Remedios Varo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Remedios Varo
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Remedios Varo, 1959
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Remedios Varo Uranga, OR
María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga 16 December 1908 Anglès, Girona, Spain
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| Died | 8 October 1963 (aged 54) Mexico City, Mexico
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| Nationality | Mexican (naturalized) Spanish (originally) |
| Education | Escuela de Bellas Artes (1930) |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Surrealism |
| Spouse(s) | Gerardo Lizárraga (1930-???) Benjamin Péret (1936 ??) Walter Gruen (1952-1963) |
Remedios Varo (born María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga, December 16, 1908 – October 8, 1963) was a famous painter. She was born in Spain but later became a Mexican citizen. She created amazing surrealist art in Spain, France, and Mexico.
Remedios Varo had a challenging life. She faced poverty and had to escape wars in Spain and France. In her last thirteen years, she found peace and financial stability in Mexico. She painted many wonderful artworks until her sudden death in 1963.
Contents
Early Life and Art Education (1908-1930)
Remedios Varo Uranga was born in 1908 in Anglès. This is a small town in Girona, Spain.
Her mother, Ignacia Uranga Bergareche, was a very religious Roman Catholic. She named Remedios after a local saint. Remedios had two older brothers, Rodrigo and Luis. She was the youngest and the only girl.
A Father's Influence on Young Remedios
Varo's father, Rodrigo Varo y Zajalvo, was a hydraulic engineer. His job meant the family moved often. They lived in different parts of Spain and North Africa.
Her father quickly saw her artistic talent. He had her copy his technical drawings. She drew straight lines and perfect circles very carefully. He also encouraged her to think for herself. He gave her science and adventure books to read. These included stories by Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, and Edgar Allan Poe. As she grew older, he shared books on mysticism and philosophy.
These early years shaped Varo's art. You can see machines, furniture, and old buildings in her later paintings. The Romanesque and Gothic architecture of Anglès also appeared in her art.
School Days and Artistic Beginnings
Varo went to a convent school. This was typical for girls from good families back then. But this experience made her more rebellious. She questioned religion and preferred her father's open-minded ideas.
Remedios drew throughout her childhood. She painted her first picture when she was twelve. Her earliest known works are from 1923. These include a self-portrait and family portraits. She was studying at the School of Arts and Crafts at this time.
In 1924, at age 15, she joined the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Madrid. She studied under Manuel Benedito. This school taught traditional art skills. Many famous artists, like Salvador Dalí, also went there. Varo earned her diploma as a drawing teacher in 1930.
Varo also showed her art in an exhibition. It was organized by the Unión de Dibujantes de Madrid. Even in school, her art showed signs of Surrealism. She became interested in French surrealism early on. In Madrid, she learned about surrealism through talks, shows, and films. She often visited the Prado Museum. She especially loved the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, like The Garden of Earthly Delights. She also admired Francisco de Goya.
The art Varo made from 1926 to 1935 helped her career. However, the public did not see most of these works.
Life in Spain and France (1930-1941)
Varo met her first husband, Gerardo Lizárraga, at art school. They married in San Sebastián in 1930. This marriage allowed her to leave her hometown and live independently. The couple moved to Paris, a major art center in Europe.
After a year, Lizárraga found a job in Spain. They moved to Barcelona. Barcelona was a hub for new and experimental art. Both Varo and Lizárraga worked for an advertising company. In 1935, Varo showed her painting Composición (Composition) in a Madrid exhibition.
Joining the Surrealist Movement
Varo was determined to be an artist. After Paris, she moved to Barcelona. There, she made her first artist friends. These included Josep-Lluis Florit, Óscar Domínguez, and Esteban Francés. Varo soon separated from her husband. She shared a studio with Francés. Their neighborhood was full of young, modern artists.
In the summer of 1935, Varo officially joined the Surrealist movement. This happened when French surrealist Marcel Jean came to Barcelona. That same year, Varo and her artist friends played surrealist games. One game was cadavres exquis ("exquisite corpses"). Players would draw parts of a picture without seeing the whole. This explored their subconscious minds. These games showed the ideas André Breton wrote about in his Surrealist manifestos.
Varo joined a group called the Grupo Logicofobista. They were interested in Surrealism. They wanted to combine art with metaphysics (ideas about reality). They also resisted strict logic. Varo exhibited with this group in 1936.
Life in Paris and Collaborations
Through the poet Benjamin Péret, Remedios Varo met André Breton. She also met other Surrealist artists. These included Leonora Carrington, Dora Maar, Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, and Max Ernst. Soon after arriving in France, Varo took part in major Surrealist exhibitions. These were in Paris and Amsterdam in 1938.
Her work appeared in various magazines. She also drew small pictures for a Surrealist dictionary. In late 1938, she joined a collaborative art project. It was called Jeu de dessin communiqué (Game of Communicated Drawing). This game started with one drawing. It was shown to someone for only three seconds. That person then tried to redraw it. Their drawing was then shown to the next person, and so on. This led to interesting psychological results. Varo later used these ideas in her paintings.
She created less art in Paris than she did later in Mexico. She felt that women artists were not always taken seriously in the Surrealist group. She later said she learned a lot from them. But she felt too young to challenge famous artists like Paul Éluard or André Breton. She felt a connection to the group but later preferred to paint on her own.
Escaping War and Persecution
In 1937, Varo met political activist and artist Esteban Francés. She left her first husband to escape the Spanish Civil War. She moved back to Paris with Francés and Benjamin Péret. They shared a studio to avoid the fighting. Varo never divorced Lizárraga. She had different partners but remained friends with all of them. By 1939, Francisco Franco's forces won the war. They banned leftist exiles from returning to Spain.
In Paris, Varo lived in poverty. She took odd jobs. She even copied and forged paintings to survive. When World War II began, Péret was imprisoned in 1940. This was because of his political beliefs. Varo was also imprisoned as his partner. A few days after Varo was freed, the Germans took Paris. She had to join other refugees leaving the city. Péret was freed soon after. They both escaped south to Marseilles.
On November 20, 1941, Varo, Péret, and a friend boarded a ship. It was called the Serpa Pinto. They sailed from Marseilles to escape Nazi-controlled Europe. The fear she felt during this time left a lasting mark on her.
Life in Mexico (1942-1963)
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Varo first thought her stay in Mexico would be short. But she lived there for the rest of her life. She spent one year in Venezuela. In her last decade, she created about 110 paintings.
She said that in Europe, it was too stressful to paint. In Mexico, she found the peace she always wanted.
New Friends and Artistic Work
In Mexico, she met other European artists. These included Gunther Gerzso, Kati Horna, José Horna, and Wolfgang Paalen. She also met Mexican artists like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. But she was closest to other exiles. These were the English painter Leonora Carrington and the French adventurer Jean Nicolle.
At that time, Mexican muralism was very popular. Surrealism was not as well known. Varo worked as an assistant to Marc Chagall. She helped design costumes for the ballet Aleko. It premiered in Mexico City in 1942.
In 1943, Varo became interested in the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff. She officially joined his group in 1944.
She took other jobs to make a living. She worked in advertising for a pharmaceutical company. She also decorated for a design company. In 1947, Péret returned to Paris. Varo traveled to Venezuela. She joined a French science trip there.
Finding Stability and Success
Varo returned to Mexico in 1949. She began her third important relationship with Walter Gruen. He was an Austrian political refugee. He had survived concentration camps before escaping Europe. Gruen strongly believed in Varo's art. He gave her the financial and emotional support she needed. This allowed her to focus completely on painting.
In 1952, Varo married Gruen. His financial stability meant she no longer needed commercial illustration jobs. She had more time for her own art. Most of Varo's important paintings were made between 1953 and 1963.
In 1955, Varo had her first solo art show. It was at the Galería Diana in Mexico City. It was very successful. Mexico was becoming more open to different art styles. People even waited in line to buy her work. Even the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera supported her. Her second show was in 1958. In 1960, her art dealer, Juan Martín, opened his own gallery. He showed her work there. He opened a second gallery in 1962, when her career was at its peak.
In 1963, Varo died suddenly from a heart attack. She was a heavy smoker. André Breton said her death meant "the sorceress who left too soon."
Artistic Inspirations and Style
Renaissance art influenced Varo's paintings. She used its harmony, colors, and storytelling style. Many of her works are like allegories (stories with a hidden meaning). This reminds people of Hieronymus Bosch's paintings. Some experts call her art "postmodern allegory."
Varo was influenced by many artists. These included Francisco Goya, El Greco, Picasso, and Braque. André Breton helped her understand Surrealism. Some of her paintings look like the Surrealist art of Giorgio de Chirico. Her paintings showed the careful drawing skills she learned as a child.
Mexican art did not directly influence her work much. But Varo and other surrealists loved how Mexico seemed to blend magic with reality.
Philosophical Ideas in Her Art
Varo saw surrealism as a way to express things that were hard to communicate. She thought it was a "resting place" from the strict rules of Cubism.
Even though she questioned her childhood religion, Catholicism influenced her art. She used religious themes more than other Surrealists. She also explored many mystic traditions. These came from both Western and non-Western cultures. She believed in magic and spiritual faiths. She felt a strong connection to nature. She thought plants, humans, animals, and machines were all linked. Her belief in mystical forces greatly shaped her paintings.
Varo knew how important science was. She believed biology, chemistry, physics, and botany should mix with other parts of life. She was fascinated by Einstein's theory of relativity and Darwinian evolution.
She was also interested in the ideas of Carl Jung. She studied the theories of George Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, Helena Blavatsky, Meister Eckhart, and the Sufis. She loved the legend of the Holy Grail. She was also fascinated by sacred geometry, witchcraft, alchemy, and the I Ching.
Varo described her own "witchcraft" in a letter. She said she didn't have special powers. Instead, she could quickly see how things were connected. This was beyond normal logic. In 1938 and 1939, Varo and her friends explored the fourth dimension. They based their studies on Ouspensky's book Tertium Organum. Books about magic and the occult were important to Breton's Surrealist group. Varo saw these ideas as ways to understand herself and change her consciousness.
Her childhood travels also influenced her greatly. She often painted unusual vehicles in mysterious lands. These works echo her family's journeys when she was young.
Surrealism and Women in Art
One expert said Varo never limited herself to one way of expressing art. She used painting and writing to challenge how we see and think. Most people classify her as a surrealist artist. Her work shows many features of the surrealist style. Her art expresses freedom and a sense of otherworldliness. This is typical of the surrealist movement.
One scholar notes that Varo's automatic writing was like that of the Surrealists. André Breton, a founder of Surrealism, did not always see women as central to the movement. But after Varo died in 1963, he said she would be "forever connected to the ranks of international surrealism."
The Surrealist movement sometimes undervalued women. Some of Varo's art celebrated women. But she did not necessarily intend to address gender inequality. However, her art and actions challenged traditional male-dominated society. Wolfgang Paalen encouraged her in this. He had theories about how civilizations began in matriarchal cultures. He also saw links between ancient Europe and pre-Mayan Mexico.
Friendship with Leonora Carrington and Kati Horna
Many refugees came to Mexico City during and after World War II. Among them, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, and Kati Horna became very close friends. This friendship greatly impacted their lives and art. They all lived near each other in the Colonia Roma area of Mexico City.
Varo and Carrington had met before in Paris through André Breton. Horna met them in Mexico City. But she already knew their work. She had seen some of their paintings given to her by Edward James, a British poet who supported Surrealism.
All three women attended meetings of followers of Russian mystics. These were Peter Ouspensky and George Gurdjieff. They were inspired by Gurdjieff's study of consciousness. They also liked Ouspensky's idea of four-dimensional painting. Even though they were influenced by these ideas, the women sometimes made fun of the group's practices. People sometimes called them "the three witches." This was because they were interested in magic and spiritual practices.
After becoming friends, Varo and Carrington started writing together. They wrote two plays that were never published. They used a technique similar to the game Cadavre Exquis. They took turns writing small parts of the text and then put them together. Even when not writing together, they often worked in similar ways. They drew from the same inspirations and used similar themes in their paintings. Their work was very similar, but there was one main difference. Varo's paintings focused on lines and shapes. Carrington's work focused on colors and tones. Varo and Carrington remained very close friends for 20 years, until Varo's death in 1963.
Remedios Varo's Legacy
Varo's artwork is well known in Mexico. However, it is not as famous in other parts of the world.
Her later paintings have strong feminist meanings. These were mostly from the last few years of her life. Her partner for the last 15 years, Walter Gruen, worked hard to list all her art. He made sure her legacy would live on.
Varo's unique surrealist style includes several features. She painted figures that look like both male and female. These figures often have her own face. She also painted mythical creatures, misty swirls, and strange perspectives. She painted isolated figures to show how women can feel trapped.
Her paintings are seen as surrealist works. They show her love for mysticism and alchemy. They can also be seen as stories about her own life. But her work has even deeper meanings.
In 1971, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City held a special show of her art. It was after her death. This show attracted more visitors than any other in the museum's history. It even drew more people than shows for Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco.
More than fifty of her works were shown in 2000. This was at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC.
The Crying of Lot 49, a book by Thomas Pynchon, mentions Varo's art. A character in the story remembers crying in front of Varo's painting Bordando el Manto Terrestre ("Embroidering the Earth's Mantle").
Varo's painting The Lovers inspired some images. These were used by Madonna in her 1995 music video for "Bedtime Story".
On May 22, 2019, Varo's 1955 painting Simpatía (La rabia del gato) ("Sympathy: the madness of the cat") sold for $3.1 million. This happened at an auction in New York City.
Selected List of Works
- 1935 El tejido de los sueños (Fabric of Dreams)
- 1937 El Deseo (Le Désil)
- 1942 Gruta mágica (Magical Grotto)
- 1947 Paludismo (wrongly known as Libélula) (Malaria (anopheles mosquito, Anopheles gambiae))
- 1947 El hombre de la guadaña (muerte en el mercado) (The Man with the scythe (death in the market))
- 1947 La batalla (The Battle)
- 1947 Wahgwah
- 1947 Amibiasis o los vegetales (Amebiasis or Plants)
- 1948 Allegory of Winter
- 1955 Useless Science or the Alchemist
- 1955 Ermitaño meditando (Meditating Hermit)
- 1955 La revelación o el relojero
- 1955 Trasmundo (Transworld)
- 1955 The Lovers
- 1955 El flautista (The Piper)
- 1955 Solar Music'
- 1956 El paraíso de los gatos (Paradise of cats)
- 1956 To the Happiness of Women
- 1956 Les feuilles mortes (Dead Leaves)
- 1956 Harmony'
- 1956 The Juggler (The Musician)
- 1957 Creation of the Birds
- 1957 Women’s Tailor
- 1957 Caminos tortuosos (Winding Roads)
- 1957 Reflejo lunar (Moon Reflection)
- 1957 El gato helecho (Fern Cat)
- 1958 Celestial Pabulum
- 1959 Exploration of the Sources of the Orinoco River'
- 1959 Catedral vegetal (Vegetal cathedral)
- 1959 Encounter
- 1959 Unexpected Presence
- 1960 Hacia la torre (Towards the Tower)
- 1960 Mimesis
- 1960 Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst's Office'
- 1960 Visit to the Plastic Surgeon’s
- 1961 Vampiro (Vampire)
- 1961 Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle
- 1961 Hacia Acuario (Towards Aquarius)
- 1962 Vampiros vegetarianos (Vegetarian vampires) - sold for $3,301,000 in May 2015
- 1962 Fenómeno (Phenomenon)
- 1962 Spiral Transit
- 1963 Naturaleza muerta resucitando (Still Life Resurrecting)
- 1963 Still Life Reviving'
See also
In Spanish: Remedios Varo para niños
- Leonora Carrington
- Kati Horna
- Eva Sulzer
- Esteban Francés
- Gerardo Lizarraga
- Wolfgang Paalen
- Women Surrealists
- Maruja Mallo
