The Imaginarium of Remedios Varo

Dreams and imaginings of the most unique sort grew wildly in the mind of a young and aspiring artist. Her paintings guide the viewer through a window to new universes and dimensions, exploring the depth and range of the worlds in which her characters live. A violin hangs from a personified owl’s neck as she paints birds that literally escape her canvas.  A clockmaker’s vision circulates before him as cogs and wheels converge on his desk. Revolving paddleboats and gondolas on disturbed gray waters row destined for the central red-orange tower within their spiral village. The universes created by Surrealist painter Remedios Varo emit a spectacular warmth of reds and honey-yellows with vibrant contrast as her enchanted realms are woven by her endless creativity. Today we can imagine vampires as the long fanged undead gouging into their victims for that red life-fluid to quench their eternal thirst or we may even be further haunted by the brown-eyed vegetarian pop culture vampires, twinkling in the sun. Created a year before her death, Varo’s Vegetarian Vampires sits three textured beings slurping their sustenance from a rose, a watermelon, and a tomato with their two feline-chicken-pets perched by their feet. This inventive piece is merely one note among a masterful symphony of her work. “During the last ten years of her life, Varo invites us into a fantastic universe in which properties of the organic and inorganic, the scientific and the magical, the natural and the technological, interchange and overlap” (Kaplan, Subversive 1998).

Born on December 16, 1908 in Anglés, Spain, Maria de los Remedios Varo y Uranga’s father’s work as a hydraulic engineer sent their family to frequent travelling in her younger years, which introduced her to a variety of cultures throughout Europe and North Africa (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988, Kaplan, Unexpected 1988). This exposure would instill within her a unique vision and imagination of the world around her. She enjoyed fantastical literature and fairy tales (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988)developed a gift for mathematics (Lozano 2006) and even believed in magic (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988). Beneath the stones in her floor, where she buried her written stories spawned her interest in “subterranean life liv[ing] secretly under floors, behind walls, and within furniture” (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988). Schooled at the Academia de San Fernando, which did not allow experimentation and individual style in the classroom, she took to Surrealism “for more imaginative and personal imagery” (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988).

Nevertheless, her vision continued to shape and to develop with age.  The worlds she created in the fifties and sixties were “marked by a maturity of style and thematic development in which she explored the images, ideas and techniques that she was to work with for the rest of her career” (Kaplan 1988). Upon moving to Mexico in 1949, she discovered a sense of security that began to emulate in the color treatment of her work (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988). “[Her] colors, sobriety, as well as her subtle atmospheres stand up for an apparent serenity within her work. But if we observe her images, we perceive the universe is indeed a dangerous one,” (Molina 2008). Her exhibitions in Mexico were successful and “[her] paintings cause[d] a sensation among the public and critics. There [were] long waiting lists and commissions for works” (Lozano 2006).

One of her collections titled, “Time, Cosmos, and Energy: Paradigms of a New Science,” she “revives the binarisms of physical/ spiritual, body/mind by creating a metaphysical geometry in which both physical and spiritual realities are inscribed and operative” (Parkinson-Zamora 1992). Part of this collection included the aforementioned the Clockmaker (1955) and the Creation of the Birds (1957) in addition to the Weaving of Space and Time (1954), Useless Science (1955), and many others. Lozano describes the works in this collection as “one of Varo’s most fantastic obsessions” that “goes beyond trivial formalism, in which the aesthetic is seen as a way to explore the universe” (Lozano 2006). In such paintings, she merges concepts from the sciences and magic, in essence to create her own celestial places rendered often without adherence to actual scientific principles, or to break them entirely. Merging ideas from quantum mechanics, physics (Lozano 2006), and space-time (Kaplan, Subversive 1998), created a sense of uniformity between most of these works.

Perhaps the piece from this collection, Naturaleza Muerta Resuscitando (1963) – known as Still Life Reviving in English – is the embodiment of the entire collection. According to Kaplan’s book An Unexpected Journey, she tells us that the literal translation means “dead nature being revived”, although naturaleza muerta is an idiom for “still life”. The work possesses an inherit religious tone which is indicative in the arching architecture and the candle (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988). In addition to the similar themes and warm color treatments, eight plates lift themselves from a round table; the spinning table cloth held firmly in place by the single lit candlestick. A variety of fruit levitates around the candlelight, “swept into a whirlwind by an invisible source of energy” (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988). Their colliding and twirling is reminiscent of a solar system filled with fiery proto planets in a manner that captures the natural motions of our universe.

The phrase “dead nature being revived” is the undertone of the entire collection “Time, Cosmos, and Energy”. The very nature of our uncertain existence to the appearing immortality of the universe is revival and rebirth. For example, upon the explosion of many supernovas, the discarded gasses will inevitably gravitate to form new stars over time. A Dragon-Snap flower blooms ever so brightly in the spring and summer but its bulb begins to reabsorb it until only dry, crinkled stems remain. But come next spring, the bulb will open again to bring forth its petals in an uninterrupted cycle. Upon comparing this notion to the other works, such as Creation of the Birds, one can see that the life force given to the new birds flows from the owl’s paintbrush through a tube connected to the violin around her neck that is her heart (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988), and the light through the window “to create the ultimate synthesis of illusion and reality” (Kaplan, Unexpected 1988). Still Life Reviving joins Creation of the Birds, and the other pieces in the collection, to explore the mysticism behind the natural concept of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Such ideas form the very foundation of Surrealism.

I have always enjoyed Surrealism, particularly works by Salvador Dali, but I have really stretched my wings in research of Remedios Varo. Her paintings are filled with intense symbolism, thought, and narrative that truly speak out to me as an artist. In addition to being naturally attracted to fantasy and science, I have a deep interest in the creation of worlds that defy or skew reality and sensibility, yet still cling to the basic principles of our very existence. Beyond her subject and stylistic choices in the human-like figures, I am captured by her meticulous application of the paint and her treatment of light, color, texture and symbolism. The compositional choices and the deliberate breakup of the expected, such as linear perspective, remind me to be more relaxed with the paint and put more effort into concept sketches with small writings of what I want to achieve.  I am also quite intrigued by her use of color theory in her paintings. The warm hues chosen in some of her work, those that are stronger in yellows and oranges, bring a natural serenity and calmness where others that are richer in deeper reds approach closer to uncertainty and discomfort.

A sudden and fatal heart attack took her in 1963, creating waves of sympathy among the art world. The works of Remedios Varo are a testament, many of the biographical, to her all too short life, though a rich and diverse one full of intensity, trial, adventure, and serenity. Her destined opportunity to live in Mexico opened the doors for her to explore her artistic spirit and adapting the world’s cultures, forms of science, and intrigue of magic to create immense beauty and creativity, achieving some of the best work of her lifetime. Her fascination with fantasy, dreams, illusions mingled with reshaped reality seems to evoke either moods of harmony or dissonance within our current context of realism. She is the magical composer of a wonderful symphony developed painstakingly and whole-heartedly over the years of her life one note at a time.

Works Cited

Kaplan, Janet A. "Subversive Strategies: The Work of Remedios Varo." In A Woman's Gaze: Latin American Women Artists, edited by Marjorie Agosín. Fredonia, New York: White Pine Press, 1998.

—. Unexpected Journeys: The Art and Life of Remedios Varo. New York: Abreville Press, 1988.

Lozano, Luis-Martín. The Magic of Remedios Varo. Translated by Elizabeth Goldson Nicholson and Liliana Valenzuela. London: Giles, Ltd., 2006.

Remedios Varo: A Dream's Weaver. Directed by Isabelle Castells Molina. Produced by Centro Nacional de las Artes. 2008. Web, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVmmP9t-3Mk.

Parkinson-Zamora, Lois. "The Magical Tables of Isabel Allende and Remedios Varo." Comparative Literature, 1992: 131. Web, http://www.academicroom.com/article/magical-tables-isabel-allende-and-remedios-varo