Extrême nuit 

Léonor Fini painted Extrême nuit, or Extreme Night, sometime in the 20th century. Fini, associated with the Surrealist movement, here departs from its typical concerns to explore powerful dreamlike imagery. Fini’s cultural background had a strong influence on her artistic approach. She spent her early years in Trieste, a city with a rich mix of cultures. Rejecting traditional art institutions, Fini developed her own unique style and challenged societal norms through her art. Her paintings often featured strong female figures, defying conventional representations of women. In Extreme Night, we see a woman gesturing towards an androgynous winged being. The visual codes that shape the image are taken from classical painting and mythology. But what do these figures mean? Do they critique the institutions of art? These are the kinds of questions an art historian would pose, using the tools of social and cultural history, and close formal analysis. The meaning of art is contingent on its social and institutional context.