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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Varo and the second or maternal family name is Uranga.

Remedios Varo
Born
María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga

(1908-12-16)16 December 1908
Anglès, Girona, Spain
Died8 October 1963(1963-10-08) (aged 54)
Mexico City, Mexico
Alma materReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
MovementSurrealism

Remedios Varo (16 December 1908 – 8 October 1963) was a Spanish-Mexican Surrealist painter. Born in a small town in Catalonia, her family moved often when she was a child.

Early life and education

María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga was born on 16 December 1908 in Anglès, a small town in the province of Girona, in Catalonia. Remedios was named in honor of the Virgen de los Remedios ("Virgin of Remedies") as a 'remedy' for an older sister's death. She had two surviving siblings: an older brother Rodrigo, and a younger brother Luis. Her mother, Ignacia Uranga y Bergareche, was born in Argentina to Basque parents and her father, Rodrigo Varo y Zajalvo, was from Córdoba in Andalusia.[1]

When Varo was a young child, her family moved frequently throughout Spain and North Africa to follow her father's work as a hydraulic engineer.[2] While her father was a somewhat agnostic liberal who studied Esperanto,[a] her mother was a devout Catholic and enrolled her in a strict convent school at the age of eight. Varo's father encouraged her artistic endeavors, taking her to museums and having her meticulously copy his diagrams. While in school, Varo was somewhat rebellious. She read authors such as Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as mystical literature and Eastern spiritual works.[4] As a teenager she became interested in dreams, writing stories which developed fantastical themes she would later explore in her art.[5]

In 1924, Varo enrolled at the prestigious Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, a school known for rigid and exacting training. Aside from the required classes,[b] she took an elective class in scientific drawing. One of her instructors was Realist painter Manuel Benedito, from whom she learned traditional oil painting techniques.[7]

In the 1920s, the Surrealist movement was becoming popular with the Madrid art scene; the city hosted avant-garde intellectuals and artists such as Federico García Lorca, Luis Buñuel, Rafael Alberti, and Salvador Dalí. Varo became attracted to the surreal, finding inspiration in the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya, which she visited at the Museo del Prado.[8]

Career

Varo graduated from the Academia in 1930.[9] Soon after, she married former classmate Gerardo Lizárraga [es] in San Sebastián. Lizárraga was a fellow Surrealist who worked in both visual arts and filmmaking; he was also an anarchist.[10] Following an outbreak of violence in Madrid resulting from the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic, Varo and Lizárraga moved to Paris.[11] In Paris, Varo enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and quickly dropped out, realizing she did not want to remain within the confines of formal education. Working odd jobs and engaging with the Parisian art scene, the couple stayed in the city for a year before moving to Barcelona in 1932.[12][9]

By the early 1930s, Barcelona had become the liberal and avant-garde artistic center of Spain, more so than Madrid. Soon after arriving, Varo started a romantic relationship with fellow artist Esteban Francés, although still living with Lizárraga; this was the first of multiple open relationships she would have.[13] While in Barcelona, Varo and Lizárraga worked for an advertising firm. Varo became part of a circle of other avant-garde artists, including José Luis Florit [Wikidata] and Óscar Domínguez,[9] and with Francés she came into contact with French Surrealists.[13] While sharing an art studio on the Plaça de Lesseps with Francés, Varo began creating her first artworks after graduating from the Academia. Her work of the mid-1930s indicates familiarity with contemporary Spanish and French Surrealist imagery.[14] Varo often played the popular Surrealist game cadavre exquis with her friends, and sent works she had made via the game to fellow artist and friend Marcel Jean for circulation in Paris.[15]

By the summer of 1935, the tension and violence which had caused Varo and Lizárraga to leave Madrid had spread throughout Spain; the Spanish Civil War began the next year. Varo's brother Luis enlisted in the Francoist army and died of typhoid fever soon thereafter, a course of events which would come as a shock to Varo.[16] It was in this context that Domínguez introduced Varo to French Surrealist poet Benjamin Péret, who had arrived in Barcelona in August 1936 to volunteer with the Republican faction. Péret was highly politically active; he was a member of the Trotskyist POUM and staunchly anti-clerical.[17] Varo and Péret soon became romantically involved; his 1936 volume of love poetry, Je sublime, was dedicated to her.[18]

France

When Péret decided to return to Paris in 1937, Varo joined him.[18] Francés soon followed, and would compete with Péret for Varo's affection. Through Péret, Varo became acquainted with the inner circle of Surrealists, including André Breton, Max Ernst, Victor Brauner, Joan Miró, Wolfgang Paalen, and Leonora Carrington.[19][20] Varo felt intimidated by Breton—and Péret—at Surrealist gatherings, as the two fostered an atmosphere which André Thirion compared to an "entrance exam".[21] By the late 1930s, Varo had started giving her year of birth as 1913 instead of 1908; this would later be reflected on her passport and grave. According to biographer Janet Kaplan, she may have fabricated being five years younger to fit more closely to the Surrealist ideal of the femme-enfant: an uncorrupted, childlike woman intuitively connected with the unconscious mind. During the period of 1937–1939, Varo experimented with new techniques and influences, finding inspiration in the works of her friends Dalí, Ernst, Paalen, Brauner, and René Magritte.[22] Never formally a part of the Surrealist group, Varo nonetheless participated in the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition and subsequent International Surrealist Exhibitions in Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, and New York. Her work was also often republished in Surrealist periodicals, including Minotaure.[23]

While in Paris with Péret, Varo lived the impoverished and bohemian life typical of artists. They both worked numerous odd jobs; Varo, along with Domínguez, resorted to forging de Chirico paintings when particularly destitute.[24] As she was living with Péret, she became romantically involved with Brauner[c] and her work of the period was heavily influenced by his.[26]

In 1939, the Nationalists claimed victory in Spain and Francisco Franco disallowed anyone associated with the Republicans from entering the country; Varo became permanently unable to return to her home and was isolated from her family. This deeply impacted her, and was a source of pain and regret throughout her life.[18] In July of the same year, the French government began evacuating Paris, and in September World War II officially began. Varo and her circle stayed in the city, which for the first eight months of war saw little action other than an influx of foreign refugees from elsewhere in Europe. As a foreign national herself, Varo now risked deportation in an increasingly hostile environment. Her association with the communist Péret put her at further risk, and he was imprisoned in early 1940 for his political activism.[27] Varo was imprisoned as well, at some point in 1940, for her relationship with Péret. She never spoke about this experience; the length and location of her internment and the conditions she faced are unknown. However, according to friends' accounts, it had an intense impact on her.[28]

While viewing a documentary film on French internment camps by Hungarian photojournalist Chiqui Weisz, by coincidence Varo recognized Gerardo Lizárraga, to whom she was still legally married. They had lost contact when Varo left Spain, while Lizárraga remained to fight for the Republicans; when the Nationalists won, he fled to France and was imprisoned. After seeing the film, Varo and her network successfully bribed authorities and secured the release of Lizárraga.[29]

On 14 June 1940, the Nazis invaded Paris, putting Varo at imminent risk. She, along with millions of other Parisians, fled to the unoccupied south of France. Domínguez insisted she take his seat in a car going south, and eventually she arrived in the coastal village of Canet-Plage. Initially staying with Jacques Hérold and several other refugees, she soon moved in with Brauner.[30] By August 1940, she had left Canet-Plage for Marseille and reunited with now-free Péret. Marseille was, although unoccupied, not safe; the Gestapo maintained a presence in the city. Varo and Péret found shelter with Varian Fry's Emergency Rescue Committee, an organization dedicated to facilitating the migration of artists and intellectuals from wartime Europe to the Americas.[31][32]

Mexico

Varo participated in the 1940 International Surrealist Exhibition, held in Mexico City. In 1941, she and Péret moved to Mexico City and established a circle of fellow artists and intellectuals, including Lizárraga, Francés, Carrington, César Moro, Octavio Paz, Gunther Gerzso, and Eva Sulzer. Varo collaborated with artist friends and took on odd jobs in art and advertising.[33]

In 1947, Varo left Péret, who moved back to Paris. Soon after, she joined a French scientific expedition in Venezuela. There she visited her mother and brother Rodrigo, an epidemiologist. Varo studied mosquitoes with a microscope and produced drawings of them for a campaign against malaria. She returned to Mexico City in 1949, after struggling to obtain funds for travel back.[34]

In 1952 Varo married Austrian refugee Walter Gruen, and ended her career in commercial art in favor of her personal artistic endeavors.[34] Varo found critical and financial success with two exhibitions at the Galería Diana, including her first solo exhibition, in 1955–1956.[35] The success of the 1955 solo exhibition resulted in Varo establishing a waitlist for buyers.[36] Her second and final solo exhibition took place at the Galería Juan Martín in 1962, where all of the paintings displayed were sold.[37]

Varo painted her final finished canvas, entitled Still Life Reviving, in 1963. She died of a heart attack on 8 October of the same year.[37]

Relationship with Leonora Carrington and Kati Horna

Artistic influences

Varo was influenced heavily by psychoanalysis, popular in Europe during her time. (write more)[38]

The characters pictured in Varo's artwork resemble herself, with heart-shaped faces, long noses, and almond-shaped eyes.[39] According to art historian Janet Kaplan, much of her work is autobiographical in nature; her 1960–1961 triptych reflects her time as a student in a restrictive convent school.[5] Her paintings, often depicting journeys and encounters with strange people, also reflect the frequent travel of her childhood[40] and her traumatic experience of exile and war.[39]

Philosophical influences

From 1943 Varo became interested in the esotericism of George Gurdjieff, although she did not join any of the spiritual or philosophical groups that had formed in Mexico.[41]

Techniques

Analysis of Varo's artwork

Mexican philosopher Juliana González, a friend of Varo's,[42] writes that an element of "Romantic optimism" in her art distinguishes Varo from the broader Surrealist movement.[43] González also views her work as "a poetic reflection of more universal concerns" which transcends dimensions.[44]

Legacy

In 1964, the National Museum of Modern Art in the Palacio de Bellas Artes held a tribute exhibition of Varo's work, with record attendance.[37] The Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City held a retrospective exhibition in 1971, which attracted the then-highest attendance in the museum's history.[36]

Selected list of works

Notes

  1. ^ Esperanto, a constructed international auxiliary language, was associated with anticlericalism in Spain at the time.[3]
  2. ^ The Academia's curriculum included strict and traditional study in anatomy, composition, perspective, color theory, architecture, figure drawing, still life, landscape, and decorative painting.[6]
  3. ^ Their relationship would result in a dispute between Francés, Domínguez, and Brauner in August 1938. After Francés criticized Varo's multiple romantic relationships during a gathering in Domínguez's studio, Domínguez threw a glass at him and accidentally hit Brauner, blinding him in one eye.[25]

References

  1. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 11–12
  2. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 11
  3. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 14
  4. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 14–16
  5. ^ a b Kaplan 2000, p. 18
  6. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 29
  7. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 27–29
  8. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 29–30
  9. ^ a b c Gruen 1998, p. 43
  10. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 30–31
  11. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 33
  12. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 35
  13. ^ a b Kaplan 2000, pp. 35–36
  14. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 37–38
  15. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 41–42
  16. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 45–47
  17. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 48–52
  18. ^ a b c Kaplan 2000, p. 53
  19. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 55
  20. ^ Gruen 1998, pp. 43–44
  21. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 55–56
  22. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 56–57
  23. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 62–63
  24. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 63–64
  25. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 67
  26. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 64–67
  27. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 67–69
  28. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 71
  29. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 70
  30. ^ Kaplan 2000, p. 72
  31. ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 74-
  32. ^ Gruen 1998, p. 44
  33. ^ Gruen 1998, p. 45
  34. ^ a b Gruen 1998, p. 46
  35. ^ Gruen 1998, p. 47
  36. ^ a b Kaplan 1987, p. 38
  37. ^ a b c Gruen 1998, p. 48
  38. ^ del Conde 1998, pp. 18–20
  39. ^ a b Kaplan 1987, p. 39
  40. ^ Kaplan 1980, p. 14
  41. ^ Gruen 1998, pp. 45–46
  42. ^ González 2023, p. 183, Abstract
  43. ^ González 2023, p. 188
  44. ^ González 2023, p. 187
  45. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 257, no. 118
  46. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 258, no. 122
  47. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 259, no. 124
  48. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 259–260, no. 127
  49. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 260, no. 129
  50. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 261, no. 132
  51. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 261, no. 133
  52. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 261–262, no. 134
  53. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 262 no. 136
  54. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 265–266, no. 154
  55. ^ "Remedios Varo: The Juggler (The Magician), 1956". MoMA.
  56. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 267–268, no. 161
  57. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 271, no. 171
  58. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 272–273, no. 179
  59. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 274, no. 190
  60. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 279, no. 211
  61. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 280, no. 213
  62. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 286, no. 246
  63. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 288, no. 249
  64. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 288–289, no. 253
  65. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 290–291, no. 259
  66. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 292–293, no. 269
  67. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 295, no. 286
  68. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 296, no. 289
  69. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 296–297, no. 292
  70. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 297, no. 296
  71. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 298–299, no. 303
  72. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 299, no. 304
  73. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 299–300, no. 306
  74. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 301, no. 311
  75. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 304–305, no. 329
  76. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 305–306, no. 334
  77. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 306, no. 337
  78. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 308, no. 345
  79. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 309, no. 350
  80. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 310, no. 356
  81. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, pp. 311–312, no. 359
  82. ^ Ovalle & Gruen 1998, p. 313, no. 361

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Arias-Jirasek, Rita, ed. (2008). Women Artists of Modern Mexico: Frida's Contemporaries (in English and Spanish). Translated by Corral, Marilyn Lara; Castro, Samantha; Villanueva, Angelina; Morales, Argelia. Curated by Mercado, Dolores. Chicago: National Museum of Mexican Art. ISBN 9781889410050. OCLC 255663225.
  • Berland, Rosa (2016). "Remedios Varo: The Spanish Work". In Herrero-Senes, Juan (ed.). New Perspectives on the Spanish Avant-garde (1918-1936). Amsterdam: Rodopi Press.

In French

In Spanish

  • Parkinson Zamora, Lois (2002). "Misticismo Mexicano y la Obra Mágica de Remedios Varo". In Vanden Berghe, Kristine; van Delden, Maarten (eds.). El laberinto de la solidaridad: Cultura y política en México (1910-2000). Brill. pp. 57–87. doi:10.1163/9789004334076_006. ISBN 9789004334076.
  • Rivera, Magnolia (2005). Trampantojos: el círculo en la obra de Remedios Varo. Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno. ISBN 9789682325984. OCLC 71295328.
  • Valcárcel, Carmen (2017). "Remedios Varo: espacios de la creación". In Millares, Selena (ed.). Diálogo de las artes en las vanguardias hispánicas. Vervuert Verlagsgesellschaft. pp. 407–430. doi:10.31819/9783954875894-017. ISBN 9783954875894.
  • Zanetta, Maria A. (2002). "Carmen Martín Gaite y Remedios Varo: trayecto hacia el interior a través de la literatura y la pintura". Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea. 27 (2): 565–595. ISSN 2327-4182. JSTOR 27742162.
  • Zanetta, Maria A. (2014). "Rebelion y Reivindicacion en Como Agua para Chocolate de Laura Esquivel y las Pinturas de Remedios Varo". The Latin Americanist. 58 (2): 157–174. doi:10.1353/tla.2014.a705925. ISSN 1557-203X.

Writings by Varo

Sources (to use)

journals

  • Berland, Rosa (2010). "Remedios Varo's Mexican Drawings". The Journal of Surrealism in the Americas. 4 (1): 31–42. hdl:2286/R.I.17416. ISSN 2326-0459.
  • Brunk-Chavez, Beth (2003). "If These Walls Could Talk: Female Agency and Structural Inhabitants in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' and the Paintings of Remedios Varo". Studies in Popular Culture. 26 (2): 71–87. ISSN 0888-5753. JSTOR 41970400.
  • Hernández González, Edilberto (2023). "Configuration of Subjectivities in Contemporaneity: Performance Writing about the Production of the Spanish-Mexican Artist Remedios Varo". Art in Translation. 15 (2): 178–192. doi:10.1080/17561310.2023.2231238. ISSN 1756-1310.
  • Lomas, David (2012). "Artist — Sorcerers: Mimicry, Magic and Hysteria". Oxford Art Journal. 35 (3): 363–388. ISSN 1741-7287. JSTOR 23322190.
  • Plunkett, Tara (2018). "'Melusina after the scream': Surrealism and the Hybrid Bodies of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo". Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 95 (5): 493–510. doi:10.1080/14753820.2018.1497341. ISSN 1475-3820.
  • Santos-Phillips, Eva (2004). "Questioning and Transgressing in the Representations of Silvina Ocampo and Remedios Varo". Hispanic Journal. 25 (1–2): 155–170. ISSN 0271-0986. JSTOR 44284736.

book chapters

  • Berland, Rosa (2016). "Remedios Varo: Surrealism and Gender Imagery in the Second Republic". In Gregori, Eduardo; Herrero-Senés, Juan (eds.). Avant-Garde Cultural Practices in Spain (1914-1936). Brill. pp. 127–140. doi:10.1163/9789004310186_010. ISBN 9789004310186.
  • González Madrid, María José (2018). "'On the True Exercise of Witchcraft' in the Work of Remedios Varo". In Bauduin, Tessel; Ferentinou, Victoria; Zamani, Daniel (eds.). Surrealism, Occultism and Politics: In Search of the Marvellous. New York: Routledge. pp. 194–209. ISBN 9781138054332. OCLC 1005961078.

books

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