We have chosen Remedios Varo as our namesake to pay tribute to a talented and accomplished woman artist who has not made it into the mainstream of art history. We see the Varo Registry as the initial vehicle to bring the field of women's art into the age of electronic information access. This first step will help insure that this new medium will not suffer the same omissions which have plagued women's art history in print.

Remedios Varo (1908-1963) was born in Spain and educated in Spanish convent schools. Her father was a hydraulic engineer, which had a recurring influence in her work. Her artistic training was strict and academic, from which she fled into Barcelona's bohemian artistic circle. She was married to the poet Benjamin Peret, and her widower, publisher Walter Gruen. She moved to Paris where she became involved within the Surrealist movement. Forced into exile by the Nazis, she settled in Mexico City where her numerous retrospectives have drawn record crowds.

Varo used imagery in her work related to her father's profession. Fantastic and complex pieces of machinery recur throughout her work relating to her studies of alchemy theories and processes. Her figures, autobiographical in many respects, are fantastic, often incorporating science, dreams, witchcraft, and humor into psychological and spiritual journeys.

To find out more about Remedios Varo, pick up her biography by Janet Kaplan, Unexpected Journeys: The Art and Life of Remedios Varo, Abbeville Press, 1-800-ART-BOOK, #797, $24.95.