REMEDIOS VARO

The Mexican Years

Publisher: Editorial RM; 2nd edition (3 Sept. 2024)

Language: English

Hardcover: 160 pages

ISBN-10: 8415118228

ISBN-13: 978-8415118220

Dimensions: 24.38 x 1.52 x 28.45 cm

Description

Crikey! A Remedios Varo monograph that won't break the bank, at least whilst it's still in circulation. Coming out in September 2024, I would get it while you can. At least I will do.

For my part, I consider Varo to be one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. I've described her elsewhere as the Hieronymus Bosch of the last century and by that I meant her paintings convey the same ethereal mystery that is found in his work. The Mexican years are the years where her beautiful esotericism came about and it is these pages which will reveal it, hopefully, to the many around the world.

I still think she should be far more well known than she actually is. Part of the problem is that she died in 1963 and for many years her work, as that of the other female Surrealists, was shamefully neglected. There was no-one really shouting for her, championing her. It was only after Whitney Chadwick's book in the late 1980s and it emerged that Madonna collected Frida Kahlo's work that these lost visionaries were re-discovered.

Paul Page

The First...

The first major monograph for a worldwide audience on one of the most appealing, mysterious surrealist painters. The volume showcases all the painter’s most important works and Masayo Nonaka’s illuminating text offers a unique insight into the life and work of Remedios Varo. She is acclaimed as one of the most talented women surrealists of the 20th century. Born and raised in Spain, Remedios Varo (1908–1963) received her first training in Madrid before fleeing the Spanish civil war to join surrealist circles in Paris. At the outbreak of World War II, she was forced to take refuge in Mexico, where she remained until her untimely death in 1963. Known as one of the three brujas (witches) active in the Mexico City art milieu, Varo shared an interest in esotericism with fellow painter Leonora Carrington and a range of interests in science, philosophy, and the literature of German Romanticism with the photographer Kati Horna. For some ten years before her death, she devoted herself to creating an extraordinary dreamlike oeuvre, on the threshold between mysticism and the modern mind.

From the Back Cover

Fully illustrated, the volume presents all of Remedios Varo’s most important works and Masayo Nonaka’s illuminating text offers a unique insight into the life and work of the painter. This book deals with the life and works of one of the most interesting and mysterious surrealist painters of the twentieth century. The first monograph on the artist to circulate worldwide, it includes an introductory study by Masayo Nonaka, curator of the exhibition Women Surrealists in Mexico and author of several books.

About the Genius

Remedios Varo y Uranga (1908–1963) was raised in a traditional middle-class family in Spain and rigorously trained at the prestigious San Fernando Academy in Madrid, Dali's alma mater. Varo first found her place in the bohemian avant-garde group in Barcelona. After fleeing the Spanish Civil War with surrealist poet Benjamin Peret, she joined the circle of surrealists in Paris in 1937, and her experimental works were included in surrealist publications and exhibitions. The outbreak of World War II forced her to flee Nazi-occupied Paris. She eventually found refuge in Mexico with Peret, who would later become her husband. She remained there until her untimely death in 1963. For some ten years, from the mid-1950s to 1963, Varo devoted herself to producing her intricate fairy tales, rich with subtle wit, humour and fantasy, for which she has been acclaimed as one of the most talented women surrealists in 20th century art.

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