Three Witches of the Surreal

 

"Creación de las aves (Creation of the Birds)," Remedios Varo

I first encountered the artist Remedios Varo (1908–1963) in Ling Ling Huang's latest novel, Immaculate Conception. In the book, the main character, Enka, forms a friendship (and later, obsession with) Mathilde, her art school classmate. Mathilde, sweet and fragile, stuns both Enka and her classmates with her preternatural talent. "Not only was she supremely gifted in any medium of her choice," says Enka. "But she also knew more about art than anyone, particularly in critical theory and history." 

During a freshman year icebreaker activity, Mathilde shares that her favorite artist is Remedios Varo, to the blank stares of her peers (and professor). She gushes about "the specificity with which she used tools to achieve exactly what she wanted. Sand, Masonite, decalcomania, soufflage . . . even quartz crystal sgraffito . . . nothing was off-limits. And instead of diluting her artistic language, this fluency of technique created it." 

 

I am no Mathilde, or even an Enka. My knowledge of art history can be charitably characterized as "spotty." But, when I paused my Immaculate Conception reading to look up Varo, I fell down a Surrealist rabbit hole. My conclusion? I heart Varo and wish she was not dead and was also my friend <3

 

My Review: Interesting ideas, mediocre execution

Varo, called the sorceress of Surrealism by fellow artist, Andre Breton, once said: "The dream world and the real world are the same." Fucking bars. 

Breton, a friend of Varo's, defined surrealism as a way to fully unite the conscious and unconscious experiences, to create a more complete reality: “an absolute reality, a surreality." For him, true genius was the ability of an artist to freely access their unconscious, which he viewed as the root of all creativity. Remedios Varo, by that definition, had genius in spades. 

"Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst," Remedios Varo

What really makes her compelling is the way she tied together her artworks with her wide-spanning intellectual interests. Varo was fascinated by the spiritual world - the occult, alchemy, tarot, astrology, and mysticism. However, she also displayed deep knowledge and interest in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. 

Art historian Tere Arcq characterized Varo's work as "trying to find the intersection between the mystical and the scientific.” You can see in her work thus inherent tension between the earthly and the spiritual, the conscious and the unconscious. 

"Hallazgo," Remedios Varo

With seeming ease, Varo integrates disparate philosophies into singular artworks. It brings to mind Lovecraft's famous quote - "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. [....] The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." 

Skill issue, H.P.! Instead of fear, Varo seemed excited by this process of uniting realms of knowledge - melding the real and the unreal. As Julia Bozzone wrote in her NYT profile of the artist, Varo's works appeared to be "a quest to reach a higher state of consciousness." 

"Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle," Remedios Varo

Varo's search for meaning may have been, in part, a reaction to the chaos and instability of her early adulthood. She was forced from Spain, her homeland, due to the Civil War, and moved to Paris. However, World War II uprooted her life once again. Alongside many other young artists, Varo escaped to Mexico City, where she spent the rest of her life. There, Varo found community with her fellow artistic exiles, but her most notable friendship was with her fellow ex-pat Leonora Carrington. 

"Bankers in Action," Remedios Varo

Described by those who knew her as "possessed" and rebellious, Carrington was a brilliant artist in her own right and once proclaimed that she was not "not anyone's muse." Varo and Carrington seemed to draw inspiration from each other, speaking nearly every day about their projects. The two also shared an absurd sense of humor. Varo enjoyed subjecting Harrington to her "surreal recipes" (including a "caviar" which was just tapioca dyed with black ink). The poet Octavio Paz once wrote that Varo "laughs, but her laughter resonates in another world." Through her life, Varo's lovers came and went (and often overlapped) - but her friendship with Carrington remained strong through the rest of her life.  

"unknown," Leonora Carrington

 

Varo and Carrington became close with Kati Horna - another artist in exile - as well. The three shared a passion for the unconscious and mystical, drawing from similar themes in their artworks. They had something of a "shared dreamscape," drawing from parallel but overlapping mythologies in their works. Varo found in them fellow students of "true witchcraft." 

 

Untitled, Kati Horna

Over the years, Varo had become passionate about the occult. Art historians have found several spells written by Varo, some in collaboration with Horna and Carrington. These spell recipes were intended to control one's dreams, and were, according to Varo, quite effective. Varo herself identified as not a psychic per se, but as someone able to determine "relationships of cause and effect quickly and beyond the ordinary limits of common knowledge." She believed rather fervently in spririts and premonitions. 

Given their mystical interests, Varo, Carrington, and Horna came to be known as "las tres brujas," or the three witches, by others in their community. However, the three simply described themselves as a "surrogate family." Their bond seems especially poignant given how the war had left Varo isolated from her birth family. 

Untitled, Kati Horna (model: Remedios Varo; mask: Leonora Carrington)

 

The reason Remedios Varo compels me is not just her artistic talent but also her wide-ranging intellect, eclectic curiosity, and devotion to her friends. All this is to say, I like her and her witchy art :')