Surrealism, fantasy and the creation of another world.
Hej!
After a period of hibernation on the cold winter days here in Stockholm, I’m back.
And for the first post of the year, I bring an artist that I’ve been wanting to write about for quite some time now, Remedios Varo!
In 2020 I’ve heard a lot about her wonderful art.
Exhibitions
The “Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires” showed a big exhibition of her work (Remedios Varo: Constelaciones – soon to be shown in Mexico), with an exceptional program of activities around it: lectures, talks, courses, etc, many of which you can see it on their website or YouTube.
There was the exhibition “Fantastic Women”, a comprehensive compilation of works from women who created art incorporating concepts from the Surrealist movement, but were, considerably – except for Frida Khalo and Louise Bourgeois – forgotten. The exhibition highlights the works of Varo along with Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Claude Cahun and others and was shown in Germany and Denmark with great success.
Finally, MoMa currently has on its website the installation “Surrealist Women” which is part of their “Virtual Views”, where Varo joins Dora Maar, Meret Oppenheim, Frida Khalo among others. You can see videos and explore more resources here.
Varo’s magical world
Remedios was a Spanish artist who fled World War II to Mexico, where she flourished, producing the most relevant part of her work.
She received a classic art education in Madrid and was a skilled illustrator.
Her work is deeply personal, reflecting her life, passions and a number of subjects that fascinated her: science, religion, mysticism, astronomy, astrology and the future.
There is a lot of fantasy, imagination, fantastic beings in her art always accompanied by humour, some sarcasm and ambiguity.
Living in Ciudad de Mexico from 1942 until she died in 1963, Remedios Varo embraced the culture, traditions and possibilities of art expressions present in Mexican society.
She was particularly attracted to science and technology, which you can notice when looking at many of her works. There’s always some curious, dreamy-like machine working to create something extraordinary.
What intrigues me the most about Varo is the possibilities of discovery that her work embodies. The myriad of details, colours and meanings in an ethereal atmosphere that instantly takes you to someplace else.
And it’s funny that her work had a big exposure in 2020, a year in which we all needed to enjoy some moments filled with fantasy.
Have a great week!
🙂
La Modernista 