At the Edge of the Spotlight . . . Remedios Varo

Every once in awhile, I like to write about not-so-well-known artists who were outstanding in their time, but stood at the edge of the spotlight rather than being at its center. REMEDIOS VARO (1908-1963) was such an artist. Born in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War she fled to Paris where she was one of the few women admitted to the surrealists’ inner circle. Fleeing the Nazi occupation of France, she moved to Mexico City at the end of 1941. Although she thought it a temporary exile at the time, she remained in Latin America for the rest of her life.

Contemporaries of Varo’s in Mexico City included Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Annette Nancarrow, but she was closest to other exiles and expats, most especially the English painter Leonora Carrington and the love of her life, French pilot and adventurer Jean Nicolle.

By the late 1940s, Varo had developed her signature surrealistic style (two examples shown)—complex, enigmatic, and allegorical, with a definite feminine character. She was passionate about alchemy, mysticism, and the occult, read widely on these topics, and her interests are reflected in her paintings. She worked primarily in oil on masonite boards she prepared herself, using fine, blended strokes to create an exquisite finish.

The artist’s work has been compared to that of Hieronymus Bosch and she was influenced also by the styles of Goya, El Greco, Picasso, and Braque, as were many artists of her time. In Mexico, she was also influenced by pre-Columbian art.

In every era there are the chosen few who are adored and applauded, who become celebrities, well known for their art and often their lifestyles. At the edge of that white, focused spotlight stand many others, often equally talented, whose work fades from memory and view because they did not have the star power. They contributed, too, often mightily, and I think it’s important to give them an encore performance.

For a terrific video about Remedios Varo and her work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV_TPGDP0cY

(Upper left, Papilla Estelar, oil on board 1958; left, Exploration of the Source of the Orinoco River 1959)

-- Rosemary Carstens
http://www.CarstensCommunications.com

UPCOMING EXHIBITS TO KEEP IN MIND

Philadelphia Museum of Art - A Unique Double Header

More info: http://www,philamuseum.org/

Frida Kahlo
February 20, 2008 - May 18, 2008

Here is what the museum has to say about this extraordinary exhibition:

Organized in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth, Frida Kahlo is the first major Kahlo exhibition in the United States in nearly fifteen years. It presents over 40 of the artist's most important self-portraits, still lifes, and portraits from the beginning of her career in 1926 until her death in 1954. Rendered in vivid colors and realistic detail, Kahlo's jewel-like paintings are filled with complex symbolism, often relating to specific incidents in her life. In her iconic self-portraits the artist continually reinvented herself. . . .The exhibition includes loans from over 30 private and institutional collections in the United States, Mexico, France, and Japan, several of which have never been on public view in the United States. [The exhibit] also features a selection of nearly 100 photographs of Kahlo and her husband, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, by preeminent international photographers of the period, such as Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Gisele Freund, Tina Modotti, and Nickolas Muray.

Curators:
Hayden Herrera • Frida Kahlo scholar and biographerElizabeth Carpenter • Associate Curator, Walker Art Center, MinneapolisAt the Philadelphia Museum of Art:Michael Taylor • The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern ArtEmily Hage • Modern and Contemporary Art

Fragile Demon: Juan Soriano in Mexico, 1935–1950
February 16, 2008 - May 11, 2008

At last an opportunity to view the work of this intriguing artist! Here is the museum's description of the exhibit:

[This exhibit] examines the early work of one of modern Mexico’s most intriguing artists. Although Juan Soriano (1920–2006) holds a critical position within the history of Mexican painting and sculpture from the 1930s until his recent death, his art is curiously almost unknown outside of Mexico. While recent exhibitions on Soriano have examined his paintings and sculpture from 1950 onward, very few have focused on the artist's exceptional paintings from the 1930s and 1940s. These works—portraits of friends and family, images of children, still-lifes, and landscapes—offer a distinctive variation on the themes and artistic styles that preoccupied Soriano's contemporaries. When Soriano moved to Mexico City in 1935 he entered into a lively visual and personal dialogue with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, among others. In addition to responding to the work of these prominent Mexican artists, he drew upon his deep interest in popular and indigenous arts, as well as Cubism, German Expressionism, Fauvism, and Surrealism, creating his own personal style of romantic realism.

Curators:
Edward J. Sullivan • Professor of Fine Arts, New York University
At the Philadelphia Museum of Art:
Michael Taylor • the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art
Emily Hage • Modern and Contemporary Art

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