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Vanda Varvara
Vanda Varvara in 1965
Born
Vanda Jitka Varvara

(1908-04-29)April 29, 1908
Zhirnovsk, Zhirnovsk Province, Russian Empire (now Volgograd)
DiedApril 14, 1978(1978-04-14) (aged 69)
Seattle, Washington, United States
NationalityRussian Empire
French
American
Known forPainting
Notable workVasilisa at the Hut of Baba Yaga Neo-Primitive Style (1927), Embarking on a Treacherous Journey (1932), Queen of The Forest Children (1934), Automatic Drawing (1931), Automatic Drawing No.2 (1933), Blood Thirsty Veins (1941), Mother's Blessing (1942), Possessing Spirit (1960), Sinking to the Bottom (1943), Wild Grains and Seeds (1963)
MovementNeo-Primitivism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism
Patron(s)Clement Greenberg

Vanda Varvara, born Vanda Jitka Varvara, known as Vanda Varvara (Russian: Ванда Варвара; April 29, 1908 – March 14, 1978) was a Russian–French–American painter who is considered to be the most influential female artist in the 20th century. She has been known for her Neo-Primitive, Surrealist, Abstract Expressionist and Lyrical Expressionist works and helped with the development of each movement.

She is often compared with the other influential female artists that reigned in the 20th century such as Meret Oppenheim, Lee Krasner, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Early life

Vanda Varvara (Vanda Jitka Varvara) was born in Zhirnovsk, Zhirnovsk Province, Russian Empire[1] (now Volgograd). Her mother Doubravka Varvara (née Jitka) was born in the Czech Republic, who settled in Russia in 1905 with her husband Nestor Varvara, a major Russian architect who was commissioned to help design important building and housing projects.Her father soon married her mother after the death of his first wife, Anya Sveta in 1907. The creation of Soviet Russia and the start of the Russian Civil War's October Revolution which started in 1917 convinced the Varvaras to go into exile at some later point. Her father is distantly related to the former Tsar of Russia Peter the Great, or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov.

Growing up, she took an interest in Russian folk stories, especially the tales collected by Alexander Afanasyev who modelled his work after the Brothers Grimm's work, ‘Grimm's Fairy Tales’. She was said to enjoy his works immensely and would read his stories to her family and friends. She adored the Russian fairy tale ‘Vasilisa the Beautiful’ in Afanasyev's ‘Narodnye russkie skazki’ so much, that people would call her by the name of Vasilisa, the main protagonist in the tale. Mainly inspired by the works of Ivan Bilibin, who illustrated Slavic folklore and by the Neo-Primitivism artist Natalia Goncharova, Varvara created Neo-Primitive art at the age of 18 as an amateur referencing Bilibin's works in the new Neo-Primitivism style, a Russian art movement that began with elements of Cézanne, Futurism, Cubism and popular Russian folk principles and ornamentation. The illustration of Vasilisa the Beautiful influenced her to create a Neo-Primitive style painting of the illustration as a tribute to Bilibin, with the essence of Natalia Goncharova and Russian traditional print art, Lubok.

Dissatisfied with the teaching because of the influx of political ideologies at Vkhutemas, a Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow by the Soviet government, Varvara dropped out after one year and persuaded her parents to emigrate to a European country with notable art schools, with France being the most agreeable as they were considered the centre of the art world in the early 20th century. Her parents deliberated that their daughter was artistically gifted and to move abroad would be ideal. As her father was an established architect in his native Russia, he was unsure of transferring his expertise to another country, whilst also considering that he was only lingual in Russian. He realised that a future in France was the only way forward, while also seeking exile from the incoming force of the Soviet Union. Her mother had encouraged her daughter to pick up a professional career in art from an early age, and to be able to admit her to a renowned art school abroad was an aim she desperately wanted to complete.

File:Alla Nariomov.jpg
Varvara in 1926

Career beginnings

After soon finding her niche in the Neo-Primitivism art movement that originated in Russia and because of the influx of the Soviet Union ideology that persisted in the art and technical school Vkhutemas which Varvara attended, she decided that forging a career in another European country would help her "escape the strict rules and regulations imposed on her, which had stifled her restless creative energy" .

In 1930, the Varvaras planned their move to France, in the city of Paris as it became the emerging art capital of Europe. Her experiences in the first months in Paris, Varvara recalled, was a very melodramatic transformation from "wintry and political Russia to the inventive and welcoming France". Her family resided in the Montparnasse area of Paris, which had a growing spool of intellectual and artistic life since the beginning of the 20th century. She had found it difficult, however, to integrate as she had very little knowledge of the French language. Her father enrolled her in French classes, which he and the rest of the Varvaras also participated. At this time, Varvara was 22 years old and she thought herself to be a "young and vivacious woman who has not seen it all with a lot to experience".

While living in Montparnasse in the first year, Varvara soon developed a friendship with a Russian woman Gala Dali, or Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, who had lived in Paris for several years and had connections with artists in the Surrealist movement. As Gala was 14 years her senior, Varvara looked upon Gala as a mother figure, and who wrote in her diary as "a woman who has, and always will keep in touch with her Russian half". During their long-lasting friendship, they had mostly conversed in their native Russian language. Gala introduced Varvara to Surrealists, in particular, a French writer called René Crevel. During a visit to René Crevel's home, the Surrealist writer, a discussion about Surrealism soon eloped into a discussion about Crevel's opinions about Automatic drawing. Varvara soon became fascinated with Surrealism, due to its revolutionary thinking and its anti-war statement. After reading ‘The Automatic Message’, an important thesis on the background of Automatism by André Breton and how it influenced Surrealism, she experimented with Automatic drawing with Gala and her muse, Salvador Dalí. Varvara has described that "Automatic drawing is more spiritual. It is the expression of the psyche and very little of rational control. I can access the unlimited world of the subconscious and unconscious by scribbling and doodling, which are then built on for a composition". Her Automatic drawing works such as Automatic Drawing in 1931 and Automatic Drawing No.2 in 1933 after Salvador convinced Breton that she was "a naturally gifted artist, with Surrealism being in favour of this new talent coming from Russia, a country with a Surrealist tendency in art".

Although the Surrealist French poet Paul Éluard was married to Gala, an affair blossomed between Gala and Salvador Dalí after a visit along with Varvara. This caused a friction between Gala and Eluard, which had even led to Eluard putting blame upon Varvara as she had initially persuaded them to make acquaintance with Dali in order to get to know the ideology of Surrealism better. There was a rise in members of the Surrealism movement joining the French Communist Party, with Paul Éluard, Salvador Dalí, René Crevel, Louis Aragon and André Breton, the latter two being the founders of Surrealism. Although some Surrealists felt strongly against the flowing tide of communism within the movement, the Surrealist communists did not cause much hostility with the other non-communist Surrealists. Dali had been quoted to have said that Crevel was the "only serious communist among surrealists". Crevel, who was already reputed for his homosexuality, soon found a distance created between him and his fellow Surrealists.

The long relationship between Dali and Gala was continuous for the next four years, and they finally married in 1934 with a civil ceremony. Varvara maintained a relationship with her friend through letters as well her visits to Gala's new residence with Dali in a small fisherman's cabin in the bay of Port Lligat, Spain. Whilst still living in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, an area popular for its many artists, she had a small part-time modelling stint with Man Ray, a Russian immigrant in France who occupied himself with Surrealism and Dadaism. A series of photographs with Surrealistic elements and nudity of a collaboration between the Surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim and Varvara gained prominence in 1934. During this time, Oppenheim had modelled for a number of nude photographs for Ray while she was interacting with a printing press. There were other several photographic images that did not become as famous, however. Her modelling collaboration with Oppenheim became a friendship in which Varvara found common ground as they were both Surrealists and young female immigrants.

File:Alla Nariomov 2.jpg
Varvara in 1930
Man Ray's Photoshoot of Varvara (1934)
Man Ray's Photoshoot of Varvara as Salome (1934)

Personal life

In the following year of 1935, she became acquainted with the French playwright Antonin Artaud after seeing his stage adaptation of Percy Bysshe Shelley's ‘The Cenci’, a drama about the Italian Cenci family. It was a commercial failure after it was only shown fourteen times since its graphic and violent surrealism features did not become popular among the theatre-going crowd.

Her friend Oppenheim had also attended. She wrote a letter to Artaud about her appreciation for his play which was then followed by another letter. This sparked a friendship and Varvara desperately tried to convince him to meet her at a café in Montparnasse. Varvara had made sure that her family was unaware of the relationship and meeting. The meeting went as planned and Varvara recalled that it was "a meeting with a lot of talk about surrealism and fellow surrealists in between. He was very amicable and I thoroughly enjoyed his company". Her father soon discovered the letters between Varvara and Artaud which resulted in Varvara running away to Artaud's home in Paris. She stayed for several weeks then decided to make a pact with her father about her relationship which she felt was a "terrifying prospect, but to do this would make me feel less guilty". Her father reasoned with her that Artaud was not Jewish so their relationship should immediately be put to an end. Artaud wrote to Varvara that he would need to travel to Mexico as his career in theatre was failing and that he would pay for Varvara's travelling expenses to come with him in 1936. Varvara was planning her escape with Artaud, however her father caught her packing her belongings and barred Varvara from leaving the house. She wrote in her diary that she felt "heartbroken that I would never be able to see him again. The days are now bleak, and my relationship with my father is sinking to the bottom ever further". Although Varvara was refrained from travelling to Mexico, a country with a growing Surrealism influence, she maintained communication with Artaud through her friend Meret who was able to receive his letters to her house. Artaud had influenced Varvara to take opiates in one of his letters as he described that it can "induce effects of a Surrealistic nature". Artaud had experimented with heroin whilst visiting Mexico studying the Tarahumaran people. During this period, Artaud had proposed to Varvara, and that their marriage should take place after his arrival in the following year.

Varvara was now 27 years old in 1936 and her father was eager for her to marry. He had imposed a warning about Artaud and made attempts of breaking off the relationship by convincing her. Varvara soon received a letter by Artaud stating that he felt "a diminishing sense of reality" due to his withdrawal of heroin and severed the relationship, which he described it as "our predicament". This had made Varvara feel "overwhelmingly depressed" and she soon burnt the letters in her fireplace. The following year before World War II was a period of intense loneliness after her separation with Artaud. He arrived in France in 1937 and tried to visit Varvara and discuss about their relationship and whether it could continue. A meeting was to take place in her friend Oppenheim's home. She wrote in her diary that it was "very hard to control my emotions whilst it took place. However, we both resolved that we should remain as good friends".

In October 1936, she formed a relationship with Basile Laurent, or Vassily Lavrentiy, a friend of Artaud and a Surrealist artist. As a Russian and Jewish immigrant himself, they were acquainted through Artaud who realised that Varvara was engaged to Laurent. He confronted Varvara after Laurent confessed that he was in love with Varvara. She wrote that "he could not fathom how he was being replaced by his friend, and from then on, our relationship dwindled". However, Artaud started to become more welcoming of the engagement and was even invited to the wedding ceremony in December. They married in a Jewish wedding ceremony and Varvara moved out to live at the Laurents home in Montmarte, Paris. Varvara soon became the models for some of Laurents Surrealist works.

World War II

Adolf Hitler became a rising power in Germany, and introduced Anti-Semitic laws which included campaigns against the growing influence of modern art in 1937. Surrealist art was affected, and Surrealist works were being confiscated by a committee directed by Joseph Goebbels. French Jews were now being collected and sent to German concentration camps; however the Varvaras had not been aware of this during the Nazi regime's early years. By 1940, the Varvaras recognised that anti-Semitic laws were taking place in Paris with many Jews being removed from public and academic positions. In this difficult period, her father insisted that they immigrate to New York as a refuge. This was met by the other Varvaras, except Vanda, with some disdain as it would be like "moving to Paris again without any knowledge of the language, the peoples and the culture" notes Vanda in her diary. Vanda resisted this new hesitation about moving to America by convincing her family that there is "an extraordinary chance that we Jews will find ourselves being stripped of our dignity, our pride and our soul in the forthcoming minutes, hours or days". Her father started to make necessary plans and gained enough financial means from his income as an architect to move the Varvaras to New York. The Laurents had also made arrangements to immigrate to America with the Varvaras. Varvara was excited about her new life in America and the reunion with her best friend Gala Dali.

War Years and Beyond

They resided in Long Island in New York, and her father made sure that his daughter spoke in English. Varvara noted that "America has welcomed me into its arms to protect me from the Nazi's murderous regime". She resided with her husband Laurent in a small apartment close to the Varvaras and Dalis. At this time, there were numerous artists living in Paris who had found exile in America, such as Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, André Masson, André Breton and Piet Mondrian. Some artists remained in France such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse who had ultimately survived the war. The now war torn and decapitated city of Paris after the war saw the demise of its status as the centre of European culture and art. New York became the replacement as the new capital of art due to the influx of European art movements being continued there such as Surrealism, Dada, Cubism and more. However, the art movement to take centre attention was Abstract Expressionism which was a blend of German Expressionism, Futurism, Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism. The movement is based on the idea of emotional intensity, self-denial and the elimination of figures as a reaction to the crippling wars. Jackson Pollock's gestural technique of pouring and dripping paint onto canvas laid on the ground and completely absent of brushes, stretcher bars and easels laid a new adventurous and radical approach to Abstract Expressionism and modern art in general. The new technique perfected by Pollock became popular among Abstract Expressionists such as Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. Varvara, along with other fellow Surrealists who now lived in New York, started to identify with Abstract Expressionism and painted Blood Thirsty Veins (1941) during this period, and cited Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner as her biggest influences.

Varvara said that:


Her works were exhibited with other Abstract Expressionists in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Laurent also experimented with Abstract Expressionism and his works were shown along with Varvara's in MoMA.

Varvara bore two children with Laurent in 1940, a son Henry and a daughter Eleanor. Varvara has said that she felt "little bit at home when I do Abstract Expressionism. It is very much derived from Surrealism." By the end of 1940 and the beginning of the post World War II era, Abstract Expressionism became the main art movement in the United States, with concentrated groups in New York City and San Francisco in California. Important critic Clement Greenberg became an established patron of the avant-garde, who advocated for Varvara as well as Jackson Pollock, his wife Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann and many others. Varvara instilled a sense of artistic freedom and expression in her children, and her son Henry had shown a flair for art at an early age influenced by Abstract Expressionism, and attended the New York Academy of Art in 1959. In 1962, her father died due to the blockage of a coronary artery in his New York residence.

It was during this time which saw Varvara become as a recognised female artist due to the growing Feminist movement that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. Abstract Expressionism still grew even after the war, which led to neo-Abstract Expressionist movements such as Lyrical Abstraction and Neo-Expressionism. Varvara soon painted Possessing Spirit (1960), a style more relevant to the American form of Lyrical Abstraction, a movement which revived the abstract painterly styles into a new era beginning in the 1960s. It had also became popular in Europe with Paris taking a more centre role in this derivative art movement. The main elements of Lyrical Abstraction consist of a loose, more freely expressed gestural style rather than the geometric, hard-edged and minimalist styles of Minimalism, Formalism, Pop Art and Geometric Abstraction. Her piece Wild Grains and Seed (1963) was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York in 1971.

File:Alla Nariomov 4.jpg
Varvara in 1959

Death

Her husband Laurent died in 1976 due to bone cancer. She has been quoted to have said that "I owe him my deepest gratitude for being my companion since I first immigrated to New York". Following his death, Varvara produced fewer artworks and began making a temporary stay arrangement to her hometown in Russia. Her stay lasted for a year before moving back to New York. She died in March 14, 1978 in her home in New York in a heart attack induced coma. She is buried along with her parents, siblings and husband in Moscow.

References

  1. ^ "Rothko Chapel official biography, retrieved April 2011". Rothkochapel.org. Retrieved 2011-07-13.

Sources

  • Chave, Anne. Vanda Varvara, 1908–1978: A Retrospective. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
  • Breslin, J.E.B. Vanda Varvara – A Biography, Chicago, London, University of Chicago Press, 1993.
  • Varvara, Vanda (1999). "The Individual and the Social." In Harrison, Charles & Paul Wood (Eds.), Art in Theory 1900–1990 An Anthology of Changing Ideas (563–565). Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.
  • Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4. pp. 294–297

Bibliography

  • Dore Ashton, About Varvara, Oxford University Press, 1983.
  • John Gage, Barbara Novak & Brian O'Doherty, Eric Michaud, Jeffrey Weiss, Varvara, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1999.
  • Vanda Varvara 1908–1978. Tate Gallery Publishing, 1987.
  • David Anfam, Vanda Varvara—The Works on Canvas: A Catalogue Raisonne, Yale University Press, 1998.
  • Vanda Varvara, The Artist's reality, with Introduction by Christopher Varvara, Yale University Press, 2004.
  • Mordechai Omer and Christopher Varvara (eds.), Vanda Varvara. Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2007.
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{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = Varvara, Vanda
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = 
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = French painter 
| DATE OF BIRTH     = April 29, 1908
| PLACE OF BIRTH    = [[Zhirnovsk]], [[Stalingrand|Zhirnovsk Province]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Volgograd]])
| DATE OF DEATH     = March 14, 1978
| PLACE OF DEATH    = [[Seattle, Washington]], United States
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varvara, Vanda}}
[[Category:1908 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:Russian Jews]]
[[Category:French Jews]]
[[Category:American Jews]]
[[Category:Russian painters]]
[[Category:French painters]]
[[Category:American painters]]
[[Category:Neo-primitivism]]
[[Category:Surrealist artists]]
[[Category:Abstract expressionist artists]]
[[Category:Jewish painters]]
[[Category:Jewish artists]]
[[Category:Jewish American artists]]
[[Category:Imperial Russian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:American people of Jewish descent]]
[[Category:People from Stalingrad]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:People from Seattle, Washington]]
[[Category:Abstract painters]]
[[Category:Archives of American Art related]]
[[Category:American contemporary artists]]
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