Leonor Fini (1907-1996) was a Surrealist who took dreams seriously; she preferred Jung to Freud (sensible!) and even had read the pre-Freudian dream researcher Hervey de St.-Denys, who pioneered lucid dreamwork (Freud never found a copy of his Dreams & How to Direct Them; his theories might have ended up a lot more modern).

Decades ago, when I stumbled on Whitney Chadwick's book on women Surrealists, showing Fini's work, I recognized her dreamworld as like my own, while her male counterparts were visually startling but... just not me.

Her work explores sex and identity in ways the male Surrealists never did. Females are active agents and dominate the worlds of her paintings. Her orientation seems pansexual. She didn't just reject gender and sexual boxes; Fini developed a self-image that can only be called (generations before the term was coined) furry. She made and wore costumes letting her become part bird or part leopard; she paints herself as a sphinx, she paints lovers as stags or cats.

Fini said she didn't paint her dreams literally--though her dream-ballet below seems to have incorporated several actual dreams. She liked spontaneity, pure painting, tapping the unconscious while awake--seeing what would come out. But what came out was compelling.

Entries below are chronological to show her evolution.

RELATED TOPICS: Surrealists and surreal dreams - gender - animal people - sphinxes - shamanic dreams - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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	SPHINXES: by Leonor Fini, 1938-47, evolution of a furry alter ego For a decade, Fini painted sphinxes, first as pets, then as a flock, finally as her real self. This sphinx-self became the one painting and protecting... CAUTION: SPHINX BREASTS
	LE RÊVE DE LEONOR: by Leonor Fini, 1949, a ballet based on at least four dreams Fini did sets and costumes for major ballets; asked to write her own, she staged Leonor's Dream. She hunts a flying wig, is courted by shaggy men, visits Hades, and becomes an owl...
	HELIODORA and VESPER EXPRESS: by Leonor Fini; 1964 & '66, twin surreal paintings. 'Heliodora': a monumental sun-goddess anima, psychedelic before the word existed. 'Vesper Express': two years later, Fini's anima boards the train to sexual adventure... CAUTION: STYLIZED NUDITY
	LE CERF (THE STAG): by Leonor Fini, late 1966, an early furry sex fantasy Fini had an affair with a married man who was an animal in bed. She repeatedly drew him as a stag mounting her... CAUTION: INTERSPECIES SEX
	ANATOMY LESSON: by Leonor Fini, 1966-74, surreal paintings on gender Desire, empathy, dominance and cruelty clash in these alarming visions of little girls with floral dresses, elegant hats--and knives... CAUTION: NUDITY, IMPLIED VIOLENCE
	HURRY, HURRY, HURRY, MY DOLLS ARE WAITING: by Leonor Fini; 1975, a surreal painting. A little girl is obsessed with her dolls--who are miniature but living women, lounging half-nude like some sultan's harem... CAUTION: SEX SLAVERY?
	SUNDAY AFTERNOONS and BEFORE SLEEPING: by Leonor Fini, 1980, twin sex-fantasy paintings Sunday Afternoons giant cats and litle girls were suggestive but not threatening. Before Sleeping, though, made it clear what went on, up on those closet shelves... CAUTION: TWEEN SEX?
	VISION ROUGE (RED APPARITION): by Leonor Fini, 1984, a surrealist vision I paint myself as a child having a flaming vision of adulthood--or is it puberty, or old age, or war?

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