs. 📷 Leonor Fini by Dora Maar, 1936. Good choice!

Fini in negligée, sitting in her bedroom.
aug 30, 2025, 4:52 pm • 11 3 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

Leonor Fini at the monastery of Nonza in Corsica. A photograph by Eddy Brofferio from 1967. Spectacular!

Fini in a mountain landscape. She's wearing a spectacular outfit: A black feathered headdress and a voluminous poncho-like dress.
aug 30, 2025, 4:54 pm • 11 2 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

Leonor Fini by Francis Apesteguy, 1986 "She had the head of a lioness, mind of a man, bust of a woman, torso of a child, grace of an angel, & discourse of the devil." - Julien Levy

Fini wrapped in a coccoon-like blanket, sitting next to one of her large paintings.
aug 30, 2025, 4:56 pm • 3 0 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

Leonor Fini & Leonora Carrington by Denise Colomb, 1952 "Portrait des artistes posant de façon symétrique" Two great Surrealist artists who finally are getting the attention they deserve.

The two painters sit together in similar poses.
aug 30, 2025, 4:57 pm • 4 0 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

Brassaï Marie-Laure de Noailles & Léonor Fini, 1946 "I always imagined I would have a life very different from the one that was imagined for me, but I understood from a very early time that I would have to revolt in order to make that life." - LF

The two artists pose together; they're both wearing elaborate feathered masks.
aug 30, 2025, 5:01 pm • 10 2 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

The temptation is to turn my Bluesky feed into a 24/7 display of Leonor Fini photos. Here are Brigitte Bardot & Leonor Fini on their way to the Bal Surréaliste at Château de Ferrières in Paris, 1972

Two incredibly elaborate feathered costumes: Bardot in white & Fini in black, yellow & orange. Unidentified photographer.
aug 30, 2025, 5:03 pm • 9 2 • view
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cabinetstories.bsky.social @cabinetstories.bsky.social

My two treasured Leonor Fini lithographs

Framed lithograph of two haunting women's faces by Argentinian Surrealist artist Leonor Fini BOTD Framed lithograph of Surrealist figure that appears to be superimposed on a wall reflected in the glazed frame. Artist is Argentinian Leonor Fini BOTD
aug 30, 2025, 5:17 pm • 3 1 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

Leonor Fini with Le Rêve de Leonor 📷 André Ostier, 1949 "Without ever dissociating her life from her art, she crossed time & place with remarkable artistic autonomy, transposing her avant-garde ideals onto the canvas with force & determination." - Laurianne Simonin

Fini looks over her very large puppet-like self-portrait sculpture.
aug 30, 2025, 5:04 pm • 4 1 • view
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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social

More feathers & intense gazes: another Denise Colomb shot of two great surrealist artists, Leonor Fini & Leonora Carrington, from 1952. Is that a Fini painting behind them?

The two pose in front of a painting, almost completely covered in feathered headdresses.
aug 30, 2025, 5:06 pm • 5 1 • view