Remedios Varo

by Kaplan, Janet A.

• ISBN13: 9780789206275
• ISBN10: 0789206277
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Abbeville Pr

Summary

The adventures that fill the strange and wonderful paintings by Remedios Varo (1908-1963) reflect the physical and psychological journeys of her own tumultuous life. Raised in a strict Spanish family and rigorously trained in academic art, Varo first found escape in Barcelona's bohemian avant-garde. After fleeing the Spanish Civil War with the poet Benjamin Peret, later her husband, she entered the inner circle of the Surrealists in Paris. Forced to flee again by the Nazis, she and Peret faced a year of mounting danger in Marseilles before securing passage to Mexico. Finding welcome refuge in Mexico City, where she remained until her death, Varo produced the extraordinary paintings for which she gained renown.

Painted with a jewel-like palette and old-master precision, Varo's intimate tableaux, rich with details of women's experience, tell fantasy tales of alchemy, science, mysticism, and magic. Fifty color reproductions capture the wit and beauty of her major paintings; numerous black-and-white illustrations document other works and portray the compelling ar

Table of Contents

Introduction	7	(4)
The Early Years	11	(24)
Toward Surrealism	35	(20)
Among the Surrealists	55	(30)
Artist in Exile	85	(34)
The Artist and Her Public	119	(28)
Journey as Metaphor	147	(38)
Transformations	185	(38)
Remembrance and Remembering	223	(18)
Afterword and Acknowledgments	233	(8)
Notes	241	(24)
Exhibitions	265	(5)
Selected Bibliography	270	(10)
Index	280