Surrealist

Remedios Varo (1908—1963)

Mujer saliendo del psicoanalista [Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst]

1960

oil on canvas

70.50 x 40.50 cm

Museo de Arte Moderno. INBA, Mexico

I was introduced to Remedios Varo by a very good friend years ago, and unfortunately have not spent much time with her work since. Her work is laden with psychological imagery, symbolism and surrealistic subjects. In this painting, the woman is about to drop a piece of her "baggage" (one of her veils) that she has succeeded in removing through her visit to the psychoanalyst. She carries more to be gotten rid of, requiring return visits. Unfortunately Varos is a relatively unknown surrealist amongst her peers.

A great group of her work on a Flickr page.

A video of more of Varos' work:



I hope to get a work in for Friday, but I'll be driving to Buffalo tonight so I can't promise anything. I am very excited about checking out a special exhibition at the Albright Knox Art Gallery this weekend though, will probably be sharing some of the work next week!

The Librarian

Librarian, 1570
Guiseppe Arcimboldo (Italian, 1527-1593)
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorische Museum
Image courtesy of wikimedia commons

I am indulging myself a little bit today. Guiseppe Arcimboldo is the brilliant painter of an array of bizarre heads concocted of oodles of gorgeous fantastically rendered objects, usually from the natural world. He is famous for his anthropomorphic paintings, when I hear his name I always think of a head made of fruit.

His work The Librarian "would have been recognised by its first audience as a cruel portrait of Wolfgang Lazius, court historiographer to Maximilian and a passionate book collector."(Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, Saturday April 26, 2007) His work is witty, but in order to be taken seriously it could not simply be an assemblage of objects. These paintings live as portraits, with a depth and interest one might not perceive at the outset.

Arcimboldo was embraced by the Surrealist movement and appears surprisingly modern when remembering that he worked out of the 16th century (same feeling I've always had about Hieronymous Bosch as well). I am only just learning about Arcimboldo but I highly recommend The Guardian article as it touches upon his variety of work, the influence of Leonardo da Vinci and the affect of the history of scientific discovery.

Check out a gallery of his work.