Remedios Varo

REMEDIOS VARO (Angles, Gerona, 1908- Mexico City, 1963).
"Portrait of Mrs. Nena Coronil de Pagelson".
Oil on canvas.
Presents informative label on the back.
Provenance: Collection Mrs. María Herriqueta Coronil de Palgelson and Herbert Pagelson Fass (1960-2011). Luis. K. Morton, year 2002.
Measurements: 100 x 80 cm; 102 x 82 cm (frame).
Bibliography:
- Louis C. Morton. Modern and Contemporary Art Auction. 25.IV.2002. Lot
126B. Remedios Lizarraga Varo. Portrait of Mrs. Nena Coronil de Pagelson. Illustrated on page 49 of the catalog.

An essential figure in the history of art, Remedios Varo was and is considered one of the great ladies of surrealism, an artist whose work constitutes one of the most singular chapters of the 20th century. Revered by the omnipotent Breton, Varo's painting, meticulous and alchemical, is represented in important public and private collections, especially in Mexico, where she developed most of her career. In recent years her international recognition has intensified as evidenced by the numerous exhibitions dedicated to her work or the 59th Venice International Art Exhibition, held in 2022, which included her in its program as a tribute artist.

This renaissance favors the enhancement of a fundamental artist in the history of surrealism, and works such as the present portrait dedicated to María Enriqueta Coronil Ravelo, known as Nena Coronil, eloquently confirm this. The friendship between Nena Coronil and Remedios Varo was born in the 1960s, when Coronil participated in various cultural projects in Mexico, a bond that is reflected in the work, which condenses Varo's characteristic visual language. Contained geometries, cold chromaticism and a detained atmosphere come together to reveal the serene and firm presence of a woman whose life was deeply linked to the cultural construction of Venezuelan ballet. The portrait does not seek a literal description, but rather Varo's masterful hand immortalizes the personality of the protagonist and gives the public that enigmatic atmosphere that generates a certain distance with the viewer and creates a unique pictorial universe.

Born in 1908 in Anglès, Spain, Varo trained from a very young age in drawing under the guidance of her father, an engineer and freethinker. She was one of the first women admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid and, after her years in Barcelona, linked to the logical-phobist group, she moved to Paris in 1937 with Benjamin Péret. There she fully joined the surrealist circle, becoming interested in alchemy, occultism, science and deep psychology. The war pushed her into exile and, after a complex journey through Vichy France and Casablanca, she finally arrived in Mexico in 1941. That country offered her a fertile ground for the development of her own plastic language, characterized by technical precision, scientific iconography and a restless spirituality. Her close relationship with Leonora Carrington and Kati Horna, known as the "three witches", consolidated a singular creative community, attentive to the transforming power of images.

Despite the economic precariousness that marked much of her life, Varo produced a body of work of extraordinary internal coherence. Her scenes, inhabited by stylized figures and fantastic architectures, function as visual metaphors for inner knowledge, and her ability to fuse the scientific, the mystical and the dreamlike made her a unique artist within surrealism.