Remedios Varo, Study for "El flautista", c. 1955, detail, pencil on paper, 8 2/3 x 9 inches (22.1 x 22.9 cm)
A Visionary Line: Remedios Varo Drawings
GALLERY WENDI NORRIS OFFSITE
in association with Adler Beatty
Opening Reception | Wednesday, May 8, 6–8 pm
34 E 69th Street, New York, NY
May 8–June 1, 2024
Gallery Wendi Norris is honored to present A Visionary Line: Remedios Varo Drawings, the first exhibition dedicated to the drawings of the indelible Remedios Varo (b. 1908, Anglès, Spain; d. 1963, Mexico City, Mexico). Marking her first New York City solo show in nearly four decades, the exhibition unveils a rare collection of drawings owned by a couple who were dear friends of Varo.
The nine works on paper in A Visionary Line reflect Varo’s Renaissance-inspired techniques and showcase her technical precision. As indexes of the artist’s fantastical ideas and blueprints for her masterful paintings, Varo’s sketches are also works of art in their own right. Included are the developmental studies for such major paintings as El flautista in the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City and Tailleur pour dames in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
A Visionary Line: Remedios Varo Drawings further expands the growing international recognition of Varo’s exquisite oeuvre, denoted by major museum acquisitions; her noteworthy inclusion in the 59th Venice Biennale The Milk of Dreams (2022); and the groundbreaking exhibition Remedios Varo: Science Fictions (2023) at the Art Institute of Chicago, with an accompanying catalogue co-published with Yale University Press. Moreover, Varo’s work is featured in the touring exhibition IMAGINE! 100 Years of International Surrealism (2024–2026), which recently opened at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Brussels, Belgium). The exhibition travels to the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany), the Fundación MAPFRE (Madrid, Spain), and concludes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).
This is the third Remedios Varo exhibition for Gallery Wendi Norris, the only gallery to present solo shows of Varo’s artwork since her untimely death in 1963. A Visionary Line continues the gallery’s offsite exhibition model, celebrating its third iteration in New York City, following Leonora Carrington: Story of the Last Egg (2019) and Alice Rahon and Ranu Mukherjee: Time Warriors (2023).