Remedios Varo, Surrealism, alchemy, witchcraft - portrayals of an alternate universe

Remedios Varo (December 16, 1908 – October 8, 1973) was a Spanish Surrealist artist who was active during the first half of the 20th century. She was overshadowed by her more famous contemporary, Frida Kahlo but but Varo’s work was equally surrealist. She used an interdisciplinary approach in her art by combining insights from psychology, religion, and science.

 

Although she died at the age of only 53 due to a sudden heart attack, it is estimated that she left approximately 384 artworks behind her. During her early formative years, her father Rodrigo proved to be a supportive and influential figure. He was a hydraulic engineer and Remedios was fascinated  with his technical drawings. Motifs such as machinery and hydraulics would show up later in her art. Her father encouraged her to pursue an artistic career, so she enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1924. There, she was under the guidance of a renowned Spanish painter Manuel Benedito. Varo successfully completed her education in 1930.

 

After graduating she traveled around Europe. In Barcelona, she formed her first artistic circle of friends which consisted of Oscar Dominguez, a Spanish surrealist painter, and Esteban Frances, a French surrealist and Dadaist poet. Later in Paris Varo met the pioneers of Surrealism like Andre Breton, Leonora Carrington, and Max Ernst. Unfortunately, her artistic development in Europe was disrupted by two traumatic historical events. Firstly, she had to flee from Spain when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, and when it ended in 1939, she was banned from returning by the fascist dictator Francisco Franco. Then, after the beginning of World War II, she found her refuge in Mexico. What was supposed to be a temporary solution turned out to be a permanent one—Remedios Varo spent the last 13 years of her life in Mexico.

 

Remedios Varo was influenced by her father’s profession, and she was interested in science from an early age. Since most of Varo’s inspiration stems from her childhood, it is not surprising that themes such as science, physics, and mechanics are an important part of her artwork. The phenomenon of Weightlessness is a powerful example of Varos’ fascination with science. The scene is set in an illogical space where the room is duplicated and positioned at an asymmetrical angle. This aspect emphasizes revelations regarding the relativity of gravity. It is presumed that Albert Einstein and his groundbreaking discovery were used as an inspiration here.

 

Varo was drawn to surreal, illogical, and preternatural phenomena. Thus she expressed her interest in alchemy in numerous works. While science was accepted in the real and rational world, the magical and otherworldly aspects of alchemy found their significant place in Varo’s opus. The Useless Science or The Alchemist encapsulates these qualities. A ghostlike creature, engaged in an enigmatic experiment, is set in a peculiar-looking laboratory. The dominant colors here are also worth noticing. According to alchemistic theories, the colors black, white, yellow, and red allude to the four-stage chemical reaction that produces the elixir of life.

Religion plays a huge part in the artwork of Remedios Varo. Having attended a Catholic convent school as a young girl, she was exposed to strict discipline and dogmatic teaching. This experience fostered her critical thinking and questioning of authority. Consequently, Varo tackled Christianity in a multifaceted manner in her paintings. In her painting called Rupture, the central figure is depicted descending the stairs while leaving behind a stern-looking building with unsmiling guards in it. The main figure with her heart-shaped face, almond eyes, and aquiline nose resembles Varo’s features. Therefore this scene could be interpreted as Varo’s act of cutting ties with the rigidity of religion and tradition. She is off to explore the forbidden domain of magic, alchemy, and even witchcraft.

 

Just like her fellow Surrealists, Varo expressed interest in psychology and psychoanalysis, especially in Freud’s and Jung’s theories of the subconscious. The central figure in her Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst resembles the features of Remedios Varo as well. Thus, Varo resonated with the intentions of the depicted woman to explore the unconscious mind and her suppressed desires.

 

On the other hand, this piece could be analyzed from a feminist perspective. The woman in question is represented holding the head of an old man, getting ready to throw it into a well. This act can be perceived as an act of rebellion. The portrayed woman is ready to reject and free herself from patriarchal notions and limitations symbolized by the man’s head. Even though Varo never deliberately addressed problems of gender inequality, her art showed empowered women. By giving female bodies androgynous forms, Varo freed women from being objectified.

 Surrealist artists loved to experiment with untraditional techniques, and Remedios Varo was no exception. Even though she predominantly produced oil paintings, she found a way to incorporate unorthodox methods in her art. Interested in automatism and freeing her imagination of conscious control, Varo used techniques such as decalcomania, grattage, and soufflage.

 

Decalcomania is a surrealist painting technique characterized by the application of one material (e.g. paper, aluminum foil, or glass) to a freshly painted surface followed by peeling it off. The process results in unpredictable and spontaneous patterns. The accidental nature of this technique is closely linked to Varo’s exploration of the subconscious and imagination. Using this method in The Star Catcher she created a biomorphic pattern visible on the garment of the protagonist and on a part of the background.

Most likely invented by Max Ernst, the technique of grattage provides unexpected and chance-driven results. Varo employed grattage in her painting The Escape, which is most evident in the detail of rocks. She scraped the surface with a sharp-edged tool while the paint was still wet. This led to the revealing of underlying layers of paint, which in turn created textured and unpredictable patterns. Therefore, this method provides a dynamic interplay between control and chance.

Remedios Varo collaborated with many other Surrealist artists, including the British artist Leonora Carrington and the Hungarian artist Kati Horna. Since all three of them found their new home in Mexico, they formed a close friendship. Due to their shared interest in spiritual practices and the occult, they earned the nickname the three witches among their friends and colleagues. The trio wrote two unpublished plays El Santo Cuerpo Grasoso and Lady Milagra. They employed a writing technique similar to the method of cadavre exquis where they took turns in adding small fragments of text. Fascinated by witchcraft, the three of them also undertook the task of writing magical recipes in order to provoke specific dreams.

Remedios Varo worked with other artists as well. She participated in a collaborative work called Game of Communicated Drawing with Robert Rius, Benjamin Peret, and Andre Breton. This series had a game-like nature. Each participant was shown a drawing for three seconds, after which they had to recreate what they had seen.

Varo also took part in a Surrealist game cadavre exquis (or exquisite corpse) with Esteban Frances, Marcel Jean, and Oscar Dominguez. The game involved multiple participants who each contributed to a collective composition without previous knowledge of what others had drawn or written. This method was supposed to encourage the subconscious association of the participants.

Remedios Varo is a vital representative of Surrealism. Her art is complex on many levels. Firstly, she developed a distinctive and original artistic style within the Surrealist movement. Dreamlike creatures that populate mysterious places and engage in mystical and other-worldly activities are a trademark of Varo’s artwork. Furthermore, Varo proved to be well-versed in numerous fields like science, alchemy, psychology, and religion. That comprehensive knowledge gave her artworks multilayered meanings. Finally, Varo collaborated and interacted with prominent Surrealist figures.

Varo’s art is also of crucial importance when it comes to gender studies and feminist theories. Even though she did not declare herself a feminist or address gender inequality in her work, the way Varo depicted women undermined traditional patriarchal values. Her paintings often feature strong and independent female figures undertaking roles that were commonly perceived as masculine. Moreover, Varo never objectified the women she portrayed. Her female characters had depth, intellect, and creativity.

In the end, thanks to Remedios Varo we can conclude that there are always new and lesser-known female artists just waiting to be discovered. Frida Kahlo has become an absolute symbol of female Surrealist art to such an extent that other women artists have been set aside. Therefore, more room needs to be made for different and not-so-popular women artists. Remedios Varo serves as an exemplar highlighting the growing need for art history articles, blogs, and media that amplify the visibility of women in art. 

https://www.thecollector.com/remedios-varo-female-surrealist-painter

Goya (March 30, 1746 - April 16, 1828).

March 30, 1746. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (30 March 1746 - 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of late 18th and early 19th centuries and throughout his long career was a commentator and chronicler of his era. Immensely successful in his lifetime, Goya is often referred to as both the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. In this image: Francisco de Goya, The victorious Hannibal, 1771 (not one of his more interesting paintings, IMHO). 

Yesterday was Goya's birthday but his best work is so grim that I could not bring myself to write about him, esp after writing about Van Gogh who created work in such vibrant color out of his own suffering. But Goya's images of war are as powerful today as when he made them.

Yes, he did lovely paintings of the Spanish nobility but this work does not draw on his deepest talents.

The 3rd of May - showing the murder of Spanish patriots by the invading French

The Disasters of War: 

http://arthistorynewsreport.blogspot.com/2014/01/goya-disasters-of-war.html

Robert Hughes: "...he speaks to us with an urgency that no artist of ou time can muster. We see his long dead  face pressed against the glass of our terrible century. Goya looking at a time (almost) worst than his." (Nothing If Not Critical)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Goya

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goya/hd_goya.htm

https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-whims-1799-and-the-follies-1815-23-of-francisco-goya/

Jusepe de Ribera. Born on this day in 1591

The Clubfooy

January 12, 1591. Jusepe de Ribera (January 12, 1591 - September 2, 1652) was a Spanish Tenebrist painter and printmaker, also known as José de Ribera and Josep de Ribera. He also was called Lo Spagnoletto ("the Little Spaniard") by his contemporaries and early writers. Ribera was a leading painter of the Spanish school, although his mature work was all done in Italy. In this image: Jusepe de Ribera, Saint James the Lesser, ca. 1632.  Born in Spain but worked in Italy, Ribera stated that Spain was "a loving mother to foreigners and a very cruel stepmother to her own sons. "

Faces contorted in pain, mutilated bodies, sagging flesh, bearded women and deformed boys: such is the stuff of Jusepe de Ribera's paintings. The fact that Ribera was probably the most influential painter of the Spanish Baroque (even more influential than his far more famous compatriot, Velázquez) tends to be overshadowed by the fact that his often twisted, bizarre images have categorized the artist as a painter of the dark and bloody, and nothing more.

But he was more than a painter of the grotesque and bizarre. In fact, a closer look at his oeuvre reveals that the artist was as much a master of Baroque color, dynamism and grandeur as he was a master of Caraveggesque chiaroscuro and naturalism. Furthermore, Ribera's prints and paintings alike had an enormous impact on the development of Baroque art all over Europe.

But he was more than a painter of the grotesque and bizarre. In fact, a closer look at his oeuvre reveals that the artist was as much a master of Baroque color, dynamism and grandeur as he was a master of Caraveggesque chiaroscuro and naturalism. Furthermore, Ribera's prints and paintings alike had an enormous impact on the development of Baroque art all over Europe.

In his earlier style, founded sometimes on Caravaggio and sometimes on the wholly diverse method of Corregio,  the study of Spanish and Venetian masters may be traced. Along with his massive and predominating shadows, he retained from first to last a great strength in local coloring. His forms, although ordinary and sometimes coarse, are correct; the impression of his works gloomy and startling. He delighted in subjects of horror. In the early 1630s his style changed away from strong contrasts of dark and light to a more diffused and golden lighting.

Images and info from Wikipedia and Art Bible

A tribute to Sorolla on his birthday

February 27, 1863. Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 - 10 August 1923) was a Valencian Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native land. In this image: A technician adjusts 'The Bathing Hour' a painting by Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla on display at Sotheby's auction rooms in London, Friday, May 29, 2009.

"Mending the Sails" is perfect in every way. It is magnificently conceived, masterfully constructed, and painted in the most beautiful manner imaginable. The colors, brushwork, paint quality, detail and lack of detail, focus and lack of focus, expression in the faces, setting into the background: all absolutely flawless, and more that that, absolutely gorgeous. Never before or since has a painter done a better job harmonizing a full array of natural colors.

Contemporary realists have an array of machines and devices unimagined by Sorolla, and yet they cannot produce anything like this. Why? We cannot seem to come up with subjects this interesting or paint them with such virtuosity. To put it another way, we simply aren't as good as Sorolla.

Miles Mathis has  spoken out against the retentiveness of some of the realists in the US, who paint on plastic and sand away all specks and generally worry all interest out of their paintings. I recommend Sorolla to them, as a tonic to this fussiness. Sorolla is primarily interested in his image, not his paint. He learned this from his master, Velasquez. Velasquez also often uses a rough canvas and leaves lots of specks and globs standing in his final paint layer. Both seem completely blind to any small details like this. Sorolla occasionally takes this a bit too far, as I said, as if he is doing it wilfully, but Velasquez always knows where to stop. If you are noticing the specks in a Velasquez, you are standing too close and are not looking at the painting like a painting should be looked at. The moment you look at the painting as a painting, the specks and globs disappear, and you understand why he ignored them--or used them. (from http://mileswmathis.com/index.html. Review of a Sorolla/Sargent show in Paris).
 

Sorolla was acknowledged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as one of the foremost Spanish painters. He initially rose to acclaim in the United States with his prize-winning submission to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. On the heels of this success, and a triumph at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition, Sorolla was invited by the philanthropist and collector Archer Milton Huntington to show his work in 1909 at The Hispanic Society in New York City. The public response to this exhibition was unprecedented, drawing more than 150,000 visitors in one month.

 

Born in Valencia Spain on February 27, 1863, and orphaned two years later, Joaquin Sorolla overcame his humble begin- nings by winning a scholarship to the Spanish Academy in Rome. Upon graduation, he began sending his paintings to all the leading salons, including Madrid, Paris, Munich, Chicago, Vienna, Berlin and Venice, continuously winning awards. Re- quests for portraits began about this time and, combined with his prize-winning exhibition pieces, secured his position as a world-class artist.

Soon tiring of the academic sobriety of his large studio compositions, he turned his attention to outdoor location work, and from 1901 to 1905 he produced the 500 works of his first one-man show in Paris (1906). This was followed by numerous other important shows, all of which led up to his greatest success at the Hispanic Society of America (New York). In 1911, he began a monumental set of murals for the society depicting life in the various provinces of Spain. The vast size and scope of the project (some pieces measuring 15x35 feet) forced him to trade his usual sense of compositional verve for a more rigid and stylized approach. The series took Sorolla seven years to complete. Exhausted by the end of it, he suffered a stroke in 1920, leaving him paralyzed and unable to work. He died three years later at the age of 60.

Joaquin Sorolla was passionate about the two loves in his life - his family and his art. Sorolla painted very, very fast. "I could not paint at all if I had to paint slowly," he once said. "Every effect is so transient, it must be rapidly painted." Most of his pictures were painted in from four to six mornings, many in one or two. He did not have a set idea of how a painting would turn out before he started, preferring to build up the composition as he went along. Sorolla was primarily interested in the image, not his paint. He learned this from his master, Velasquez who also often used a rough canvas and did not highly finish his canvas.

Whether working outdoors in sunlight or painting from a window or lamp-lit interior, Sorolla kept reasonably close to the age-old axiom that every object in light should be painted a middle-gray value or above, and every object in shadow a middle-gray value or below. And a study of his work bears this out. 

Sorollo from Wikipedia 

Dedicated site 

The Anthenaeum 

Art Daily

Sorolla, "Sad Inheritence"

An even greater turning point in Sorolla's career was marked by the painting and exhibition of "Sad Inheritance" (1899),an  extremely large and highly finished canvas dealing with a painful subject.

Study for "Sad Inheritance"

In 1887, apolio epidemic had swept Spain. There was no cure, so many, especially children were left crippled. Sorollo portrays young polio victims with their shurnken limbs, bathing in the sea, under the care of a monk. The group of boys next to the monk are the emotional center of the painting. In order to highlight the sheen of sun and water on their flesh, Sorolla skillfully juxtaposes their naked bodies against the monk's black robe. The painting earned Sorolla his greatest official recognition, the Grand Prix and a medal of honor at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, and the medal of honor at the National Exhibition in Madrid in 1901. In this painting he perfected his technique for depicting the effects of light, a technique which he was to refine throughout his lifetime.

http://www.examiner.com/article/sorolla-and-america-opens-san-diego

'Sorolla and America' opens in San Diego

This artist is one of my favorites and I am so glad that this massive exhibit has come to the west coast. First Anders Zorn and now Sorolla - if they show the work of John Singer Sargent, I will be one very happy woman: http://www.examiner.com/article/sorolla-and-america-opens-san-diego