Remedios Varo´s Surrealism

Remedios Varo was a famous surrealist artist. She worked mainly in painting, although she also ventured into literature and graphic art.

Born in Spain in 1908, she showed a natural interest in painting from a very young age. Due to her father’s profession, she had to travel and move frequently during her childhood.At a very young age (15 years old), she entered to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. Becoming one of the first women to study in this academy.

The Beginning

She married another painter (Gerardo Lizárraga), and they decided to move to France for a year. The marriage would only last 5 years. Upon returning to Spain, she decided to reside in Barcelona, ​​then worked as an advertising designer. Later she would become part of the Logicofobistas Group. This group was integrated by different artists, including painters, poets, and sculptors. The Logicophobists were a group of avant-garde artists, who sought the synthesis of spiritualism and surrealism, interpreting the internal states of the soul through art.

During the Spanish Civil War, she met the one who would be her great love, the French surrealist poet Benjamin Péret. In 1937, they decided to escape to France. Remedios would never set foot on Spanish soil again.

They remained in Paris until 1941, the arrival of the Nazi invasion. In Paris, she used to frequent bohemian cafes where she shared with other artists. Remedios made a surreal scene out of her life, she liked to dress as a Torero and write letters to strangers. She participated in surrealist exhibitions in various cities like Tokyo, Amsterdam, and Paris.

With the advent of World War II, Remedios’ couple, Benjamin Péret is imprisoned. She is also imprisoned, although little is known about this stage as she never spoke about it. Upon leaving prison, she takes refuge in the South of France together with other artists. Finally, she leaves on a ship bound for Mexico.

Exile in Mexico

Once established in Mexico, together with Péret, she performs handicrafts, participates in advertising and decoration. In 1947, she made a trip to Venezuela as part of a tropical disease research team, hired by the pharmaceutical company Bayer. This trip would mark the work of Varo, who works as an entomological illustrator. Remedios Varo was hired to make paintings about diseases for which Bayer was developing drugs.

Source: Rheumatic pain by Uranga. 1947

Here we can appreciate the work with the main theme of rheumatic pain. A woman showing her back is presented tied to the columns of an empty room. The red sky reflects pain and anguish. The knife nailed in her back shows the pain inflicted by the condition. The work conveys pain and anguish. Varo signed some artworks with her maternal surname ¨Uranga.

Remedios Varo returns to Mexico. Encouraged by her third husband, she dedicates exclusively to painting. Later, she presented her artwork in a group exhibition and a year later a solo exhibition.

Her Artwork

Remedios Varo’s work mixes the scientific, the mystical, and the magical, in beautiful pieces full of emotions. Some of these works seem taken from a scene from a fairy tale, others convey anguish, and stress. She handled perspective, the use of color and light. Likewise, her artworks are meticulous, delicate and denote great dedication.

Varo’s works evolve as her life undergoes important changes, such as the Spanish Civil War and exile in Mexico. She does some portraits in her early years. Then she focuses her artwork on stylized shapes. Her color palette goes from a wide range where she includes blue in some works, to what will be the preferred tonality, earth colors.

Source: Spiral Transit. 1962. Remedios Varo.

Spiral Transit, 1962. Oil on canvas. In this work a stylized city is presented, with medieval features in its architecture. The double spiral ends in a tall tower, where a magical character lies. The water that rare vessels sail through is the streets of the spiral city. The background mist completes the work, showing even more of an air of mystery.

Source: Cats Paradise. 1944. Remedios Varo.

Another of her beautiful artwork is Cats Paradise. A work that celebrates Varo’s favorite animal.

Remedios used the figure of the cat as a female symbol in several of her works. The tower’s medieval architecture, slender trees, and colorful cats make this a playful and fun piece, straight out of a children’s fairy tale.

Remedios Varo´s artwork is very rich. A woman painting in a man’s world. She loved her homeland of exile Mexico, and shared the following:

… I came to Mexico looking for the peace that I had not found, neither in Spain, that of the revolution … nor in Europe, that of the terrible conflict, for me it was impossible to paint amid so much restlessness …

Sources:
https://www.dememoria.mx/entretenimiento/remedios-varo-pinto-parabayer/
https://www.wikiart.org/es/remedios-varohttps://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedios_Varo
https://www.literaberinto.com/pintura/remediosvaro.htm

Remedios Varo, rompiendo los límites de la realidad.