This first page of this limited series, that will feature my favourite women artists, brings you one that I greatly admire, Remdios Varo. She is considered a Spanish-Mexican artist, or in some articles/books, a Mexican artist. However, she was born in Girona, Catalunya, Spain. And I am a bit pissed at the fact that no one spoke to me about her while in Art School at uni!
I don’t consider her a Mexican artist, although really it doesn’t matter at all, because she was formed in Spain. Actually she was one of the first women to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando de Madrid (The Royal Academy of San Fernando for the Fine Arts of Madrid). She moved to Barcelona in 1932, worked as a commercial artist/designer and joined the Catalan surrealist group Logicofobista. She went to Paris in 1937 together with the French surrealist poet Benjamin Péret. In 1941 when the Nazis conquered Paris, she sought political exile in Mexico and, destiny interfered and she was never able to return to Spain. She died of a heart attack in 1963 at the age of 54 in Mexico City. She never sought the Mexican nationality.
Her work is categorised…by many…as surrealism, but I disagree. She did join a surrealist group and I am sure she learned much from them. But I don’t think of her as a surrealist painter. I find her to be more in tune to painting images from literature and fantasy. And although she did make some surrealist drawings and sketches, I think those were part of her search, those were exercises and things she had to do to become a complete artist.
I will feature some of her work, but I strongly urge you to look further and if you have the opportunity to go see an exhibition of her paintings (which are rather rare), go, you will see amazing things!
I will leave it there, hoping that you will seek much further into this great woman artist and to others, because there are more. Just to mention an outrageous fact, here, at our great Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid (one of the most famous and recognised museums in the world) there are only five women artists with eleven paintings within an exhibition of more than one thousand. This has to change.
There are many, I am sure you have…by now if you watch my videos and follow my blog…gotten to know a few but next time I will feature another great one, featured in this video:
Now have some fun with Sheena…(I am sure she was a feminist!)
Cheers…
JaZzArt en València 
Excellent work Sir.
Thanks for sharing.
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Good morning Sir and thank you so very much! Have a great day!
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wow, what interesting work –
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Very interesting. There are many interesting and very good women artists out there that need to be recognised. Thank you Beth!
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you are so right!
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Thank you Beth!
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^_^👍
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Thank you 🙏🏻 so much Casa!
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Lots of Spaniards in Mexico especially since the republic, I know a bunch in my trips there and saw football games at the Centro Gallego !
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Yes, that is true. Thank you 🙏🏻 my friend and have a great day!
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You too buddy
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Wow! I had never heard of her before, but she is incredible. Thank you for sharing!
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Yes, her work is outstanding and should be in great museums. I, along with a few other artists here in Europe, are trying to bring these many, many women artists to light and perhaps create a reform, through our work on social media, that would replace some of the mediocre and bad male artist now filling up walls in museums with these wonderful women!
Thank you Kristian!
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I applaud your efforts to give these incredible female artists their due. It is long overdue. Thanks for sharing!
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It is long, very long overdue Brad, you are so right. Thank you so much my friend!
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Thank you for once again shining a light on women artists. I applaud you for your efforts to elevate and publicize the work of female artists. The fact you shared about the museum in Madrid is outrageous yet, sadly, not surprising. Another excellent post, Francis.
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Thank you Janet. I think it is a great injustice so I’m trying my best to spread the news. There will be more women artists and more news in the series.
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Thank you!
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My pleasure Janet.
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A very interesting perspective on Remedios Varo. I agree that she might have «pigeon-holed» into one genre of painting, and she actually represents so much more. Five women artists from an exhibition of more than one thousand? That’s shocking, and unfortunately reflects our dear society through history, starting from ancient times. The same was with literature, wasn’t it, or any occupation for that matter. It seems as though so long as women were in supporting positions (secretary, assistant, nurse) it all was considered acceptable and respectable. Women treated seriously as artists or writers? That’s not what our history was all about so museums simply reflect the injustice. Museums could do better to give awareness to women artists and their paintings, but as with classical literature, the men simply outnumber women.
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Yes, that is a correct assessment of history but now it’s about time to work to change all that. Thank you so much!
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