Remedios Varo was born in 1908 in Anglès, Spain, and passed away at age 54 in Mexico City, Mexico in 1963. Raised by a Catholic mother and an agnostic engineer father, these two forces-the spiritual and scientific-greatly influenced Varo's artistic career. A Spanish artist who played an integral role in the Mexico City-based Surrealist movement, Varo is known for her enigmatic paintings which unite scientific technical precision with esoteric and feminist subject matter.
After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, Varo moved to Barcelona in the mid-1930s and joined the Surrealist avant-garde art group Logicophobista. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, she fled to Paris with Surrealist poet Benjamin Péret. In Paris, Varo became deeply involved with the Paris-based Surrealists, and her work was exhibited in the ground-breaking exhibition, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1936), as well as multiple early Surrealist exhibitions around the globe: Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme (Tokyo, 1936), Surrealist Objects & Poems (London, 1937), Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme (Paris, 1938), Exposición Internacional del Surrealismo (Mexico City, 1940), to name a few.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Varo fled Nazi-occupied France for Mexico City, where she connected with other exiled artists such as Alice Rahon, Wolfgang Paalen, Gordon Onslow Ford, and Leonora Carrington, who became Varo's closest friend and colleague. During her early years in Mexico City, Varo honed her distinctive painting style while working various odd jobs, most notably creating illustrations for the pharmaceutical firm Casa Bayer between 1942 and 1949.
Beginning in the mid-1950s, Varo experienced domestic stability that enabled her to devote the rest of her life to painting. During these years, she produced a body of work typified by its female and androgynous figures (often disguised portraits of Varo herself), mystical narrative content, and a quality of ambiguity, mystery, and dark humor. In this last decade of her career, she developed a unique and virtuosic painting style that paired detailed preparatory drawings and meticulous rendering of her primary subjects in the tradition of early Renaissance masters, with Surrealist-derived automatic techniques like decalcomania. In 1956, Varo had her first major solo exhibition in Mexico City, and it catapulted her to the forefront of the art scene. She continued to exhibit widely thereafter before her premature death in 1963.
Varo created roughly 400 works of art, over half of them drawings, which are now globally dispersed. Walter Gruen donated 38 significant artworks to the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. Gallery Wendi Norris has worked with Varo's art since 2004 and has been the only gallery to present solo exhibitions of the artist since she passed away: Indelible Fables (2012), Remedios Varo: Encuentros (2023), and A Visionary Line: Remedios Varo Drawings (2024).
In 2023, Varo was the subject of the solo exhibition Remedios Varo: Science Fictions at the Art Institute of Chicago. Varo's work has been acquired by museums worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Detroit Institute of Arts, among others. She has had solo shows at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. (2000); Mexican Fine Arts Museum, Chicago, (2000); Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, (1971, 1983, 1994, 2001, 2016, 2018); and Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba), Argentina (2020).
Varo's work has been included in many group museum exhibitions, including Surrealism: Desire Unbound, Tate Modern Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2001); In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California (2012); Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Campo Cerrado: Spanish Art 1939-1953, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2016); The Moon: From Inner Worlds to Outer Space, Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (2018); Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany (2020) and Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (2020); Surrealism Beyond Borders, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2021) and Tate Modern, London (2022); Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy (2022) and Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany (2022); and the 59th Venice Biennale, The Milk of Dreams (2022).
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Installation view, "Remedios Varo: Indelible Fables," Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco, CA, 2012
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Installation view, "Remedios Varo: Encuentros," Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco, CA, 2023
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Ruptura, 1955
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Study for Trasmundo, c. 1955
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Installation view, "A Visionary Line: Remedios Varo Drawings," Gallery Wendi Norris OFFSITE, NYC, NY, 2024
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Study for El flautista, 1955
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El malabarista o El juglar, 1956
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Cazadora de astros (La luna aprisionada), 1956
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El otro reloj, 1957
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Catedral vegetal, 1957
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Retrato del doctor Ignacio Chávez, 1957
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Papilla estelar, 1958
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Apártalos que voy de paso, 1959
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Homo Rodans, 1959
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Encuentro, 1959
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Personaje alado, 1959
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La mujer libélula, 1960
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Niño y mariposa (Niño triste), 1961
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Bordando el manto terrestre, 1961
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Banqueros en acción, 1962
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Naturaleza muerta resucitando , 1963
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Remedios Varo Drawings | A Visionary Line
May 8 - June 1, 2024GALLERY WENDI NORRIS OFFSITE in association with Adler Beatty 34 E 69th Street, Fourth Floor, New York, NY Gallery Wendi Norris is honored to present A Visionary Line: Remedios Varo...Read more -
Remedios Varo | Encuentros
May 11 - July 15, 2023San Francisco, CA: Gallery Wendi Norris presents Remedios Varo: Encuentros, the Spanish artist’s second solo gallery exhibition since her death in 1963. With approximately twelve works on display, Remedios Varo:...Read more -
Threads of Memory
One Thousand Way of Saying Goodbye October 21 - November 15, 2017Gallery Wendi Norris’ final exhibition at 161 Jessie Street, Threads of Memory: One Thousand Ways of Saying Goodbye, presents a celebratory survey of the gallery’s program, including emblematic works by...Read more -
Remedios Varo | Indelible Fables
January 7 - February 26, 2012San Francisco - Nearly eight years in the making, Frey Norris proudly presents Remedios Varo: Indelible Fables. This exhibition marks the artist's first solo show in a gallery since 1962,...Read more
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Art Basel Miami Beach 2024 | Booth G7
María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Remedios Varo December 6 - 8, 2024Gallery Wendi Norris is pleased to present Alchemy of the Soul: María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Remedios Varo at Art Basel Miami Beach. Exhibiting the two...Read more -
Frieze Masters 2024 | Booth F16
Leonora Carrington, Wolfgang Paalen, Marcel Jean, Bridget Tichenor, Alice Rahon, Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, Kay Sage, and Leonor Fini October 9 - 13, 2024“The sincerity of the artist consists, not in copying the reflection of the world on his retina, but in testifying with sincerity to all his...Read more -
Frieze Masters 2023
Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Alice Rahon, and Wolfgang Paalen October 11 - 15, 2023Between Here and There “Breton Péret Buñuel Leonora Remedios Paalen Alice Gerzso Frida Gironella César Moro convergence of insurgences … There is no outside nor...Read more -
Frieze Masters 2022
Eileen Agar, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Alice Rahon, Dorothea Tanning October 12 - 16, 2022Gallery Wendi Norris will present 'Phenomena,' a group exhibition featuring fresh-to-market modern works by gallery artists Eileen Agar, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Alice Rahon, and...Read more
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Artnet | An Expansive New Surrealism Show Celebrates 100 Years Of Artistic Revolution
Featuring more than 500 objects, the Centre Pompidou's "Surrealism" show explores the global reach and diversity of the artistic movement. October 4, 2024by Sofia Hallström 4 October 2024 Between the rise of artificial intelligence and the proliferation of “fake news,” living in the 21...Read more -
Frieze | Celebrating 100 Years of Surrealism at Frieze
Discover the movement’s iconic artists and contemporary legacy at the London fairs, from Man Ray, Dora Maar and Leonora Carrington, to Carol Bove and Leiko Ikemura October 3, 2024By Livia Russell 3 October, 2024 '...Leonora Carrington ‘didn’t have time to be anyone’s muse’. Having left London for Paris, with the arrival of...Read more -
Twelve Museums Acquire Works by Gallery Wendi Norris Artists
July 9, 2024June 9, 2024 Please join Gallery Wendi Norris in congratulating the Art Institute of Chicago, the Asian Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Cincinnati Art...Read more -
The Brooklyn Rail | A Visionary Line: Remedios Varo Drawings
May 29, 2024By Irene Lyla Lee 29 May 2024 A Visionary Line: Remedios Varo Drawings is the first presentation of the artist’s work...Read more -
Hyperallergic | Remedios Varo Thrives at the Edges of Perception
Varo’s drawings crack the cold flawlessness of her paintings, and it’s exciting to see the looser, simpler skeletons underneath the surface. May 20, 2024By Alice Procter May 20, 2024 Remedios Varo’s work has always been on the edges of recognition. Less celebrated than her surrealist peers,...Read more -
Widewalls | Gallery Wendi Norris Offers a Rare Look at Remedios Varo's Drawings
May 7, 2024By Eli Anapur April 7, 2024 The visionary dreamscapes of Remedios Varo (1908–1963) were inspired by her unique view of reality. As she...Read more -
Hyperallergic | Remedios Varo in a Sphere of Her Own
October 25, 2023Debra Brehmer October 25, 2023 CHICAGO - What would it be like to wake up, have coffee, and get to work cultivating the implausible, embracing...Read more -
Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art | Celebrating 20 Years of Frieze London with 20 Frieze Masters and Frieze London Picks
October 18, 2023Paul Laster October 19, 2023 Celebrating Frieze London’s 20th anniversary, we searched the aisles of the 2023 editions of Frieze London and Frieze Masters to...Read more -
Hyperallergic | Remedios Varo’s Strange and Mysterious Universes
“In Varo’s work there is often a sense of geographic travel, but also a sense of traveling down material pathways that no one has ever looked at before,” says curator Caitlin Haskell. October 4, 2023Hall W. Rockefeller October 4, 2023 CHICAGO - Though relatively unknown in the United States, the Spanish-Mexican painter Remedios Varo is beloved in her adopted...Read more -
Seven Museums Acquire Work by Gallery Wendi Norris Artists
August 24, 2023Please join Gallery Wendi Norris in congratulating Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Arizona State University Art Museum, Chapman University, Los Angeles County Museum of...Read more -
KQED | At Gallery Wendi Norris, a Magical Encounter With Remedios Varo’s Work
June 23, 2023Sarah Hotchkiss June 23, 2023 There are benefits to opening a gallery within the vicinity of other galleries. The galleries at 49 Geary, their tenancy...Read more -
A Short Film on Remedios Varo
June 15, 2023This film was created to commemorate the momentous occasion of Remedios Varo 's second posthumous solo gallery exhibition, Remedios Varo: Encuentros , on view at...Read more -
Squarecylinder | Remedios Varo @ Wendi Norris
May 22, 2023Mark Van Proyen May 22, 2023 Remedios Varo was always on the run. Born in 1908 near the Catalonian town of Girona (adjacent to the...Read more -
Widewalls | Gallery Wendi Norris Presents Remedios Varo's Second Solo Exhibition Since Her Death in 1963
May 16, 2023Hesper Cane May 16, 2023 Rupturing the framework of reality presents the mechanism Remedios Varo repeatedly employed in her painting practice to dissect the limits...Read more -
Eight Museums Acquire Works by Gallery Wendi Norris Artists
March 31, 2022Please join Gallery Wendi Norris in congratulating eight North American institutions on their recent acquisitions of our artists’ work. The Toledo Museum of Art has...Read more -
Four Gallery Wendi Norris Artists Selected for Venice Biennale 2022
February 3, 2022Gallery Wendi Norris celebrates the invitation of four of our artists to The Milk of Dreams, the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di...Read more -
The New York Times | Overlooked No More: Remedios Varo, Spanish Painter of Magic, Mysticism and Science
In the 1950s, and ’60s, she depicted women, artists and thinkers in intricate dreamlike canvases that now fetch high prices. September 24, 2021Julia Bozzone September 24, 2021 This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went...Read more -
Artnet | Sotheby’s Middling Impressionist and Modern Sale Nets $62.8 Million Thanks to a Major Boost From Latin American Treasures
June 30, 2020Eileen Kinsella June 30, 2020 Sotheby's started off the lengthy auction evening on a strong note, but bidding for Impressionist and Modern art was more...Read more -
The New York Times | Art Auction or Game Show? Sotheby’s Tries Something New
June 30, 2020Scott Reybur July 15, 2020 LONDON — “This is what we like: the ping-pong between New York and Hong Kong. We see them on the...Read more -
ARTnews | Sotheby’s Global Hybrid Online Evening Sale Soars to $363.2 M.
June 30, 2020Angelica Villa June 30, 2020 The art market reopened last night with a resounding bang as Sotheby’s sold $363.2 million in modern and contemporary art...Read more
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Remedios Varo
Encuentros 2024Hardback, 90 pagesRead more
Publisher: Gallery Wendi Norris -
Remedios Varo
Science Fictions 2023HardbackRead more
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 978-0300273212 -
Remedios Varo
Indelible Fables 2012Paperback, 60 pagesRead more
Publisher: Gallery Wendi Norris
ISBN: 9780984644735