Autumn-Highlight at the SCHIRN: Leonor Fini. Magically Surreal

In the autumn of 2026, the SCHIRN will be presenting Germany’s first major retrospective on Leonor Fini (1907–1996). Around 100 works, including paintings, drawings, photographs, costumes, masks, and books, offer comprehensive insight into the artist’s fascinating oeuvre. Shaped by the Renaissance, Symbolism, German Romanticism, and Magical Realism, she developed a unique pictorial language embracing dream, myth, fantasy, and stagelike presentations.

Leonor Fini ranks among the most fascinating and singular artistic personalities of the twentieth century. Born in Buenos Aires, raised in Trieste, she was an autodidact and always maintained her independence, in spite of her proximity to Surrealism. Fini developed a unique pictorial language and style derived from the old masters, creating dreamlike scenes with priestesses, sphinxes, and hybrid figures that reverse the classic gender roles. She painted powerful representations of strong women and androgynous figures, often as new interpretations of historical models. Emancipation, gender fluidity, eros, occultism, death, and transformation pervade her works, as does her playful treatment of masks, costumes, and role models. A central theme in Fini’s oeuvre is the study of her role as a woman and an artist. From the beginning, Fini presented herself confidently as a libertarian and a glamorous icon deliberately blurring the boundaries between artistic creation and lived existence. The exhibition shows Fini’s long and fascinating art career with works from some seventy years of artistic activity.