Varo, Remedios, 1908-1963

Remedios Varo Uranga 16 December 1908, Anglés, Spain – 8 October 1963, Mexico City, Mexico; entered the prestigious Escuela de Bellas Artes at the age of 15 under the tutelage of Manuel Benedito; met her husband Gerardo Lizárraga at the Escuela de Bellas Artes and married in 1930; relocated to Paris, friends with Esteban Francés and Benjamin Péret, moved to Partis during Spanish Civil War; during WWII escaped to Mexico; 1952 Varo married the Austrian political refugee Walter Gruen; met André Breton and the Surrealist circle, which included Leonora Carrington, Dora Maar, Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, and Max Ernst among others; In Mexico, she met regularly with other European artists such as Gunther Gerzso, Kati Horna, José Horna, and Wolfgang Paalen. 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. However, because Mexican muralism still dominated the country's art scene, surrealism was not generally well received. She worked as an assistant to Marc Chagall with the design of the costumes for the production of the ballet Aleko, which premiered in Mexico City in 1942; friends with Leonora Carrington, and Kati Horna