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Surreal: Remedios Varo, painter

In undergrad 20some years ago I took a class focused on female artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. I think it was called Her-Story. I found the course challenging and I don’t think the professor liked me but I left with favorite artist.

Remedios Varo was a Spanish surrealist. The European Surrealist scene was a boy’s club, but there were standout women as well, including Leonora Carrington and of course Frida Kahlo. But I was drawn to Varo’s style: lonely, beautiful, otherworldly but familiar, immensely personal, and she explored feminism long before is was cool (is it cool now?). She lived in Spain and Paris but was eventually exiled to Mexico due to the rise of the Nazis. Her artistic interests included alchemy, magic, self-exploration and analytic psychology.

Here are a few of my favorites of her works:

Embroidering the Earth’s Mantel
Vegetarian Vampires
Alchemy of Useless Science
Disturbing Presence

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