In this video, we will study five paintings that Varo made after her arrival in Mexico, which distanced her significantly from the Surrealist movement. To help you study them, we recommend answering the following questions as you go.
What did the beehive house represent in Towards the Tower?
In what state were the students in that painting?
How was the student in the front row of the group different?
How does this work relate to Varo's life at school, at the Academy and later within the Surrealist group?
What did the birds represent?
What was the role of the great Master in Embroidering the Terrestrial Mantle?
How did his heroine rebel? What do you think it means that the heroine was "awake", and why is this relevant to Varo's perspective on Surrealism?
How did the heroine manage to create her escape?
How did Varo use the techniques learned within the Surrealist group? Does this use necessarily link her to the group?
How did she present the heroine in the painting The Escape? How do you know that she built her escape route?
What is the role of the lover in this triptych?
What is the symbol of the cave, and why did the heroine want to go there?
Why do you think the painting of Harmony has the subtitle Suggestive Self-Portrait?
What does Varo mean by the thread that binds all things together?
How is the character trying to find this thread in the painting? What is the relevance of the objects you are using to find it?
What is the relationship of this painting with String Theory (the theory of contemporary physics that wants to find the theory of everything that unites relativity and quantum physics)?
Why are objects around the character moving?
What is the role of chance in the picture? What does Varo mean by objective chance?