Just remembering my fantastic visit to the Prints and Drawings room at the Tate Britain a while back. Many thanks to Christine Kurpiel for all of her assistance!
About the piece…..
“I am an Amateur of Velocipedes exemplifies Carrington’s use of fine draughtsmanship at the service of an unexpected visionary experience. Bicycle and figures (one rather harpy-like) combine seamlessly. They may be associated with Uncle Ubriaco and his daughter Amelia (a thinly disguised portrait of Ernst and his wife) the cyclists in the 1937-8 story Little Francis (republished in Carrington 1989, pp.163-209). An equally extraordinary hybrid appears in the other drawing, Do you know my aunt Eliza? where a robed and horse-headed figure with a crucifix towers over a sinister accomplice. The horse is a central figure for Carrington, a sign of energy – often female sexual drive – but also, as here, sometimes darkly threatening. The example of Goya’s etchings may be felt both in the imagery and the technique.” - Tate Catalogue
