Exploring the Influences and the Art of Remedios Varo

Varo in Mexico, 1959 (source: wikipedia.org)

Remedios Varo and Her Influences

Remedios Varo (December 16th, 1908, Anglés, Spain – October 8th, 1963, Mexico City, Mexico) is best known for the narrative, if enigmatic and symbol-laden, paintings she produced while living in Mexico from 1941 to 1963. The daughter of a hydraulic engineer, Varo moved frequently across Spain and North Africa with her family in her adolescence. Varo’s distinctive, precise style of drawing can be traced to her formative experience of having been taught the basics of technical draftsmanship by her father during her adolescence (1). Varo’s early career as an artist was spent among a group of avant-garde artists living in Barcelona and Madrid between 1924 and 1936. This period in Spain was followed by five years of living in France, from 1937 to 1941, where she was connected with Breton’s Surrealist circle through association with her partner, the poet Benjamin Peret). Finally, in 1941 she became part of the core of a social group made up of disparate European emigres in Mexico City, many of whom were artists, poets, and writers.

Like many of her peers, Varo was forced into exile by fascism’s spread across Europe, which caused many in her circle to flee Europe for safety in the United States, Mexico, and other Latin American destinations. She moved to Mexico City with Péret and remained there until she died in 1963. Other notable figures from the Surrealist movement there included Leonora Carrington, Kati and Jose Horna, Esteban Frances, Wolfgang Paalen, Alice Rahon, and Gordon Onslow-Ford. It was while she was living in Mexico that Varo’s paintings began to exhibit her unique, mature style: paintings that explored a private realm populated with avatars of herself, alchemical processes, and themes of transfiguration, magic, and mimesis. Drawing on a artistic lexicon that implied a narrative meaning in her compositions, Varo utilized visual signals in her work to imply symbolic and coded solutions to the enigmatic narrative puzzles she laid out for her viewers. Pulling from the palettes of early Renaissance European painters, she couched her personal esoteric journey in a visual language based on delivering messages through a defined set of symbols.

Varo’s key creative strategy was to mine and mimic the subject matter and motifs of other artists—including Hieronymous Bosch and Leonora Carrington-- as well as the visual culture related to the occult and other esoteric practices that she found in published sources, specifically by Kurt Seligmann (The History of Magic and the Occult, 1948) and Carl Jung (Psychology and Alchemy, 1953).

Carl Jung and Kurt Seligmann

Varo’s paintings made in Mexico hint at her interest in concepts of transcendence and synchronicity, as they are defined by the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology, Carl Jung (1875–1961). As he writes: 

“Synchronicity is the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer.”(2)  

For Jung, the individual experiences instances of synchronicity as subjective experiences that, for the individual, create connections between events in one's mind and the exterior world. These connections may not have a causal relationship–that is, there may be no real cause and effect between the two instances, yet for the individual experiencing this synchronicity, they are inextricably linked. For Jung, these experiences were a normal part of the function of the human mind and only would become detrimental to the individual during a state of psychosis. Jung’s hypothetical noncausal principle was developed to explain a universal human acknowledgment of seemingly meaningful coincidences within an individual’s, or social groups’, set of experiences.

Likewise, Jung’s conception of the transcendent function is core to his model of the human psyche. The phenomenon of development and change of an individual’s psychology and psyche required Jung to define some function that would enable a transition from one psychological attitude to another. For Jung, this transition was achieved through dialectical processes that served to integrate the individual’s conscious and unconscious psyche into a new, third, state which would act at the catalyst to bring the individual to a new stage of the evolution of their own personality. Jung called this process of psychological development “individuation,” essentially the process of becoming oneself and confronting one’s own unconscious. For Jung, the psychological analysis serves to develop the transcendent function by examining the unconscious.(3)

One of the projects of Surrealism was the examination and resolution of the contradiction between the dream state and reality, and so the influence of the work of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was marked. Andre Breton, especially, was moved by Freud’s use of dream interpretation as a method of accessing the unconscious mind. Breton was an early appreciator of Freud and did much to draw attention to his work in intellectual circles in France. Breton himself was a great supporter of the program of psychoanalysis, which he believed could be used for wider purposes than just the treatment of mental illness, and, in fact, had the potential to transform mentally unstable individuals and society as a whole. Breton spoke of this potential in the first Surrealist Manifesto, where he stated, that:

“[i]f the depths of our mind contain within it strange forces capable of augmenting those on the surface, or of waging a victorious battle against them, there is every reason to seize them.”(4) 

This conception of the power of psychological and dream analysis is made clear by Breton later in the same document when he asks: “Can't the dream also be used in solving the fundamental questions of life?"(5) This question, when posed during the production of art, led to many Surrealist compositions with incoherent images or associations, and visual logic that was often impenetrable to the viewer. This was closely tied to the Surrealist conception of artistic production being the product of intuition on the part of the artist. This intuition was conceived as a product of the unconscious mind and thus defined by an absence of conscious reason, though for Breton, the unconscious mind was defined by its own underlying logic. For Breton, this meant that this underlying logic, though radically different than the logic of the waking mind, could be rationally comprehended and that a dialectical unity could be achieved between the unconscious and conscious in the psychic life of the individual.

Varo took the experimental approach of Bretonian Surrealism and filtered it through the Jungian sensibility that favored synchronicity and did not differentiate between the dream state and the waking state.(6)  Breton’s approach was more traditional in that he was preoccupied with melding the dream state with the waking state. As he wrote in his 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism, the goal for the Surrealists was the “…future resolution of these two states – outwardly so contradictory– which are dream and reality, into a sort of absolute reality, a surreality.”(7)  This approach favored a Freudian approach to symbol analysis in that it recognized the conscious self and the unconscious self as separate, distinct states in need of unification. This was a binary that Jung challenged in his own conceptions of unconscious and conscious states, since for Jung, consciousness was a spectrum of states that nevertheless were whole. That is, for Jung, unlike Freud, there was no great divide between the waking self and unconscious self that required a bridge built through psychoanalysis. For Jung, this binary approach was artificial and is reflected in his belief that the resolution of psychological difficulties requires that the individual look to find the cause of psychic fragmentation. That is, for Jung, all archetypes are reflected in the self and thus cannot be externalized, unlike Freud, who sought to find causal relationships between the individual’s psychological distress and external forces (such as a mother or father figure.)  

For Remedios Varo, whose dream-like compositions frequently hint at a symbolism that speaks to larger narratives, the work of Jung would have proven particularly attractive. Not only did Jung’s conceptions of the psyche allow space for female identity and expression to sit in a place of equality with male identity and psyche, but Jung, through his theories of synchronicity, legitimized a worldview that accepted magic as an essential part of the human experience, seeing at as something that could be understood and harnessed as part of a person’s journey towards self-actualization. This important departure from Freudian conceptions of conscious and unconscious, and the acceptance of the existence of an occult world residing within our own, is a central principle of Jung’s worldview that would have appealed to Varo.

Remedios Varo, Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst, 1960 (Source: www.remediosvaro.art)

Varo’s interests in Jungian synchronicity and alchemical and occult themes appear to have been an attitude that sought to create meaning and magic in her own experience.  In Mexico (1941-1963), the character of her work becomes singularly personal. Her paintings explore private spaces and concerns; her subjects are often avatars of herself, as in Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst (1960), where a figure, very Varo-like, exits the office of an unseen doctor, or in Mimesis (1960), which another Varo-proxy literally becomes part of the furniture through a process of mimicry turned transmutation. It is in Mexico that she finds community, and begins to explore, in earnest, those topics which become essential to her defining style, including themes of magic and alchemical and occult imagery. Pulling from newly published materials of the time that explored these themes and the imagery associated with it, Varo inserted specific images from these sources into her own work.   This study of Varo will consider two books: the 1948 edition of Kurt Seligmann’s The History of Magic and the Occult and Carl Jung’s 1953 edition of Psychology and Alchemy as sources of imagery that appears in a number of Varo’s painting made in Mexico, such as Creation of the Birds (1957) which employs alchemical imagery culled from Psychology and Alchemy.

Remedios Varo, Creation of the Birds, 1957 (Source: www.remediosvaro.art)

Before her move to Mexico, Varo’s work often modeled the techniques and themes of the artists in her community of peers. The artworks that she produced in Europe before her move to Mexico, while not necessarily derivative, are clearly the product of artistic experimentation – an experimentation that focused on imitating the techniques of her peers. This can be seen especially in artworks in which she first started to utilize the process of fumage as inspired by the artist Wolfgang Paalen while living in Paris from 1936-1940. Fumage is a technique in which smoke from a lighted candle is used to create an image by passing it over a piece of paper or canvas. His sculptural work, On the Ladder of Desire (1936) and her painting, similarly titled Desire (1936) show a clear connection to both the methods that Paalen was innovating, such as fumage, as well as the overall composition. Additionally, Varo is now known to have forged works by Giorgio De Chirico, another artist whose style can be seen mirrored in some of her early works in Paris.(8) This was a process that produced works that, while still obviously the product of her hand, mirrored the content and techniques of the artists around her. 

Hieronymus Bosch

My study of Varo focuses on the influence of the Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516) and his distinct use of imagery and form, specifically those works of his in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Varo’s mature work is infused with autobiography and self-depiction; tmy study intends to examine and identify the source material that provided inspiration and subject matter in her paintings. At a young age, most likely around the age of 15 when she first enrolled in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, she was introduced to the work of Bosch from her regular visits to the Prado. I argue that Bosch’s representations of occult and esoteric themes can be seen as thematic and visual influences on Varo’s artworks made during her time in Mexico. Walter Gruen, Varo’s husband at the time of her death, was quoted as saying “from her earliest years all Varo wanted was to look at Bosch, always Bosch.”(9) This lifelong interest in the Northern Renaissance painter of both canon and fantastical religious themes would have an indelible influence on her own work, as noted by Alberto Blanco, Masayo Nonaka, and others.(10)  

Hieronymous Bosch, The Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi, c. 1494, Museo del Prado

          In a separate post, I will examine a work by Bosch titled The Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi (c. 1494), which, it will be argued, influenced Varo when she saw it at the Museo del Prado while living there as a teenager and early adult from 1917-1924. The Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi embodies a specific aspect of Bosch’s influence–rather than the overtly bizarre imagery and symbolism so emblematic of his work, this painting demonstrates of subversive quality that can be seen in echoes in Varo’s compositions. Bosch presents a familiar theme, arranged in a recognizable tableau, yet introduces a figure whose appearance and identity defy easy comprehension. I argue that, in a similar fashion, and directly influenced by Bosch, Varo sought to confound her viewers with hermetic imagery to provoke the same kind of careful consideration. This careful consideration, as with Bosch, reveals to the viewer a meaning that cannot be gleaned from a superficial reading of the scene. Hidden meanings and coded messages are both implied and overt; Varo and Bosch both employ a strategy that relies on layers of interpretation. 

That is, Bosch, in The Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi, utilized a common Adoration scene, yet inserted an enigmatic figure, later interpreted by scholars as depicting the Antichrist, and unknown in other Adoration scenes of the era. This use of an unexpected figure in a familiar trope connects to similar strategies used by Varo to communicate the subversive and symbolism in works made from 1950-1963, such as The Juggler (1956) or Mimesis (1960), both of which include hidden animal figures as well as human figures that defy the viewer’s expectations based on the expected narrative described in the compositions.  Uncommon in other Adoration scenes of the period, the positioning of this strange, half-clothed figure whose absurd expression seems to echo a harbinger of the Christ story, provides enough abstruseness to confound easy identification and translation. It is the kind of symbol-laden messaging that one might uncover through psychoanalysis- and indeed, Varo seems to directly reference this in her 1960 painting, Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst, where, painted on the plaque of the office the figure has just left are the initials FJA- standing for Freud, Jung, and Adler– all psychoanalysts that Varo had expressed interest in. 

Remedios Varo, Mimesis, 1960 (Source: www.remediosvaro.art)

While the work of Bosch does not necessarily include occult themes, his use of bizarre, unexpected imagery does hint at esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which might fall outside the scope of the organized religion whose mantle he was working under. While Bosch’s own motives can’t be known, and it is unlikely that he would have been creating work whose intent was to communicate occult themes, it can be reasoned that his work has been read with this intent by different generations of viewers. That is, while the unusual figure of the antichrist included in Bosch’s Adoration may have been a sanctioned demonstration of a less-popular, yet accepted Christian theme, for Varo, who would have seen it through the lens of her own era, its obscure form and meaning would have hinted at a hidden occult symbolism. Varo’s use of this strategy of inserting unexpected elements into her narrative works allowed her to breathe meaning into each element of her composition, which, through this process, transformed her compositions into vehicles that delivered a set of symbols related to themes of magic, the occult, and even psychoanalysis and self-transformation, that she had translated for her own needs and defined.

Leonora Carrington

          In a separate post, I will examine Varo’s relationship with the British artist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) after Varo’s exile to Mexico in 1941, and how Carrington’s own lived experiences and friendship had a direct influence on Varo’s own paintings. Varo’s intimate friendship with Carrington, from Varo’s arrival in Mexico City in December of 1941 until her death in 1963, will be examined along with their unique collaborations which included the writing and performing of plays, the staging of magic rituals, and shared projects that included making sculptures, costumes, and paintings.(11) Varo and Carrington were inseparable from 1942 until Varo’s death in 1963, living in the same neighborhood in Mexico City, and seeing each other almost daily, and working together on all manner of projects, from plays to alchemical experiments to cooking and costume design. 

Carrington’s distinctive style of waifish, androgynous figures and mysterious, sentient creatures in landscapes reminiscent of the Northern Renaissance can be seen reflected in Varo’s compositions from this period. Both of their works from the period 1942-1963 display their mutual interest in alchemy. Often, images that depict magical, strange realities and incomprehensible narratives appear in each artist’s work. While shared subject matter based on the supernatural, alchemy, astrology, and the occult dominate each artist’s composition, their interpretation of these topics differs in form and tone. Stefan van Raay writes in his comprehensive book, Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, and Kati Horna, “Carrington’s work is about tone and color and Varo’s is about line and form.”(12) 

Remedios Varo, Still Life Revolving, 1962 (Source: www.remediosvaro.art)

I will continue to focus on the last painting that Varo completed before she died, Still Life Revolving (1963), alongside an examination of excerpts of Carrington’s autobiographical memoir, Down Below (1944), and some of Varo’s undated letters written while in Mexico from 1950-1963 that were collected and published posthumously. Her relationship with Carrington has been explored in a number of publications, most notably in the 2010 publication Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, and Kati Horna as well as in Tere Arcq’s essay “In the Land of Convulsive Beauty," and Janet Kaplan’s Unexpected Journeys: The Art and Life of Remedios Varo.(13)  My argument will depart from these texts in that it will be in the writings of these two women that I will seek connection–most specifically in Varo’s echoing of Carrington’s memoir of mental illness and involuntary institutionalization, Down Below, in Varo’s writings, and in her paintings. This discussion will be expanded to include an examination of both Varo’s and Carrington’s work in relation to the Jungian conception of synchronicity and how this concept can be read alongside a discussion of female autonomy and spiritual identity during this era.

Synchronicity, as defined by Jung, is an “acausal connecting (togetherness) principle,” “meaningful coincidence," “acausal parallelism,” or “meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.”(14) This definition will be explored in context with Varo and Carrington’s writings. While their relationship has been the subject of recent scholarship, I contend that Varo used Carrington’s personal experiences, such as her forced confinement in a mental asylum in Spain (August 1940–December 1940), to inform both her visual art and her written works, much as she selected images and themes from other established artists, such as Bosch. (15)  Content from Varo’s own writing that directly reproduces language used by Carrington in her autobiographical descriptions of her mental breakdown in Spain will be explored and analyzed in depth. (16) 

Varo’s connection with Carrington and her practice of borrowing helped her investigate a personal connection to magical and occult experiences. That is, Varo’s exploration of Carrington’s experiences in her own work allows us to see her process of mimicry and transformation clearly, and also exposes her personal predilection for a worldview that prioritized a belief in magic and an affinity for ritual, especially as performed by Carrington and Varo themselves. It is through this analysis of Varo’s work that here compositions can be understood—not at whimsical pseudo-narratives, but as symbol-laden works meant to communicate Varo’s own hidden, occult worldview.

As close friends and collaborators, Varo and Carrington shared a vision of the world that was bolstered by a foundation based on an interest in esoteric knowledge, a spiritualism of sorts, and a sense of magic and meaning. Varo, in her use of concepts originally concocted through the traumatic psychological experiences of Carrington, helped to transform dark and troubling delusions into whimsical, magical worldviews. In separate blog posts, Varo’s own writings and paintings will be examined in context with the writings of authors such as Kurt Seligmann (The History of Magic and the Occult, 1948) and Carl Jung (Psychology and Alchemy, 1953). Additionally, a comparative analysis of a selection of her paintings will be made in relation to these two written works.(17)   It will be argued that one can find references to the above-mentioned sources in Varo’s compositions, by comparing illustrations and text from Jung and Seligmann to images in Varo’s paintings. In a separate blog post,  I will examine how Varo’s use of the imagery and content from these books enabled her to further her own exploration of occult themes and symbolism as she applied them in her own work. There is ample evidence that these books appeared in Varo’s personal library, as recorded by Deborah Hayes who received this information from Walter Gruen, Varo’s widower. These books included “…the complete works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung…her library also contained books on alchemy, Pythagorean ideas, numerology and sacred geometry, and Platonic philosophy.”(18)

By looking at the source imagery that Varo used to inform some of her compositions, we, as viewers, can begin to see how her approach to borrowing from images of the occult, as presented in the works of Jung and Seligmann, spoke to her exploration of these themes generally. That is, by looking at the specific editions of the books as she would have seen them, one can trace her journey through the materials. What appealed to her may have been the superficial, aesthetic form of these images, yet, it is important to understanding Varo’s practice to know that she was accessing written materials with themes that spoke explicitly of occult symbolism, alchemy, and the conception of synchronicity as it related to the human experience of magic and the occult.

Unfortunately, due to many primary source materials not being available to the public as of yet, this study of Varo must utilize those materials as they have been published in secondary works. This literature review will examine a number of these sources and how this study of Varowill depart from the current literature. Further, I focus on materials found in two books, the 1948 edition of The History of Magic and the Occult by Kurt Seligmann and Carl Jung’s 1953 edition of Psychology and Alchemy. These specific editions contain illustrations not included in later reprints of each book, and it will be established that several illustrations that appear in these editions were used directly as source images for compositions that she completed between 1948-1963. Additionally, a collection of Varo’s writings and letters, translated from the Spanish from the 2002 edition of Cartas, Sueños y Otros Textos, will be used as the source for Varo’s own writing. (19) Discussion of Leonora Carrington’s Down Below, first published in 1944 in the Surrealist journal VVV, will be based on a reprint of that original story as first published in collected form in 1988 by Leonora Carrington.

To be continued...

Footnotes

1. Kaplan, Janet A. Unexpected Journeys: The Art and Life of Remedios Varo. Abbeville Press, 2000. pp. 191-192

2. Jung, C. G., and Roderick Main. Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1999, p. 97.

3. Jung, C.G., et al. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung. Vol. 7, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1989.

4. Breton André, et al. “Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924.” Manifestoes of Surrealism, University of Michigan Press, 2008.

5.  --- “Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924.” Manifestoes of Surrealism, University of Michigan Press, 2008. 

6. --- “Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924.” Manifestoes of Surrealism, University of Michigan Press, 2008. p.14

7. --- “Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924.” Manifestoes of Surrealism, University of Michigan Press, 2008.

8. Kaplan, Lauren A. “Traces of Influence: Giorgio De Chirico, Remedios Varo, and ‘Lo Real Maravilloso.’” The Latin Americanist, vol. 54, no. 3, 2010, pp. 25–51., https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1557-203x.2010.01075.x. 

9. Kaplan, Janet A. Unexpected Journeys: The Art and Life of Remedios Varo. Abbeville Press, 2000. pp. 191-192

10. See: Ovalle, Ricardo, and Remedios Varo. Remedios Varo: Catálogo Razonado = Catalogue Raisonné. Ediciones Era, 1994. p.10; Nonaka, Masayo. Remedios Varo - the Mexican Years. RM, 2012.

11. Moorhead, Joanna. The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington. Virago, 2019.;Raaij, Stefan van, et al. Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna. Lund Humphries, 2010.

12. Raaij, Stefan van, et al. Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna. Lund Humphries, 2010.

13. Raaij, Stefan van, et al. Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna. Lund Humphries, 2010.; Fort, Ilene Susan, et al. In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States. Prestel, 2012.

14. Jung, C.G., and Hull R.F.C. Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. Princeton University Press, 2010, p. 44.

15. Raaij, Stefan van, et al. Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna. Lund Humphries, 2010.

16. Specifically, letters written by Varo as reproduced Varo, Remedios, and Margaret Carson. Letters, Dreams & Other Writings. Wakefield Press, 2018.  and text from Carrington’s autobiographical account of her institutionalization in Carrington, Leonora. Down Below. The New York Review of Books, 2017.

17. Still Life Revolving (1963), Spiral Transit (1962), Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle (1961), Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst (1960), Mimesis (1960), Creation of the Birds (1957), Magic Flight (1956).

18. Haynes, Deborah J. “The Art of Remedios Varo: Issues of Gender Ambiguity and Religious Meaning.” Woman’s Art Journal, vol. 16, no. 1, 1995, p. 26-32, https://doi.org/10.2307/1358627.

19. Varo, Remedios, and Isabel Castells. Cartas, Sueños y Otros Textos. Era, 2002.

    
    

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