Remedios Varo

She was a female surrealist painter, which was a big surprise for me to learn, based on her pseudonym.

Her father was a hydraulic engineer, which had a recurring influence in her work. Fantastic, complex pieces of machinery and gadgets are depicted in many of her paintings, relating to her studies of alchemy theories and processes. Her figures, autobiographical in many respects, are fantastic, often incorporating science, dreams, witchcraft, and humor into psychological and spiritual journeys. Her artistic training was strict and academic, from which she fled into Barcelona's Bohemian artistic circle. She was married twice, first to the poet Benjamin Peret, and then to publisher Walter Gruen. When she moved to Mexico she met native artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. However, her strongest ties would be to other exiles and expatriates, and especially her extraordinary friendship with the English painter Leonora Carrington.

Walter Gruen, her second husband was an Austrian who excaped concentration camps before the two left Europe. Gruen believed fiercely in Varo, and gave her the support that allowed her to fully concentrate on her painting.

After 1949 Varo developed into her mature and remarkable style, which remains beautifully enigmatic and instantly recognizable. Although she personally knew Dali and was familiar with other surrealist painters' work, I think it is safe to say she has a very personal, unique style and more beautiful than the majority of surrealist Art. She often worked in oil on masonite panels she prepared herself. Although her colors have the blended resonance of the oil medium, her brushwork often involved many fine strokes of paint laid closely together - a technique more reminiscent of egg tempera. She died at the height of her career.

Her work continues to achieve successful retrospectives at major sites in Mexico and the United States.

This painting is entitled Solar Music

* 1935 El Tejido de los Sueños
* 1942 Gruta Magica
* 1947 Paludismo (Libélula)
* 1947 El Hombre de la Guadaña (Muerte en el Mercado)

Exploration of the Source of the Orinoco River, 1959.
Exploration of the Source of the Orinoco River, 1959.

* 1947 La Batalla
* 1947 Wahgwah
* 1947 Amibiasis o los Vegetales
* 1955 Useless Science or the Alchemist
* 1955 Ermitaño meditando
* 1955 La Revelacion o el Relojero
* 1955 Trasmundo
* 1955 El Flautista
* 1955 El Paraíso de los Gatos
* 1956 To the Happiness of Women
* 1957 Creation of the Birds
* 1957 Women's Tailor
* 1957 Caminos Tortuosos
* 1957 Reflejo Lunar
* 1957 El Gato Helecho
* 1958 Celestial Pabulum
* 1959 Exploration of the Source of the Orinoco River
* 1959 Catedral Vegetal
* 1959 Encounter
* 1960 Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst
* 1960 Visit to the Plastic Surgeon's
* 1961 Vampiro
* 1961 Embroidering the Earth's Mantle
* 1962 Vampiros Vegetarianos
* 1962 Fenomeno
* 1962 Spiral Transit
* 1963 Naturaleza Muerta Resucitado

This painting is entitled Papilla Estelar (1958)



Below, Varo's Embroidering the Earth's Mantle (1961)



The painting below is entitled Fenomeno (1962):

Catalogue of the Remedios Varo June 16-August 20, 2000 retrospetive at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago. To buy one, call the Chicago museum at (312) 738-1503 and ask for the gift shop. $29.95 plus shipping.

The painting below is entitled Vampiros Vegetarianos (Vegetarian Vampires) and dated 1962

Below: Remedios Varo: Exploracion de las Fuentes del Rio Orinoco 1959



Below: Varo's To be Reborn (1960)


Below: Varo's Fenomeno de Ingravidez (The Phenomenon of Weightlessness), 1963