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Cartas, sueños y otros textos de Remedios Varo
La pintura de Remedios Varo no dejara nunca de hechizarnos, de asombrarnos con sus insolitas asociaciones entre los sueños, los objetos y las personas. Lo que se ignoraba era que la gran pintora tambien habia escrito. Este volumen, organizado y prologado por Isabel Castells, presenta una entrevista inedita; las numerosas cartas, muchas de ellas a personajes desconocidos y que la pintora jamas envio; {De Homo Rodans} unico texto que Varo publico en vida; un Proyecto para una obra teatral; textos de escritura automatica surrealista; sueños y apuntes, fragmentos y proyectos que hacen de este libro un viaje por el universo, tan magico como humano, de Remedios Varo.
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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1041 people want to read
About the author
Remedios Varo
17 books60 followersRemedios Varo Uranga (December 16, 1908 - October 8, 1963) was a Spanish-Mexican, para-surrealist painter and anarchist. She was born María de los Remedios Varo Uranga in Anglès, Girona, Spain in 1908. During the Spanish Civil War she fled to Paris where she was greatly influenced by the surrealist movement. She met her second husband (the first was Gerardo Lizarraga, a painter), the French surrealist poet Benjamin Péret in Barcelona. There she was a member of the art group Logicophobiste. They were introduced through a mutual friendship with the Surrealist artist Oscar Dominguez.
In 1937, she moved to Paris with Péret, sealing herself from any return to Franco's Spain since she had republican ties. She was forced into exile from Paris during the Nazi occupation of France and moved to Mexico City at the end of 1941. She initially considered Mexico a temporary haven, but would remain in Latin America for the rest of her life.
In Mexico, she met native artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but her strongest ties were to other exiles and expatriates, notably the English painter Leonora Carrington and the French pilot and adventurer, Jean Nicolle. Her third, and last, marriage was to Walter Gruen, an Austrian who had endured concentration camps before escaping Europe. Gruen believed fiercely in Varo, and he gave her the support that allowed her to fully concentrate on her painting.
After 1949 Varo developed her mature style, which remains beautifully enigmatic and instantly recognizable. She often worked in oil on masonite panels she prepared herself. Although her colors have the blended resonance of the oil medium, her brushwork often involved many fine strokes of paint laid closely together - a technique more reminiscent of egg tempera. She died at the height of her career from a heart-attack in Mexico City in 1963.
Her work continues to achieve successful retrospectives at major sites in Mexico and the United States.
In 1937, she moved to Paris with Péret, sealing herself from any return to Franco's Spain since she had republican ties. She was forced into exile from Paris during the Nazi occupation of France and moved to Mexico City at the end of 1941. She initially considered Mexico a temporary haven, but would remain in Latin America for the rest of her life.
In Mexico, she met native artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but her strongest ties were to other exiles and expatriates, notably the English painter Leonora Carrington and the French pilot and adventurer, Jean Nicolle. Her third, and last, marriage was to Walter Gruen, an Austrian who had endured concentration camps before escaping Europe. Gruen believed fiercely in Varo, and he gave her the support that allowed her to fully concentrate on her painting.
After 1949 Varo developed her mature style, which remains beautifully enigmatic and instantly recognizable. She often worked in oil on masonite panels she prepared herself. Although her colors have the blended resonance of the oil medium, her brushwork often involved many fine strokes of paint laid closely together - a technique more reminiscent of egg tempera. She died at the height of her career from a heart-attack in Mexico City in 1963.
Her work continues to achieve successful retrospectives at major sites in Mexico and the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
May 28, 2019
Varo was certainly more a painter than a writer, unlike her friend Leonora Carrington, who was equally both, so this long-awaited collection of her words (notebook fragments, dreams, reflections on the symbolic systems of her visual work) reveals no lost prose classics. Nonetheless, it contains enough insights and bits of striking image to make it treasure enough for those excavating this arm of surrealism. It does make me dream of a Varo-annotated monograph pairing her painting with her poetic explanations, though.
my-library
March 14, 2019I'm very sorry to say that this book mostly read like exactly what it is: Random notebook jottings that were not intended for publication by its author.
I love Remedios Varo, and I'm sure that the people who published this do too, but I don't think they did her a favour by publishing this mess of random fragments. The whole thing came off as frivolous and inconsequential.
It's a very slim volume, but I still managed to spend almost a week getting through it, simply because I did not find it very engaging.
However, there were some good bits towards the end (some dreams, and the part where she was writing about her paintings), but all in all I would say that there were perhaps 20-30 good pages out of the 128...
I love Remedios Varo, and I'm sure that the people who published this do too, but I don't think they did her a favour by publishing this mess of random fragments. The whole thing came off as frivolous and inconsequential.
It's a very slim volume, but I still managed to spend almost a week getting through it, simply because I did not find it very engaging.
However, there were some good bits towards the end (some dreams, and the part where she was writing about her paintings), but all in all I would say that there were perhaps 20-30 good pages out of the 128...
December 3, 2022
Fragments of alchemy, witchcraft, isolation, science, all dosed heavily with the dream. This is quite the text to analyze one of the great mid-century surrealists (damn, the Mexico scene of artists in the mid-50s was quite astounding). What I found essential is reading her notes of her paintings in tandem with viewing these works of art - it's like your own gallery to get lost in. And while quite the serious artist, Varo was rather playful, especially in her letters to random strangers (found in the phonebook nonetheless) whom she invites to a party.
Cheers to Wakefield Press for releasing this small, magical book.
Cheers to Wakefield Press for releasing this small, magical book.
September 21, 2020
Here we find the surrealist artist Remedios Varo joining the ranks of other great pre-internet trolls like Andy Kaufman and Diogenes. In her letters, Varo creates absurd, almost Borgesian, and at times surreal scenarios that are truly amusing and funny, which she mails off to complete strangers whom she randomly chooses from a telephone directory.
Also included here are: a brief unpublished interview; an essay on Homo rodans, the supposed species before Homo sapiens; fragments, which mostly consist of surreal witchcraft recipes involving, for example, the specific orientation of a bed placed on a brick; an unfinished project for a theatre piece; notes for future projects, one of which is a trite Rumiesque spiritual metaphor involving a desert with a glass whose water miraculously expands into a stream; three examples of automatic writing; ten dreams, the last two being my favourite; and comments by Remedios Varo on some of her paintings.
This book is a bit of a curio, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you're interested in Remedios Varo or her surrealist friend Leonora Carrington, who makes a few guest appearances. Varo does not write nearly as well as Carrington, but that's possibly to be expected as these fragments, etc. were mostly for her own benefit and were not intended to be published. Her style is a little academic at times, but she makes up for it with her highly imaginative and engaging ideas. I mostly liked the letters, dreams 9 and 10, and her comments on her paintings. These comments are often axiomatic, but sometimes they clarify the paintings a bit more or reveal an unseen story behind them. My only wish is that the paintings were included alongside her comments so I didn't have to Google each one for reference.
Also included here are: a brief unpublished interview; an essay on Homo rodans, the supposed species before Homo sapiens; fragments, which mostly consist of surreal witchcraft recipes involving, for example, the specific orientation of a bed placed on a brick; an unfinished project for a theatre piece; notes for future projects, one of which is a trite Rumiesque spiritual metaphor involving a desert with a glass whose water miraculously expands into a stream; three examples of automatic writing; ten dreams, the last two being my favourite; and comments by Remedios Varo on some of her paintings.
This book is a bit of a curio, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you're interested in Remedios Varo or her surrealist friend Leonora Carrington, who makes a few guest appearances. Varo does not write nearly as well as Carrington, but that's possibly to be expected as these fragments, etc. were mostly for her own benefit and were not intended to be published. Her style is a little academic at times, but she makes up for it with her highly imaginative and engaging ideas. I mostly liked the letters, dreams 9 and 10, and her comments on her paintings. These comments are often axiomatic, but sometimes they clarify the paintings a bit more or reveal an unseen story behind them. My only wish is that the paintings were included alongside her comments so I didn't have to Google each one for reference.
November 17, 2010
No hay mucho que decir sobre esta compilación de fragmentos del arte escrito de Remedios Varo pues, al ser sólo fragmentos, no puede concluirse gran cosa al respecto. Estuve más interesada en la introducción al libro en el que se argumentaba si Remedios Varo pertenecía a la corriente surrealista o no, y si debía considerársele entre los artistas mexicanos debido a su falta de motivos folklóricos en sus pinturas.
Es una mirada breve a la complejidad del proceso artístico de Remedios Varo, a sus influencias esotéricas y humor incomprendido por la mayoría de aquellos en su entorno.
Es una mirada breve a la complejidad del proceso artístico de Remedios Varo, a sus influencias esotéricas y humor incomprendido por la mayoría de aquellos en su entorno.
August 13, 2025
temos o mesmo senso de humor
April 20, 2021
I pray to her and Leonora Carrington every night. Asking them to fill me with their dreamscapes. Asking them for their magic and mischievous intelligence. And then I place my little postcard of Remedios under my pillow and pull one of Leonora’s tarot cards in the morning when I wake up.
As above, so below. Beautiful sorcerers.
As above, so below. Beautiful sorcerers.
May 17, 2019
I’m not familiar with the painter, and I read this book for a book club. It sounded really interesting (letters and dreams; you’re gonna just let me read a journal?delicious!) I am in my mid 30’s and should know that gift horse will bite you.
I hated this book. It was like like meeting someone at a party who had taken mushrooms an hour or two beforehand, so you don’t know what they’re talking about and there’s no context pre-defining the conversation, but goddamn are they out of control crazy. I’ve been on the internet long enough to recognize uncut nonsense and know where to find it for free, so it’s a sad day to realize I bought some on Amazon.
I hated this book. It was like like meeting someone at a party who had taken mushrooms an hour or two beforehand, so you don’t know what they’re talking about and there’s no context pre-defining the conversation, but goddamn are they out of control crazy. I’ve been on the internet long enough to recognize uncut nonsense and know where to find it for free, so it’s a sad day to realize I bought some on Amazon.
February 9, 2019
I read this collection fairly soon after reading Leonora Carrington’s The Hearing Trumpet and it struck me as a rather perfect companion piece. Remedios Varo and Carrington’s work often go hand in hand, with their paintings giving off the sensation that you can step from one to the other effortlessly, no doubt due to their unique friendship which is highlighted in these pages. Varo appears as the main character’s mystical friend in Carrington’s novel, a friend who writes letters to strangers, as Varo did herself in real life, and some of which are collected here. There is also a shared affinity for dreams, the occult and the idea of books as magical objects found in both artists’ work, and their friendship is only reaffirmed with Carrington’s appearance in the many sections of this book, from appearances in dreams to mentions in personal notes. Although it’s a slim read it provides a rich insight into Varo’s life, which feels like it was cut somewhat short at 54, and invaluable reading for anyone interested in the surrealist movement. Wakefield press have done a great service in translating this, I only wish it had included some illustrations as a few of the notes mention drawings found accompanying some of the texts in the original notebooks.
March 17, 2019
In brief: intriguing and illuminating for committed Varo fans; but for newcomers to her world, this is not the place to start.
Read my full review on my blog, here: https://wp.me/p25w3I-fG
Read my full review on my blog, here: https://wp.me/p25w3I-fG
September 10, 2023
El concepto de este libro es excelente, es una manera de explorar e indagar en la vida de Remedios Varo, una mujer increíble. Sin embargo la responsable de editar este volumen se tomó medio libro para tratar de explicarnos algo que hubiera sido mejor explorar por nosotros mismos. El contenido se quedo muy corto, el libro necesita más láminas (es un libro sobre Remedios Varo y no hay ninguna fotografía) cartas e ideas de obras que fueron citadas o mencionadas en el relato de la editorial. Por su parte, el poco material inedito que muestran de Remedios es espectacular, me encanto leer las cartas, sueños, ideas, preocupaciones. Realmente me hizo creer en el azar objetivo, en estar seguro de que hay algo más allá que no podemos ver.
January 9, 2025
this woman is wild and i love her
“I say-the man has not been freed. On one side of the outfit there's a nook that is the equivalent of a living room, a portrait is hanging there with three books; on his breast he wears a flowerpot where he's raising a rose, a finer and more delicate plant than what he finds in those forests, but he needs the portrait, the rose -a yearning for a little garden at home—-and his cat. He isn't genuinely free.”
“I say-the man has not been freed. On one side of the outfit there's a nook that is the equivalent of a living room, a portrait is hanging there with three books; on his breast he wears a flowerpot where he's raising a rose, a finer and more delicate plant than what he finds in those forests, but he needs the portrait, the rose -a yearning for a little garden at home—-and his cat. He isn't genuinely free.”
February 25, 2022
these writings are so scattered and brief they probably didn’t need to be published, much less satisfying than just looking at some of her paintings
July 13, 2023
Ver la obra de Remedios Varo es entrar en mundos imaginarios que tienen toques de magia, irrealidad y sobre todo carecen de una época especifica. Leer este libro me ayudo a entender un poco más de la obra de tan brillante artista, y al leer sus cartas dirigidas a personajes reales o imaginarios me indica como la vida y el cerebro de Remedios brincaba de un plano real a un irreal con solo una pincelada y con situaciones que dejan volar la imaginación a lugares increíbles.
March 16, 2025
Me ha gustado mucho adentrarme en el mundo onírico de la Varo, pero los escritos son tan cortitos y tan pocos que no da tiempo a empaparse de su universo :(
June 7, 2024
Un librito muy breve, interesante si uno quiere saber más sobre Remedios Varo. Su obra pictórica invitaba a ello. Por ejemplo, yo no sabía que había sido gran amiga de Leonora Carrington. En mi caso, yo siempre vi a Remedios como "la original" y a Leonora como "imitadora". Reconozco mi error. Eran dos almas muy parecidas, que coincidieron en México por esos azares del destino, pues destino era México para los surrealistas y sus anexos en esos tiempos (los 50s). También es interesante saber que incursionó en otras formas de expresión, como la escritura. Y que era --en mi parecer-- lo más genuina posible, pues no le interesaba la comercialización de su obra ni el reconocimiento público. Pintaba porque necesitaba hacerlo, como una forma purísima de expresión de la pulsión de artista que llevaba dentro.
December 13, 2018
As a fan of Remedios Varo, I’m really grateful this book was finally translated, and presented to the english reading audience. I found the ending section of both her dream journaling, and her notes on her paintings to be the most accesible for me, and the most intriguing. I would have liked to see more of her art in included in the book though—it only has one small illustration. The book overstates Remedio’s established recognition, and thus, the book is really only for people who are already familiar with her work. I’m still rating it favorably, because Remedios Varo is awesome, and I want to see this excitement surrounding the surrealist women continue!
April 11, 2020
Hay cosas grandiosas, lo más, el estudio de Isabel Castells, le da todo el sentido a este libro. Muy bueno porque hay un doble acercamiento, primero a la obra de Remedios y luego a su personalidad, podemos percibir un nexo insoluble y tácito entre su mente y su obra, muy recomendable.
January 30, 2018
Este libro es para seguidores de Remedios Varo. Si no conoces su obra, posiblemente no te guste este libro ya que para empezar Remedios Varo aunque escribia, no era escritora (Por mucho que este libro intente convencerte de lo contrario.)
Pero si tu eres un admirador de su obra y quieres conocer un poco más de esta pintora, que ideas ocupaban su mente, que la conflictuaba y a que avocaba su mente adelante esta es una oportunidad para adentrarse en el universo onírico de esta artista.
Pero si tu eres un admirador de su obra y quieres conocer un poco más de esta pintora, que ideas ocupaban su mente, que la conflictuaba y a que avocaba su mente adelante esta es una oportunidad para adentrarse en el universo onírico de esta artista.
September 7, 2009
Compilado de sueños y cartas imaginarias de una extraordinaria pintora. Muchos de los textos revelan algunos detalles de sus últimas pinturas y sus sentimientos provocados por años de sufrimiento y esperanza.
October 17, 2011
Las partes que más me gustaron son las cartas ingeniosas y los sueños. En el sueño 9 me gustó llegar a la mimsa conclusión que Walter Gruen, que se refiere a "Presencia inquietante". El sueño 10 es bellísimo.
September 21, 2013
She writes as twistedly as her paintings.. in a fab way.. a true artist my all means..
January 31, 2022
“I am a reincarnation of a friend you had in other times.”
Remedios Varo is my favorite artist of all time, but it’s so difficult to find books of her artwork (let alone in English!) that I though this collection would be the next best thing. It was not; there are basically no pictures in this entire book and the writing is a little incomprehensible and kind of pointless without that context. The introduction does repeatedly clarify that these are mere fragments from her journals, never intended to have been published, and a lot of them were just that. Varo’s paintings are proof enough of her genius and a collection of her most intimate ramblings was not needed to prove it.
The first section of this collection were letters, which the translator clarifies were never meant to be sent, and just served as writing exercises. One is addressed to a random guy in the phone book, inviting him to a party (Leonora Carrington’s character based on Varo, Carmella Velasquez, does the same thing in The Hearing Trumpet). Varo’s surrealist humor on full display here, making her living room into a solar system or alchemizing a “substance that would soften and reduce to an imperceptible film the skin of peaches, a fruit I like a lot but which upsets my stomach because of its skin” by playing chords on a piano.
After that, there’s a few samples of automatic writing, a first draft of a play, and the funniest part, impossible recipes “to induce erotic dreams” and “to dream you are king of England”. She includes logs of 10 of her own dreams, which ranged from the inscrutable to the terrifying. The part of this book that makes me actually want to keep it are the “Comments by Remedios Varo on some of her paintings,” even though the editor of this book made the bafflingly stupid decision to not include pictures of the paintings themselves, forcing me to look back and forth from the book to Google Images. However, this section was the only part of the book that was of some value to me; it helped me understand Varo’s artistic ethos more, and it’s amazing how she is able to describe what’s happening in such a surreal painting in such plain terms, almost making the reader feel stupid for not getting what’s going on. I wish that this book was instead these comments paired with full-color prints of each painting, such a book would make a gorgeous objet d’art.
Remedios Varo is my favorite artist of all time, but it’s so difficult to find books of her artwork (let alone in English!) that I though this collection would be the next best thing. It was not; there are basically no pictures in this entire book and the writing is a little incomprehensible and kind of pointless without that context. The introduction does repeatedly clarify that these are mere fragments from her journals, never intended to have been published, and a lot of them were just that. Varo’s paintings are proof enough of her genius and a collection of her most intimate ramblings was not needed to prove it.
The first section of this collection were letters, which the translator clarifies were never meant to be sent, and just served as writing exercises. One is addressed to a random guy in the phone book, inviting him to a party (Leonora Carrington’s character based on Varo, Carmella Velasquez, does the same thing in The Hearing Trumpet). Varo’s surrealist humor on full display here, making her living room into a solar system or alchemizing a “substance that would soften and reduce to an imperceptible film the skin of peaches, a fruit I like a lot but which upsets my stomach because of its skin” by playing chords on a piano.
After that, there’s a few samples of automatic writing, a first draft of a play, and the funniest part, impossible recipes “to induce erotic dreams” and “to dream you are king of England”. She includes logs of 10 of her own dreams, which ranged from the inscrutable to the terrifying. The part of this book that makes me actually want to keep it are the “Comments by Remedios Varo on some of her paintings,” even though the editor of this book made the bafflingly stupid decision to not include pictures of the paintings themselves, forcing me to look back and forth from the book to Google Images. However, this section was the only part of the book that was of some value to me; it helped me understand Varo’s artistic ethos more, and it’s amazing how she is able to describe what’s happening in such a surreal painting in such plain terms, almost making the reader feel stupid for not getting what’s going on. I wish that this book was instead these comments paired with full-color prints of each painting, such a book would make a gorgeous objet d’art.
September 8, 2019
I love Varo's paintings, so I was very curious when I found this book, which collects fragments and short pieces that may never have been intended for publication, and were collected after her death. This edition is the first complete compilation of her written works, which range from letters and short fragments to dreams and an absurdist scientific paper. As one might expect, not everything here is a gem, but it's a fun read. I picked it up and read a bit in-between reading other things, since if read straight through I think the surrealist/absurdist aspects might have worn on me. If you're a fan of surrealism as I am, or intrigued by Varo's paintings and curious about her thoughts, this is certainly worthwhile, but it's not a truly crucial read.
December 29, 2016
Algo de magia para terminar el año. Siento que este libro tendría que ser más largo, pues al final se queda uno con ganas de leer más cosas escritas por Remedios, y es curioso porque, si tuviese más contenido suyo, tendría que complementarse con más páginas de ese estudio previo tan fino de Isabel Castells. Cada receta, sueño, disparate, broma y carta, o bien, cada mezcla voluntaria o no de todo junto, valen la pena para leerse a detalle. Sin duda un gran libro para cualquiera que guste del surrealismo en cualquiera de sus formas.
August 2, 2018
Indispensable para los fanáticos del arte de Remedios Varo. Yo recomendaría leer la introducción de cada fragmento antes del fragmento mismo y no leer toda la introducción del libro de corrido para tener una noción de cada obra.
La entrevista deja en claro muchos aspectos de la perspectiva de Remedios y el proyecto para una obra teatral es en definitiva una obra que me hubiera encantado ver terminada.
En particular esta edición le da un plus incluyendo las cartas en su idioma original (francés) junto a su traducción y proporciona la oportunidad de un entendimiento completo de Remedios.
La entrevista deja en claro muchos aspectos de la perspectiva de Remedios y el proyecto para una obra teatral es en definitiva una obra que me hubiera encantado ver terminada.
En particular esta edición le da un plus incluyendo las cartas en su idioma original (francés) junto a su traducción y proporciona la oportunidad de un entendimiento completo de Remedios.
March 5, 2023
Un libro que se queda muy corto, y claramente la editorial se dio cuenta porque la mitad del libro es una introducción que explica cada texto que está en el libro. Un poco absurdo. En cuanto a lo escrito por Remedios (mi amor) puedo decir que es una manera de conocer más su arte, pero me quedé con ganas de que el libro fuera más ella, y menos alguien explicándola a ella. Por lo que sí vale la pena es por las láminas de sus pinturas, a mi con eso me hicieron feliz, no eran necesarias tantas vueltas por la falta de material suyo que claramente no pudieron conseguir.
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August 16, 2024"I remember the paellas of yesteryear, freedom of movement, and I kiss your phalanges, sir."
"The first step was the explosive revelation our friend had that his right shoe, a red velvet curtain, and a snippet of opera (audible at that moment) were exactly equivalent."
"There is no doubt that our known universe is divided into two clear tendencies: that which tends to harden and that which tends to soften."
"Almost invisible freckles but on the one, dark; on the other, light (as if the spots on the one had been formed using the skin of the other the way a stencil is made)."
"The first step was the explosive revelation our friend had that his right shoe, a red velvet curtain, and a snippet of opera (audible at that moment) were exactly equivalent."
"There is no doubt that our known universe is divided into two clear tendencies: that which tends to harden and that which tends to soften."
"Almost invisible freckles but on the one, dark; on the other, light (as if the spots on the one had been formed using the skin of the other the way a stencil is made)."
September 26, 2019
While it’s her paintings that are her true genius, this brief collection of her notes and odd writings display an intellect and imagination that clearly could have chosen many different art forms to contribute her unique visions. I detected a clear Borges influence in her writing, whom she references in one of her pieces. There are even a series of brief descriptions of many of her paintings which read like prose poems. Very enjoyable and worth another few reads. My crush on her continues...
March 31, 2024
Antes de llegar a Remedios Varo, tienes que pasar por una introducción pertinente y muy completa de Isabel Castells. Después puedes abrazar el mundo hilarante y mágico de la pintora. Me dieron ganas de escribir cartas a desconocidos, de escribir mis sueños, de hacer escritura automática, de hacer ejercicios surrealistas y luego tirarlos a la basura. Qué bella lectura, qué bellos sueños, qué íntimo acercamiento.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews