V is for Remedios Varo – anarchist, philosopher, feminist, para-surrealist painter! #AtoZ Challenge
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Remedios Varo was born in 1908 in the small town of Angles in Spain, and developed a style of painting that was a wonderful para-surrealist excursion into her imagination.
Surrealism is a a style of art and literature which started around 1924, after the first world war. Surrealist painting often contains images that are non-rational; arrived at by using unexpected juxtaposition of chance effects and objects.
Her father mentored Remedios and encouraged her first artistic endeavours, helping her to become proficient in technical drawing, and also grow into an independent and philosophical thinker.
Her mother was a devout Catholic and sent her to a convent, which made her critical of religion and opposed to religious ideology.
Her feminism, anarchist political views, anti-religious views, and philosophical thinking all influenced her unique (hence ‘para’ surrealist) paintings.
She died from a heart attack, aged only 45, in 1963.
Remedios Varo
Exquisite painter of
Myth and alchemy,
Ecstasy and agony
Dreamlike canvases of
Illusion, colour, novelty
Original thinker using
Symbols and absurdity
Visions excursively
A journey into
Remedios’
Observational odyssey.
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© Liz Brownlee
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If you enjoy reading about feisty women, and have young female relatives, perhaps you would like to buy Reaching the Stars by me, Jan Dean and Michaela Morgan, written with 9-11 year olds in mind. Available by clicking the link image below:
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All material © Liz Brownlee
References:
Image from Wiki under fair use:
The photographical reproduction of this work is covered under the article 35.2 of the Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996 of April 12, 1996, and amended by Law 5/1998 of March 6, 1998, which states that:
- Works permanently located in parks or on streets, squares or other public thoroughfares may be freely reproduced, distributed and communicated by painting, drawing, photography and audiovisual processes.
See Commons:Freedom of Panorama#Spain for more information.
- Posted in: A-Z Challenge 2017 ♦ Liz Brownlee ♦ Reaching the Stars ♦ Reaching the Stars Poems
- Tagged: A-Z Challenge 2017
lizbrownlee - poet 
Fascinating to read about her and I love her art form. Sad she died so young, or maybe that was a normal age back then. Being forced into a convent probably didn’t help her creative flow, when religion wasn’t her calling in life.
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I suspect not! I loved her paintings as soon as I saw them, too!
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My first time on your blog.
I will admit to having never heard of Varo, but what a fascinating if not too short life she had. Great poetic tribute as well.
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Hello, Geraint. I hadn’t before doing all this research! I went to look at her paintings after reading about her incredible life, and loved them too, so had to use her in th A-Z. And luckily, she was a V!
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Wow. How awesome it worked out
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Geraint, do you have a website? Can’t see a link.
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http://www.geraintisitt.com
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Aha, I HAVE visited! I should have looked further back…
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Haha. I thought you had 😉
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That was quite an information! I’m not into art that much and this post was quite insightful!
Cheers
BoisterousBee
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Hello inquisitive Geet… glad you liked it!
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What a clever poem that was! I admire the artist’s technique but her style of painting isn’t for me.
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Thanks, Liz. She has done loads of amazing stuff, this was the least of it but the rest was copyrighted.
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Really interesting. I hadn’t heard of her before. But the painting looks lovely!
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Hello, Reema! I like it’s madness!
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It is good to know about Remedios Varo and her paintings. The one you chose is simply class apart.
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It’s certainly surreal, and i thoroughly enjoyed looking at the rest of her paintings available to see on google!
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I’m another who’s not heard of her before. I love the one you’ve shown. Must find out more.
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Thank you, Jemima!
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She sounds like an original and free-thinking artist. Clearly achieved a lot in a short time too.
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It’s a tragedy how many of these extraordinary women died young.
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Her work looks brilliant and I love your acrostic poem, Liz!
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Oh, thank you, Susan! I love her paintings, if I could have one on my wall, I would. I’ve always eschewed acrostics because they are so tricky to get right.
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I have not heard of her but I want to look up more of her work. She was way too young to pass away.
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I love her paintings, Birgit!
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I’m not surprised I hadn’t heard of her, given I’m not very educated about art. But that is a cool picture, and I like it. Thanks for sharing!
The Ninja Librarian’s Favorite Characters
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