Remedios Varo: The Mexican Years offers a definitive survey of the life and work of a singularly appealing and mysterious Surrealist painter. Born and raised in Spain, Remedios Varo received her earliest training in Madrid before fleeing the Spanish Civil War in 1937 to join Surrealist circles in Paris. The outbreak of World War II forced her to take refuge in Mexico, where she remained until her untimely death in 1963, and where she created her most enduring work. 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, from the mid–1950s until her death in 1963, Varo devoted herself to creating an extraordinary dreamlike oeuvre, on the threshold between mysticism and modernity. Her beautifully crafted images of medieval interiors, occult workshops and androgynous figures engaged in alchemical pursuits evoke the eerie allegories of Hieronymus Bosch, esoteric engravings and the charm and lure of fairytales. This catalogue includes a complete illustrated chronology with never before published images and describes Varo’s role in the Mexican Surrealist movement and her relations with Luis Buńuel, Octavio Paz, Benjamin Péret, Alice Rahon, Wolfgang Paalen and many others.
Remedios Varo (1908–1963) fled the Spanish Civil War and then World War II to settle in Mexico where she helped establish a Mexican Surrealist movement and painted visions that combined modernism with mysticism. She was married to the leading French Surrealist Benjamin Péret.
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STAFF REVIEW
Originally from Spain, Remedios Varo fled to Paris in 1937 to escape the Franco dictatorship, in the company of the French poet Benjamin Péret. There she met the Surrealist community there, including André Breton, Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington. Eventually she and Péret moved to Mexico City, where Varo was to spend the rest of her life. Péret and Varo split up, but Varo found a lifelong friend in fellow Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington. The two of them were very close, living a bohemian lifestyle among the ex-pat artist community of Mexico City. It wasn't until the last 13 years of her life, however, that she was able to devote herself to painting full-time, thanks to the financial support of businessman and art collector Walter Gruen. There are no publications on Varo currently in print, and the prices that older monographs fetch in the secondary market indicate a real need for a new one. The author, Masayo Nonaka, was able to interview both Leonora Carrington and Walter Gruen before their deaths, and Gruen and his wife opened up their archives to Nonaka, giving her access to documents and image rights to some never-before-published works. -- Eleanor Strehl Artbook | D.A.P. Staff
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FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11 in. / 120 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 ISBN: 9788415118220 PUBLISHER: RM AVAILABLE: 10/31/2012 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Remedios Varo: The Mexican Years offers a definitive survey of the life and work of a singularly appealing and mysterious Surrealist painter. Born and raised in Spain, Remedios Varo received her earliest training in Madrid before fleeing the Spanish Civil War in 1937 to join Surrealist circles in Paris. The outbreak of World War II forced her to take refuge in Mexico, where she remained until her untimely death in 1963, and where she created her most enduring work. 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, from the mid–1950s until her death in 1963, Varo devoted herself to creating an extraordinary dreamlike oeuvre, on the threshold between mysticism and modernity. Her beautifully crafted images of medieval interiors, occult workshops and androgynous figures engaged in alchemical pursuits evoke the eerie allegories of Hieronymus Bosch, esoteric engravings and the charm and lure of fairytales. This catalogue includes a complete illustrated chronology with never before published images and describes Varo’s role in the Mexican Surrealist movement and her relations with Luis Buńuel, Octavio Paz, Benjamin Péret, Alice Rahon, Wolfgang Paalen and many others.
Remedios Varo (1908–1963) fled the Spanish Civil War and then World War II to settle in Mexico where she helped establish a Mexican Surrealist movement and painted visions that combined modernism with mysticism. She was married to the leading French Surrealist Benjamin Péret.
