Art is the Solution

The Ancestor Source: Museo de Mujeres Leonora Carrington occupies a unique place in art history. Forced to flee Europe during World War II, Carrington spent most of her adult life in Mexico, where she found an artistic home. A member of the Surrealist movement, Carrington’s art was extraordinarily creative and original as well as notoriously difficult to interpret. Carrington was a visionary, both literally and figuratively. She reported that she often had visions of ghosts and animals when she was a child; these memories undoubtably impacted her adult work. As well as being a visual artist, Carrington was also a writer, and her art often illustrated or referred to the fantastical concepts that emerged from her writing. Her history with ghosts might come into play in her 1968 painting The Ancestor . The painting depicts a spectral figure dressed in a sheet and standing in the midst of a white circle. Around the edge of the circle, strange, ghostly animals gaze out at the viewer with ...

An Aardvark Groomed by Widows Source: Biblioklept October is the season of Halloween and all things spooky, including witches. Witches are a common theme in Western art, but their depiction has changed over time. To my mind, Leonora Carrington’s An Aardvark Groomed by Widows offers a modern interpretation of the theme of witchcraft in art (even though the piece has ostensibly nothing to do with witches at all). The piece depicts a group of women dressed in black who are circled around a white aardvark in a bowl of water. As the title suggests, the women are washing and tending to the aardvark, who seems to be enjoying the attention. A faceless figure on the far left holds what seems to be a baby aardvark in its hands while a tiny figure in black sweeps the ground in the foreground of the painting. The background is an abstract wash of brown dotted with shadowy, indistinct animals and figures. Ritual is a major theme in Carrington’s work, and it’s clear that the women in An Aardvark Gr...

Allegory of Winter Source: WikiArt Today is the last day of the year. It’s been a wild and stressful ride, and I have to say that I’m glad to turn the page on this year. As we look forward to 2021, however, I want to share one more painting: Allegory of Winter by Remedios Varo. I am often captivated by Varo’s paintings. She was one of the most imaginative artists of her age, employing a complex set of symbols and visual story-telling techniques to convey meaning. As a result, her paintings often conjure images of some half-imagined, legendary past, steeped in magic. Varo’s profound creativity can be seen in paintings like Allegory of Winter. The painting portrays strange, spiky, cactus-like plants growing in a parched, barren landscape. White snowflakes swirl in the background against a flat, grey sky. Ice-like pods grow between these strange trees, crystallizing into multi-faceted shapes. Each of these ice crystals contains a different bird, flower, or insect, perhaps representing r...

Solar Music Source: WikiArt I am often captivated by the paintings of Spanish-Mexican painter Remedios Varo. Varo was one of the most imaginative artists of her age, employing a complex set of symbols and visual story-telling techniques to convey meaning. As a result, her paintings often conjure images of some half-imagined, legendary past, steeped in magic. Varo’s profound creativity can be seen in paintings like Solar Music , a masterpiece that was created in 1955. The piece reflects Varo’s perennial interest in creation and creative acts. The piece depicts a forest, painted in shades of red and other earth tones. A woman—who strongly resembles Varo—stands in the center of the scene, dressed in a voluminous robe that seems to be made out of the forest floor itself. She draws a bow across a beam of light; this, presumably, is the solar music. In this artistic world, the combination of light and music (symbolized by the bow) creates a mystical force. A flower springs from the earth whe...

Exploring the Sources of the Orinoco River Source: WikiArt When you’re looking for a painting to spark your imagination, you can always count on Remedios Varo. Varo was one of the most creative and original artists of her age. Her paintings feature strange structures and otherworldly contraptions as well as a vast array of colorful and unusual characters. Though her art often portrayed fantastical scenes, Exploring the Sources of the Orinoco River has its origins in actual events. The piece depicts Varo in a strange, red boat sailing through an aquatic forest. Water spills from a crystal goblet that stands inside the trunk of a tree. The water feeds the river, the mystical source of the Orinoco River in Varo’s imaginings. Varo was part of a real expedition to the actual Orinoco River in Venezuela in 1947. This experience undoubtedly inspired Exploring the Sources of the Orinoco River , which was painted more than ten years after the original expedition. However, Varo’s artistic renderi...

Self-Portrait with Unicorn Source: Pinterest The world of Surrealist art is wild and wonderful. The Surrealist movement represents a flourishing of imagination, taking viewers into the visionary world that lurks just out of reach of the conscious mind. Studying a Surrealist painting often involves a deep dive into the painter’s psyche, and this is especially true of self-portraits. There are few genres of painting more revealing or more interesting than the self-portrait. As the term suggests, self-portraits reveal the way the artist sees themselves, in a literal or symbolic sense. Spanish-Mexican artist Remedios Varo’s Self-Portrait with Unicorn is one of the most stunning and interesting examples of the self-portrait genre. Varo was one of the most creative and original artists of her age. Her paintings tend to be inhabited by a vast array of colorful and unusual characters that are unrecognizable as either humans or animals. However, her self-portrait makes use of a more convention...

A Jig Beyond the Grave Source: Museum of Modern Art Today is the last day of Mexico’s famed Day of the Dead festival, and, to celebrate, I want to share a rather wonderful print by Mexican illustrator José-Guadalupe Posada. Although The Day of the Dead has only recently become well-known in American pop-culture (and is drastically misunderstood), it is in fact an ancient festival with roots in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. The iconography surrounding the festival is similarly well-established. However, there are few artists who have had a bigger impact on how we see the Day of the Dead than José-Guadalupe Posada. Posada was primarily an illustrator, creating over twenty thousand drawings and lithographs for pamphlets and books. However, he returned to one theme over and over again: calaveras . Calaveras are decorative skulls that are often used to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Posada included them in much of his work, using them as a means to express cultural and political cri...

Girl with Death Mask (She Plays Alone) Source: fridakahlo.org As we continue to celebrate the month of October, I want to introduce a rather unsettling piece of art produced by one of the world’s most famous artists: Frida Kahlo. There is perhaps no better known female painter than Kahlo. Her face is familiar to nearly everyone in the Western world; it is featured on posters, t-shirts, and mugs and has been co-opted by fashion designers and even (strangely) used to sell cosmetic products. While she is most famous for these self-portraits, Kahlo’s work extends across a wide variety of subjects, which she handles with her characteristically nuanced and original approach to art. However, Girl with Death Mask (She Plays Alone) is probably one of her most interesting and enigmatic paintings. The piece depicts a young girl wearing a mask that is reminiscent of the calaveras (skulls) commonly found in Day of the Dead celebrations. She holds a marigold in her hand, another common offering tha...

In 1971, a rather famous art historian named Linda Nochlin published an essay entitled "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" (which was rather famous in and of itself). In this piece, Nochlin explains how institutional and cultural forces prevented women from engaging in the artistic world for most of Western history. Despite the valid points that Nochlin makes, the premise of her essay actually isn’t true. Since "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" was published, numerous women of the modern era have been recognized for their artistic genius, while at the same time art historians have rediscovered the work of many female painters who were forgotten by history. However, it is still true that the work of female artists tends to be undervalued and understudied in the art world. So, today, I’d like to introduce you to five brilliant women who definitely deserve the name Great Artists. Sofonisba Anguissola - Sofonisba Anguissola is probably the greate...

Star Catcher Source: WikiArt When you’re looking for a painting to spark your imagination, you can always count on Remedios Varo. Varo was one of the most creative and original artists of her age. Her paintings are inhabited by a vast array of colorful and unusual characters that are unrecognizable as either humans or animals. The titular character of Varo’s painting the Star Catcher is one such unusual creature. The piece depicts a humanoid figure dressed in bright and voluminous robes that are reminiscent of some sort of celestial body. A strange, helmet-like headdress completes her outfit. In one hand, she holds a cage containing a crescent moon while she holds a net in the other hand. It is clear that this creature is about to venture out into the sky in search of stars. Compositionally, the piece is very striking. While Varo’s paintings are usually complex and multilayered, Star Catcher is quite simple, featuring only one figure who looks directly at the viewer. This confron...

Insomnia Source: Remedios-Varo.com It can be tempting to think that all art represents the feelings of the artist. The idea that art is the physical manifestation of thoughts and ideas that are unique to the artist is tantalizing; however, for many artists this is not the case. Commissions and patronage make up a large part of the art market. For example, in the 1940s Spanish-Mexican artist Remedios Varo—who was one of the leaders of the Surrealist movement—was hired by the drug company Bayer to produce an illustration that would help to sell their sleeping pills. The result was one of Varo’s early masterpieces: Insomnia . The piece depicts a matrix of dark rooms illuminated only by a single candle. Strange, glassy winged insects flap through the rooms as disembodied eyes look on. The flat, colorless style is not typical of Varo’s work, but it serves to illustrate the colorless misery of insomnia. The painting conjures a sense of uneasiness and distress that aligns well with the de...

The Troubadour Source: Sothebys I am often captivated by the paintings of Spanish-Mexican painter Remedios Varo. Varo was one of the most creative artists of her age, employing a complex set of symbols and visual story-telling techniques to convey meaning. As a result, her paintings often conjure images of some half-imagined, legendary past, steeped in magic. The Troubadour is one of her most beautiful and magical paintings. The piece depicts a man in a small boat with a female masthead sailing down a river through an enchanted forest. A woman who appears to be some sort of wood nymph plays a pipe on the banks of the river, while birds look on. Compositionally and stylistically, the piece owes much to European medieval art, making reference to traditional depictions of troubadours and manuscript illumination styles. This choice was not accidental. The piece was inspired by an expedition down the Orinoco River in Venezuela, which Varo participated in. This trip was hugely influentia...

Astro Errante Source: Sothebys Spanish-Mexican artist Remedios Varo was one the most creative artists of her age. After fleeing Europe during World War II, Varo became one of the leaders of the famed Mexican Surrealist movement. Varo’s work is highly original and inventive, and used her painting to explore the boundary between the real and the fantastical. Astro Errante (which translates to The Wandering Star ) is an excellent example of her whimsical and playful style. The piece depicts an orange figure with a sun-shaped head. The figure is shrouded in a grey cloak as he walks across a dark sky. It is a beautiful and charming painting on its own merit, and the theme is so universal that the piece can stand on its own without much explanation. However, there are some obvious allusions here. The wandering star in this painting is scientifically accurate. Rather than a traditional, five-pointed star, Varo has chosen to depict the star as a burning ball of gas like our sun. Here, we ...

Portrait of Lucha Maria, A Girl from Tehuacan Source:  fridakahlo.org Although Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is best known for her self-portraits, her own body was far from her only subject. In fact, some of Kahlo’s finest paintings comprise other topics, such as Portrait of Lucha Maria, A Girl from Tehuacan . The painting depicts a young girl sitting on a rock in a desert. A black and white shawl is wrapped around her shoulders and she holds an airplane in her hands, perhaps a reference to World War II. In the background, the sky is divided into day and night, a motif that Kahlo returned to throughout her artistic career. Each half of the painting contains either the sun or the moon and a pre-Columbian pyramid, standing alone and stark in the barren landscape. As the painting is explicitly set in Tehuacan, these pyramids can be read as a reference to Teotihuacan, a pre-Columbian archeological site. Teotihuacan is famous for its two pyramids: known as the Pyramid of the Moon and t...

The Creation of Birds Source: eugenefischer.com The work of Spanish-Mexican Surrealist painter Remedios Varo is sometimes playful and sometimes moving, but it is always wildly creative and fantastically original. Varo is one of my favorite artists to write about because her work is so strange (strange in the most delightful way, I might add). After fleeing Europe during World War II, Varo became one of the leaders of the famed Mexican Surrealist movement. Although Mexican influences are not obvious in her art, she captured the elements of fantasticism that are so common in Mexican art. She used her painting to bring this fantastical world to light and to explore the emotional and psychological responses it occasions. Varo was influenced by religious mysticism and magic, and it is clear that she tried to infuse spiritual meaning into her paintings.  The Creation of Birds (Detail) Source: Pinterest The Creation of The Birds demonstrates this quality within her work. T...

Viernes de Dolores Source: Google Arts and Culture When it comes to discussions about Mexican art, the name of painter María Izquierdo is often overlooked. Her art was under-appreciated during her own life and continued to be under-appreciated after her death; it is only recently that art historians have begun to recognize and acknowledge the importance of her work. Izquierdo’s art was uniquely Mexican. She ought to capture the heart and soul of Mexican culture and customs in her paintings, celebrating the lives of Mexico’s ordinary people. She accomplished this through a Modernist, semi-Surrealist style that allowed her to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas without the constraints of Realism. Viernes de Dolores (which translates to Sorrowful Friday ) is one of her most famous paintings and is an excellent example of her commitment to portraying Mexico and Mexican culture. According to my research , the painting depicts an altar created for the commemoration of the seven sorrows...

The Magical World of the Maya Source: Imgur I recently read a novel entitled Gods of Jade and Shadow , which tells the story of a young woman from Mexico who meets a Mayan death god and is forced to embark upon a quest with him. I enjoyed the novel tremendously, but while I was reading it, I was continually reminded of a painting that I encountered while researching Surrealist art in Mexico. The Magical World of the Maya was created by British-Mexican artist Leonora Carrington, a Surrealist artist who made her permanent home in Mexico after fleeing Europe during World War II. The painting—really a small mural—depicts some of the beliefs and stories of the Mayan people, both past and present. The painting is divided into three sections, the underworld, the world of humans, and the cosmic world of the gods. According to a publication about the mural published by the National Autonomous University of Mexico , the painting represents the relationship the Mayans experienced with their divi...

Cosmic Energy Source: WikiArt Spanish-Mexican artist Remedios Varo was one the most creative artists of her age. After fleeing Europe during World War II, Varo became one of the leaders of the famed Mexican Surrealist movement. Although Mexican influences are not obvious in her art, Varo’s work is highly original and inventive; Varo used her painting to explore the boundary between the real and the fantastical. Her work was largely inspired by religion and spiritual experience. Although Varo wasn’t necessarily religious, her paintings were highly influenced by religious mysticism, magic, and the energy that exists between living things in the world. This aim is clearly displayed in Cosmic Energy . The piece depicts a room in which strange, humanoid figures emerge from the wall. One figure plays a violin (at least, I think it’s a violin; it’s some sort of stringed instrument for sure), while the other figure strokes a cat. Beams of light pour through cracks in the wall, making flowe...

Corazón Egoísta Source: A ndrés Blaisten Museum Like many of the Modernists artists of the twentieth century, Olga Costa’s life was shaped by war. Her family fled Germany for Mexico in the 1920s due to the political and economic fallout of World War I. Costa arrived in Mexico at the age of twelve and remained there for the rest of her life. The transition from grey, war-torn Europe to warm, colorful Mexico made a profound impact on Costa and her art. Although she was born in Germany, Costa firmly embraced her adopted country and through herself into Mexican culture. Costa sought to capture the essence of Mexico in her art. She embraced elements of the Spanish Costumbrismo style, which sought to capture everyday life in a realistic manner. As the Andrés Blaisten Museum notes , her work captures “the very image of the Mexican, as it serenely represents the flow of daily life, in which one can see the magic in the common place, the landscape, the flowers, the people, in everythin...

Vampiros Vegetarianos Source: Christies One of the most enjoyable things about Surrealist art is its charm. The work of modernists artists is often highly original and inventive, freed from the constraints of the patronage system that forced successful artists to take commissions from wealthy elites. Spanish-Mexican artist Remedios Varo was one the most creative artists of her age, and was one of the leaders of the famed Mexican Surrealist movement. While Mexican born artists developed a unique style incorporating elements of magical realism at the beginning of the twentieth century, that style was augmented when a stream of European Surrealist artists arrived in Mexico as they fled World War II. Varo was one such artist. After leaving Europe in 1941, she spent the rest of her life living and working in Mexico. Throughout her artistic career, she produced a tremendous volume of strange and unusual paintings, populated by a multitude of fantastical characters and creatures. However,...