Remedios Varo (1908 – 1963) was a Spanish painter famed for her surrealist artworks. She was based in Spain and, later, France but moved to Mexico due to the Spanish Civil War and tensions in France due to Nazi occupation.
Varo, a friend of fellow surrealist Leonora Carrington, spent the last thirteen years of her life in Mexico and passed away at the age of 54, during the zenith of her career.
Her work is much sought after – she completed around 100 paintings in her short lifetime. The Art Institute of Chicago hosted an exhibition of her work, “Remedios Varo: Science Fictions”, in 2023, documented online, and a catalogue is still available. (Also available here from AmazonUK, Affiliate Link).
Closer to home, the National Gallery of Scotland acquired “Encounter” (1959), an extraordinary painting by the Surrealist artist, Varo’s first work in oil on canvas to enter a British public collection.
“When Remedios Varo died suddenly in 1963, aged just 54, André Breton, founder of the Surrealist movement, described her as ‘the sorceress that left too soon’,” the Gallery notes. “Her enigmatic and intricate compositions incorporate planned and automatic techniques, exploring themes of the occult and the scientific.
“Playing with the magical and spiritual potential of interior spaces, Varo sought power in the domestic and the prosaic, turning dusty parlours and creaking doorways into fantasy realms overflowing with possibility.
“A deep interest in alchemy, archaeology, esotericism and ecology is evident throughout her work and her paintings often possess an otherworldly, mystical quality.”
There are several tribute sites to Remedios Varo, including remediosvaro.com
• More about “Encounter”, held by the National Gallery of Scotland, here
• Buy Remedios Varo: Unexpected Journeys by Janet Kaplan from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
The adventures that fill the strange and wonderful paintings by Remedios Varo reflect the physical and psychological journeys of her own tumultuous life. Janet A. Kaplan’s vivid chronicle, the first on the subject in English, weaves Varo’s life with the artist’s exquisite work
Dedicated fans of Varo’s art may also want to track down a copy of the Spanish language edition of Remedios Varo: Catálogo Razonado of Varo’s œuvre, as published by Ediciones ERA of Mexico City in 2002, originally edited by Ricardo Ovalle and Walter Gruen, and revised by Gruen (Varo’s widower) and Anna Alexandra
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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