Hello everyone! How's everything going? As you know, I really like painting, and today I'm going to talk about a painter I absolutely adore. Not only for her work, but also because it was the first exhibition I ever went to. It was a spring day in May 2000, with my parents, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington, DC. Well, actually, I was still a baby, so I can't remember anything, but... who knows? Maybe there's some unexplained connection that makes me like her much now.

Remedios Varo was born in 1908 in Anglés, a small Spanish town near Barcelona. She was one of the first women to study art at the Royal Academy of Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. Then she moved to Barcelona where she worked in graphic design and created her first paintings. During the Spanish Civil War, Varo went into exile first in Paris, the epicenter of surrealism. But then the Nazis arrived and she had to exile again to Mexico, where she spent the rest of her life until her death. There, she formed part of a vibrant community of artists and intellectuals and cultivated friendships with other women artists like Leonora Carrington and Kati Horna. In fact, Remedios and Leonora became great friends and they influenced one another.

Her work is characterized by a unique fusion of science, alchemy, mysticism, and feminism, all wrapped in dreamlike landscapes and images filled with symbolism. Although she received limited recognition during her lifetime, over time she has become a key figure of surrealism and 20th century art, especially for many women artists and intellectuals who find in her a unique and powerful voice. 

I will leave you two of her paintings, so you can enjoy them directly. The one on the left, Mujer Saliendo del Psicoanalista ("Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst"), is one of my favorites. The one on the right, Naturaleza Muerta Resucitando (Still Life Reviving), is her last work. She finished it right before her death, which is highly symbolic.