REMEDIOS VARO

Description

An exploration of the captivating work and mystical outlook of the modern artist Remedios Varo, focusing on her years in Mexico City.

This publication offers a definitive look at the artistic practice of Remedios Varo (1908–1963) following her emigration from Spain to Mexico City in 1941. Her work from 1955 to 1963 made a lasting contribution to modern art and to the legacy of Surrealism.

In Remedios Varo: Science Fictions, fresh historical and material findings establish the integral relationship between Varo’s layered interests in alchemy, architecture, magic, mysticism, philosophy, and science, and her beguiling technical approach to art making.

Essays detail the complex narratives and spectacular surfaces of specific works, while an illustrated taxonomy of Varo’s artistic techniques—including automatic mark-making and the careful manipulation of materials and media—offers new insights into the artist’s craft.

An illustrated inventory of a major portion of Varo’s personal library, published here for the first time, reveals her engagement with a wide range of intellectual and esoteric subjects. Stunning new photography of many of her artworks is presented within a dynamic geometric design inspired by the artist’s own visual language.

Situating Remedios Varo as a woman working in mid-century Mexico City, and living among a close-knit community of local and émigré artists, poets, and thinkers, the catalogue illuminates the complex worldview that shaped her search for individual and collective transcendence.

Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago, in partnership with the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.

Exhibition Schedule:
Art Institute of Chicago (July 29, 2023 – November 27, 2023)

Images © Various. All Rights Reserved.

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