Thursday, May 16, 2013

Creation

Remedios Varo "Creation of the Birds" 1957  location unknown


The artist Remedios Varo's life was almost as surreal as was her work, shrouded in layers of complexity and uncertainty.  Varo (1908-1963) was born as María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga in a small town in Spain. She studied in Madrid at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and married painter Gerardo Lizarraga. The couple left the country during the Spanish Civil War, and headed to Paris where they enthusiastically dove in to the heady artistic and intellectual milieu of that era. Varo eventually left her husband, and re-married, this time to the french surrealist poet Benjamin Péret. Oddly, after Varo's death it was discovered that she had not in fact actually divorced her first husband, leading to a complex web of legal issues surrounding ownership of her estate which I understand persists to this day.

During the 1940 Nazi invasion of Paris Varo fled to Mexico City where she lived the remainder of her life. She met many of the well-known Mexican intelligentsia and artists but was more fully immersed in the substantial expatriate community. She became good friends with English surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, and also met her third "husband", Walter Gruen, who championed her in every way, both emotionally and financially, to such an extent that she was able to concentrate on her work in a way she had not been able to manage before. Much of her finest and richest work comes from this latest period in her life.


Remedios Varo  Drawing for "Creation of the Birds"  1957 

9 comments:

Quilter's Diary said...

I love mysterious surrealist imagery like this, especially if it involves owls.

Nancy Bea Miller said...

I know, owls, right? Varo was so ahead of her time, thematically! ;-)

Heddy said...

clue me in, what is the significance of the owl theme?

Marianne Malone said...

So cool (and beautiful). I'm pretty sure the symbol of Athena is an owl, no? Perhaps that had something to do with her choice. But no matter, it's wonderful. And I love seeing the drawing.

Alexandra Tyng said...

Really unusual, intriguing work! Thank you for telling us about this painter.

Nancy Bea Miller said...

My pleasure! It was fun to read up on her...she led such an interesting life! And I was thrilled to find the preparatory drawing, which I had not seen before.

Anonymous said...

Hey- I use to draw the figure at Bellas Artes and I met my first husband in Madrid....I hope to God it will not take two more rounds before I get to concentrate on my art work to a greater degree.

Nancy Bea Miller said...

LOL...I hope you are FIRST time lucky in that respect, anonymous! Best wishes, NB

Nancy Bea Miller said...

Nothing all that profound, Heddy, just that owls are very "in" these days as a design feature. See this link: http://pinterest.com/sonialevy/owls-are-in/