Alegoría del invierno (Allegory of Winter)

Remedios Varo

Anglès, Girona, Spain, 1908 - Mexico City, Mexico, 1963
  • Date: 
    1948
  • Technique: 
    Gouache on paper
  • Dimensions: 
    44 x 44 cm
  • Category: 
    Work on paper, Drawing
  • Entry date: 
    2012
  • Register number: 
    AD06620

Remedios Varo trained at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid. She later became associated with the avant-garde circles in both Madrid and Barcelona, where she took part in the historic Exposición Logicofobista (Logicophobist Exhibition) in 1936. In 1937, she moved to Paris, where she was involved in the activities and exhibitions of the Surrealists until the start of World War II. Like other members of this group, she went into exile in Mexico in 1941. Alegoría del invierno (Allegory of Winter, 1948) dates from this period. Varo uses Surrealist techniques which explore the analysis of connections between the subconscious and the real. These techniques combine transfers, grattage, fumage and the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse). There is a cadavre exquis dating from 1935, produced by Varo together with Óscar Domínguez and Esteban Francés. However, it is the use of drawing which characterises Varo’s work during her Mexican period. She found a new dimension of Surrealism in the interpretation of reality divided into different versions, in a blend of fiction, dream and premonition. Varo’s interest in the occult sciences and alchemy intensified during this period, while at the same time she was studying scientific advances in a wide variety of disciplines: mathematics, astronomy, botany and biology. Her knowledge filtered into her artistic work, which features numerous symbolic journeys through the universe. Alegoría del invierno also reflects a constant in her artistic production: the representation of living beings and nature, also alluding to the passing of time. For Varo, its progress imposes a sort of order, rhythm and harmony on the cosmos.

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