Still Life Reviving (Naturaleza muerta resucitando)

1963

Remedios Varo
Spanish, active Mexico 1908-1963

Still Life Reviving, Remedios Varo’s final painting, transforms the quietude of a traditional still life into a supernatural scene. Set in a Gothic tower, a table for eight begins to levitate. Above it, apples, peaches, pomegranates, and strawberries orbit like planets in a solar system.

The emergence of new life is a common theme of Varo’s work of the 1960s. Here, in addition to the seedlings sprouting up, the cloth itself seems animated. Everything flows into the vortex, except four mosquitos that look on warily as the fruits collide.

Status: On View, Gallery 396
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Remedios Varo
Title: Still Life Reviving (Naturaleza muerta resucitando)
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1963
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 109.9 × 80.1 cm (43 1/4 × 31 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Joseph Winterbotham Collection
Reference Number: 2024.87

Pedro Bayona, “Pintura para verse de cerca,” Ovaciones no. 139 (Mexico City), Aug. 23, 1964, 4.
André Breton, La Brèche: action surréaliste (Paris: Le Terrain Vague, Dec. 1964), n.p (ill.).
Horacio Flores-Sanchez, Raul Flores Guerrero, and Carlos Pellicer, La obra de Remedios Varo, exh. cat. (Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1964), n.p., cover (color ill.), cat. 8.
Justino Fernández, “Catálogo de las exposiciones de arte en 1964” in Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas; supplement to number 34 (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1965), 102.
Margarita Nelken, “Remedios Varo,” Excélsior, Diorama de la Cultura, Dec. 18, 1966, 4.
Roger Caillois, Juliana González, and Octavio Paz, Remedios Varo (México D.F.: Ediciones Era, 1966), n.p. (color ill.) and (color ill., detail).
Bambi, “Remedios Varo,” Revista de Revistas, Apr. 28, 1968, 41 (color ill.), 42-43 (ill, detail).
Regina Pardo, “Hablando con Remedios Varo,” Novedades, México en la Cultura (Mexico City), Nov. 21, 1971, 7, 8 (color ill.).
Justino Fernández, “Catálogo de las exposiciones de arte en 1971” in Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas; supplement to number 41 (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1972), 119-120.
Jorge Luis Borges, “Una homonimia casual (A manera de introducción)” in El surrealismo y lo real-maravilloso americano, (México: SepSetentas, 1976), 11, 12 (color ill.), pl. 2.
Carl Gustav Jung, Psychology and the Occult (New Jersey: Princeton University/Bollingen Press, 1978), cover (color ill.).
Edouard Jaguer, Remedios Varo (Paris/Mexico: Filipacchi/Era, 1980), 24, 34 (color ill.), 35, 72.
Janet Kaplan, “Remedios Varo: Voyages and Visions,” Woman’s Art Journal 1, no. 2 (Autumn, 1980-Winter, 1981): 17, as Still Life Being Resuscitated (1963).
Octavio Paz, Remedios Varo 1913-1963, exh. cat. (Mexico City: Museo de Arte Moderno and Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1983), n.p.
Palacio de Velázquez and Dirección General de Bellas Artes, El Exilio Español En México, exh. cat. (Madrid: Ministry of Culture, DL, 1983), 74.
Estela Lauter, “Chapter 4. Remedios Varo: The Creative Woman and the Female Quest” in Women as Mythmakers. Poetry and Visual Art by Twentieth-Century Women (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 85-86, 87 (ill.), 94, 97, as Still Life Being Resurrected.
Lorenzo Rafael Ávila, “Remedios Varo, la clarividencia alquímica,” Uno Más Uno, Sábado (Mexico City), Apr. 14, 1984, 7.
Whitney Chadwick, Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement (London: Thames and Hudson, 1985), 193 (ill.), as Resurrected Still-Life, no. 168.
Lourdes Macluf, “El delicado onirismo de Remedios Varo,” Geografía Universal (Mexico City), Mar. 1985, page number pending (color ill.).
Raquel Tibol, “Remedios Varo con los científicos en Nueva York y Washington,” Proceso (Mexico City), May 19, 1986, page number pending.
Peter Engel, “The Art of Remedios Varo. A Struggle Between the Scientific and the Sacred,” Technology Review (Oct. 1986): 73 (color ill.), 74.
Peter Engel, “Remedios Varo: Science into Art,” in Science in Surrealism: The Art of Remedios Varo, exh. cat. (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1986), 14, 15 (color ill.).
Peter Engel, “Remedios Varo. Brief Life of a Metaphysical Painter,” Harvard Magazine, (May/June 1986): 44, 45 (color ill.).
Janet A. Kaplan, “Remedios Varo. An Art Essay,” Feminist Studies 13, no. 1 (Spring, 1987): 48 (ill.)
Octavio Paz, México en la obra de Octavio Paz, Vol. 3: Los privilegios de la vista (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1987), n.p. (color ill.), 496, no. 46.
Jorge Wilheim, Sheila Leirner, and Raquel Tibol, 19th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, Catálogo Geral, exh. cat. (São Paulo: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1987), 287, no. 15.
Saide Sesín, “Remedios Varo descubrió la vida de cada cosa y la pintó con particular visión,” Uno Más Uno (Mexico City), Feb. 26, 1987, 25.
Roald Z. Sagdeev, Leonid V. Ksanformality, Louise D. Friedman, Clark R. Chapman, The Planetary Report VII, no. 5 (September/October 1987): back cover (color ill.).
Peter Engel, “The Traveller, the Surrealist Whose Works are Seldom Seen,” Connoisseur Magazine (New York, Feb. 1988): 98, 99 (color ill.).
Brian Morton, “Unexpected Journeys. The Art and Life of Remedios Varo,” The Times, Higher Education Supplement (London, UK), October 28, 1988, page number pending.
Mercè Ibarz, “La iconografia de les vivències feminines,” Diari de Barcelona, Dec. 4, 1988, page number pending.
Janet A. Kaplan, Unexpected Journeys: The Art and Life of Remedios Varo (New York: Abbeville Press, 1988), 182, 183 (color ill.), 164.
Manuel Andújar, Beatriz Varo, Octavio Paz, Natacha Seseña, Juliana González, Raquel Tibol, Rafael Santos Torroella, Janet Kaplan, Eugenio F. Granell, Fernando Martín Martín, Remedios Varo, exh. cat. (Madrid: Fundación Banco Exterior, 1988), 30, 72, 167.
Gloria Duran, “The Antipodes of Surrealism: Salvador Dalí and Remedios Varo.” Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures 42, no. 4 (1988): 297–311 (ill.).
Edouard Jaguer and Janet A. Kaplan, Art Vivant, n. 32, Tokyo, 1989, page number pending. (color ill.).
Beatriz Varo, Remedios Varo: en el centro del microcosmos (Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1990), cover (color ill.), 181 (color ill.), pl. 5.
Carlos Blas Galindo, “Remedios Varo, su arte y su vida,” El Financiero (Mexico City), Mar. 6, 1990, 76 (ill.).
Juan R. Cirici, “El descubrimiento de Remedios Varo,” Diario de Cádiz, Suplemento Cultura, (Cádiz, Spain), May 6, 1990, 42 (ill., detail).
Emmanuel Guigon and Beatriz Varo, Remedios Varo, Arte y Literatura, exh. cat. (Spain: MUSEO DE TERUEL, 1991), 19, 62, 148, 149 (color ill), 176, cat. 43.
Alicia Murria, “Remedios Varo, “… El Surrealismo la reclama entera,” Diario 16 (Zaragoza, Spain), Nov. 8, 1991, page number pending.
Jerónimo Beltrán, “Remedios Varo en el Museo Provincial,” Diario de Teruel, Nov. 14, 1991, 4.
José Joaquín Blasco, “Remedios Varo, el surrealismo francés en el exilio mejicano,” Nuevo Diario (Teruel, Spain), Nov. 15, 1991, page number pending.
Alicia Murria, “III Jornadas Surrealistas en la ciudad de Teruel,” Diario 16, Guía Zaragoza (Zaragoza, Spain), Oct. 25, 1991, page number pending (ill.).
James Corcoran and Guy Beck, Prentice Hall Literature: World Masterpieces, Annotated Teacher’s Edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall/Simon & Schuter, 1991), 1241 (color ill.).
Jord Falgàs, “La Casa de Cultura de Girona, expone la obra pictórica de Remedios Varo,” El Punt (Girona, Spain), Jan. 15, 1992, 18.
Rosario Fontova, “Girona descubre a la artista surrealista Remedios Varo,” El Periódico de Aragón (Zaragoza, Spain), Jan. 17, 1992, page number pending (ill.).
Antoni F. Sandoval, “La pintura surrealista de Remedios Varo, nacida en la Selva, se exhibe en Girona,” La Vanguardia (Girona, Spain), Jan. 18, 1992, 36.
Manuel García Guatas, “El surrealismo de Remedios Varo,” Diario 16 (Zaragoza, Spain), Feb. 15, 1992, page number pending.
A.A. “Remedios Varo,” El Heraldo de Aragón, (Zaragoza, Spain), Feb. 20, 1992, page number pending.
Lois Parkinson Zamora, “The Magical Tables of Isabel Allende and Remedios Varo,” Comparative Literature 44, no. 2 (Spring 1992), 125 (ill.), fig. 4, 130-131.
Brian Morris, “El surrealismo extragaláctico de la pintora de Remedios Varo.” Turia, cultural magazine, n. 21 and 22 (Teruel, España) Oct. 1992, page number pending.
Andrés Lisci Garmilla, Suma Endocrinológica (México: Universidad La Salle / Limusa, 1992), 175 (ill.).
Ricardo Ovalle, Remedios Varo, 1908-1963, exh. cat. (México, D.F: Museo de Arte Moderno, 1994), 90, 91 (color ill.), 107, cat. 164.
Lourdes de Andrade, Remedios Varo las metamorfosis (México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1996), 28, 62 (color ill.).
Fundación Televisa, Saber Ver arte y recreación para toda la familia Remedios Varo 10 (Mexico City: Fundación Televisa, 1997), cover (color ill.).
Masayo Nonaka, Luis-Martin Lozano, Walter Gruen, Isetan Bijutsukan, Denki Bunka Kaikan, Kanagawa Kenritsu Kindai Bijutsukan, Remediosu Barōten/Remedios Varo, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Tokyo Shimbun and Isetan Museum of Art, 1999), n.p., cat. 67 (color ill.).
Ricardo Ovalle, Remedios Varo - Catálogo Razonado, 2nd edition (Mexico City: Ediciones Era, 1998), 231 (color ill.), 232-233 (color ill., detail), 313, cat. 361.
Luis-Martín Lozano, The Magic of Remedios Varo, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2000), 111 (color ill.).
National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Magic of Remedios Varo, exh. brochure (Washington D.C: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2000), back cover (color ill.).
Ricardo Ovalle and Walter Gruen, Remedios Varo - Catálogo Razonado, 3rd edition (Mexico City: Ediciones Era, 2002), 291 (color ill.), 292-293 (color ill., detail), 380, cat. 361.
Masayo Nonaka, Hiromi Sone, Raquel Tibol, Olivier Debroise, Women Surrealists in Mexico, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Tokyo Shimbun, 2003), 114 (color ill.), 115, cat. 55.
Magnolia Rivera, Trampantojos. El círculo en la obra de Remedios Varo (México: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2005), n.p. (color ill), fig. P, 179-198.
Estrella de Diego, Remedios Varo (Madrid: Fundación MAPFRE, Instituto de Cultura, 2007), 115 (color ill.).
Ricardo Ovalle, Walter Gruen, Alberto Blanco, Teresa del Conde, Salomon Grimberg, Janet A. Kaplan, Luis-Martín Lozano, Alan J. Friedman, Juliana González, Remedios Varo - Catálogo Razonado, 4th edition (Mexico City: Ediciones Era, 2008), 15, 108, 290 (color ill.), no. 361.
Tere Arcq, Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Peter Engel, Jaime Moreno Villarreal, Janet Kaplan, Fariba Bogzaran, Sandra Lisci, and Walter Gruen, Five Keys to the Secret World of Remedios Varo (Mexico: Artes de México, 2008), 84, 85 (color ill).
Tere Arcq, Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Peter Engel, Jaime Moreno Villarreal, Janet Kaplan, Fariba Bogzaran, Sandra Lisci, and Walter Gruen, Cinco llaves del mundo secreto de Remedios Varo (México: Artes de México, 2008), 80, 84, 85 (color ill).
Tere Arcq, Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Peter Engel, Jaime Moreno Villarreal, Janet Kaplan, Fariba Bogzaran, Sandra Lisci, and Walter Gruen, Cinco llaves del mundo secreto de Remedios Varo (Girona: Atalanta, 2015), 78, 79 (color ill.), 81-83, 98, 210.
Andrea Luquín Calvo, Remedios Varo: el espacio y el exilio (Alicante, Spain: Universidad de Alicante, 2008), 152 (ill.).
Ilene Susan Fort and Tere Arcq, eds. In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, exh. cat. (New York: Prestel Publishing, DelMonico Books, 2012), 80 (color ill.), 81, 254.
Masayo Nonaka, Remedios Varo: The Mexican Years (Mexico City: Editorial RM, 2012), 108, 109 (color ill.).
José Antonio Gil and Magnolia Rivera, Remedios Varo: el hilo invisible (Mexico City, Nuevo León: Siglo XXI Editores, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, 2015), 101, 135, 168, 169 (color ill.), 171, 193, 221.
Gražina Subelytė and Daniel Zamani, Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity (Munich, London, New York: Prestel Publishing, 2022), 77 (color ill., fig. 8), as Still Life Resurrected, 79.
Wendi Norris, Remedios Varo: Encuentros, exh. cat. (San Francisco: Gallery Wendi Norris, 2023), 18-19 (color ill.), 24-25 (color ill.), 60-61 (color ill.), 64, 65 (color ill.), 66, 67 (color ill., detail), 68-69 (color ill.), 82.
Caitlin Haskell and Tere Arcq, eds., Remedios Varo: Science Fictions, exh. cat. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2023), 142 (color ill.), fig. 3.
Hannah McGivern, “Acquisitions round-up: Gauguin’s Le Toit Bleu is among this month’s picks” The Art Newspaper, Sept. 30, 2024, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/09/30/acquisitions-round-up-gauguins-le-toit-bleu-is-among-this-months-picks?utm_source=The+Art+Newspaper+Newsletters&utm_campaign=91f7d1bb95-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_09_27_10_08_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-08e11cb86e-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno, La obra de Remedios Varo, Aug. 3–Aug. 31, 1964, cat. 8.
Madrid, Palacio de Velázquez del Retiro, El Exilio Español en México, Dec. 1983–Feb. 1984, no cat. no.
São Paulo, Brazil, 19th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, São Paulo Biennial Foundation, Oct. 2–Dec. 13, 1987, cat. 15.
Madrid, Fundación Banco Exterior, Remedios Varo, Nov. 1988–Jan. 1989, cat. 80.
Teruel, Spain, Museo Provincial de Teruel, Remedios Varo, Arte y Literatura, Oct. 25–Nov. 24, 1991, cat. 43; Girona, Spain, Casa De Cultura Tomas De Lorenzana, Jan. 15–Feb. 5, 1992; Zaragoza, Spain, Sala de Exposiciones Torreón Fortea, Feb. 7–Mar. 22, 1992.
Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno, Remedios Varo 1908-1963, Feb. 25–June 5, 1994, cat. 170.
Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art, Remedios Varo, June 10–June 25, 1999, cat. 67; Nagoya, Japan, Denki Bunka Kaikan, July 27– Aug, 15, 1999; Kamakura, Japan, The Museum of Modern Art Kamakura, Oct. 21–Nov. 28, 1999.
Washington D.C., National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Magic of Remedios Varo, Feb. 10– May 29, 2000, no cat. no.; Chicago, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, June 16 – Aug. 20, 2000.
Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Women Surrealists in Mexico, July 19–Sept. 7, 2003, cat. 55; Osaka, Japan, Suntory Museum, Sept. 13–Oct. 19, 2003; Nagoya, Japan, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nov. 1–Dec. 21, 2003 Kochi, Japan, Museum of Art, Jan. 4–Feb. 22, 2004.
San Francisco, Gallery Wendi Norris, Remedios Varo: Encuentros, May 11–July 15, 2023, no cat. no.

The artist; upon her death with Walter Gruen (1914–2008), Mexico City; Ignacia Uranga Bergareche (1881–1970s), Valencia, Spain, by 1964 [Mexico City 1964]; by descent to her granddaughter Beatriz Varo Jiménez (1939–2023), Valencia, Spain, in the 1970s [Sao Paolo 1987; Mexico City 1994]; sold Sotheby’s, New York, Nov. 15, 1994, lot 52, to private collection, London; sold through Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco, to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 11, 2024.

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Still Life Reviving (Naturaleza muerta resucitando)

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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