Remedios Varo
http://www.turingmachine.org/remedios/expo.html

Biography:

This unique and sacred creature was born in Spain in 1908. Remedios always struggled to combine the mythic with the scientific, the sacred with the profane. Her parents were a big influence in her life; they were always teaching her moral aspects and the mechanics of life. Remedios decided to evade the civil war that was going on in Spain and moved instead to Paris where the art movements were in vogue. In Europe she was influenced by the surrealist movement and the metaphysics studies. She was motivated by ancient studies and literature, but also by physics, mathematics, engineering, biology and psychoanalisis.

After some years, she decided to move to Mexico with a friend she met in Europe. In Mexico, her real journey as an artist started. Once in Mexico, Varo decided to go on one of the most beautiful travels... one to her imagination. She has a collection of approximately 140 art pieces. 110 of these were created in Mexico City. Her characters are mystical and solitary; most of the times involved in scientifical activities. They often have almond-shaped eyes, and androgynous features of Varo's self portraits.

Remedios was influenced mainly by her father who encouraged her to develop the ability of drafting. She went to one of the most recognized art schools worldwide, the San Fernando Academy in Spain. There she met Salvador Dal’ and followed his skills. As an artist, she liked to use symbolism and hidden elements such as animals (mainly cats) in her paintings. Diverse characters emerge in her painting with unusual attitudes: contemplative, passive, highly symbolic; reflection of the instability which can be overcome or changed. All of them are part of a unique world which involves developed concepts of magic and imagination. Remedios also used vehicles (father influence) in most of her paintings. These are utopian vehicles of cosmic propulsion travelling through land, air and sea, with gears, sails and transmissions that respond to superior energy sources.

Unfortunately, in the fall of 1963 she died from excessive tension and an addiction to cigarretes. But we cannot consider her dead, when her paintings are still affecting millions of people's minds all around the world. Remedios Varo did not die... she just evolved to a divine place where she is finally able to interact with her characters and spend evenings chatting with geniuses like herself.