Varo, Remedios (1908–1963)

Remedios Varo (b. 16 December 1908; d. 8 October 1963), Spanish painter. Born in Anglés, a town in Gerona, Catalonia, Remedios Varo was the daughter of an Andalusian hydraulic engineer and a Basque mother. In 1924 she enrolled at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. She moved to Barcelona in 1932 and shared a studio with the Catalan artist Esteban Francés. She participated in the Exposición Logicofobista, organized by ADLAN (Amics de les Arts Nous; Friends of the New Art), in 1936. In Barcelona, Varo met the French surrealist poet Benjamín Péret, with whom she traveled to Paris in 1937, and became involved with the activities of the surrealist circle. Fleeing World War II, Varo immigrated to Mexico in 1942; there she met other exiled artists, including Leonara Carrington, Wolfgang Paalen, José and Kati Horna; with Carrington, Varo established close personal and artistic ties. Most of Varo's works were produced during her stay in Mexico, where she remained until her death. Her works display a range of fantastic subjects, some of which are based on her interest in alchemy and the occult.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fundación Banco Exterior (Madrid), Remedios Varo (1988).

Lucía García De Carpi, La pintura surrealista española, 1924–1936 (1986).

Janet A. Kaplan, Unexpected Journeys: The Art and Life of Remedios Varo (1988).

Beatriz Varo, Remedios Varo: En el centro del microcosmos (1990).

Additional Bibliography

Blanco, Alberto. "El último dibujo de Remedios Varo." Artes de México 63, Suppl. (2003): 8-11.

Rivera, Magnolia. Trampantojos: El círculo en la obra de Remedios Varo. México City: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2005.

                                              Ilona Katzew