Remedios Varo was a Spanish-Mexican artist who was best known for her role in the Mexico based Surrealist movement. Varo’s father, a hydraulics engineer, recognized her artistic talents from an early age and often had her copy his technical drawings. He held very liberal and universalist ideas, which Varo adapted later on in her life. In contrast, Varo’s mother was a devout Catholic. Varo attended a Catholic school for most of her childhood, which fostered her rebellious tendencies and led her to be very critical of her religion. Some indelible influences Varo’s childhood and family had on her work were the science and adventure books her education was often supplemented with by her father. Many similar themes would show up in her art later on. Varo married her first husband in 1930 and the couple left Spain for Paris. A year later, her husband got a job in Barcelona and they moved back to Spain, where Varo contributed three works to a show organized by the “Logicophobists.” Later, after Varo met Surrealist poet Benjamin Péret, she left her husband to fight in the Spanish Civil War and later moved back to Paris, where she married Péret. They soon became involved in the Surrealist movement, and Varo published drawings and exhibited with the group there. In late 1941, the couple fled Nazi-occupied France to Mexico. In Mexico City, Varo explored many different types of art before she began to devote her time entirely to painting. This was after she separated from Péret and became romantically involved with Austrian businessman Walter Gruen. She had her first solo exhibition in 1956 in Mexico City  and continued to exhibit after. She died of a heart attack at age 54.

Varo’s art was usually populated with ideas of alchemy or the occult. Although she firmly believed  in the inter-relatedness of all things and people, including the inter-weave of sound, light and image, her paintings usually depict lonesome figures partaking in magical activities, usually sitting at a desk. Motifs such as music, science, and astrology can often be observed throughout her art. Varo commonly painted women in confined spaces, which many believed combated patriarchal ideas of femininity. While she did not deem her own work as feminist, her paintings often featured women as nongendered shapes and forms, contrasting with the often sexual interpretation of the female body by males. Later, her figures took on more androgynous characteristics, challenging the gender binary in that they didn’t fit neatly into either of the sexes and the physical expectations placed upon them. Her later works featured androgynous characters with heart-shaped faces, large almond eyes, and the aquiline noses that were similar to her own features. Through these characters, she depicted herself in dreamlike, surreal settings performing various roles. By bringing these characters to life, she defined her identity.