Traces of Influence: Giorgio de Chirico, Remedios Varo, and “lo Real Maravilloso”

The paintings of Remedios Varo, an artist associated first with European surrealism and later with Latin American magic realism, were acutely shaped by her experiences as an engineer’s daughter and an adroit copyist. One voice that echoes strongly throughout Varo’s mature oeuvre is that of Giorgio de Chirico, whose works Varo forged in the late 1930s. When Varo relocated to Mexico in 1941, she carried de Chirico’s motifs and techniques across the Atlantic. A discussion of Varo and de Chirico’s corresponding upbringings, coupled with an exploration of Varo’s assimilation and transformation of de Chirico’s artistic strategies, help to place both artists in the context of Latin American magic realism.