‘The privilege of the snail’: the surrealism of Bona de Mandiargues
Eliza Goodpasture, ArtUK
May 2025
‘Constantly torn by the desire to escape and the protective need to stay at home, I envied the privilege of the snail who can move around with his house,’ wrote the surrealist artist Bona de Mandiargues. She regularly drew and painted snails throughout her career, calling them ‘lunar and moody’ animals. ‘By embracing the shapes of the spiral,’ she said, ‘I’m embracing the very structure of the universe.’ […]