The artwork entitled “Harmony” is a symbolic painting created by the artist Remedios Varo in 1956. As a piece of the Surrealism art movement, it conveys a dream-like and fantastical quality that challenges the viewer’s grasp of reality through its intricate composition and symbolic elements.
“Harmony” by Remedios Varo is a vibrant tableau suffused with a quiet yet intense energy that permeates the scene. It depicts a room that seems to defy conventional laws of space and structure, with a checkered floor pattern drawing the eye toward the central figure—a person seated at a desk engaged in some meticulous activity, possibly related to music or alchemy, given the various delicate instruments and texts surrounding them. The walls bear organic, branching cracks, and the subdued color palette creates an atmosphere of contemplation and introspection.
Around the room, there are other elements that allude to alchemical processes or scientific experiments, such as beakers, tubing, and scantly discernible diagrams. The setting is both a study and a laboratory, where the boundaries between scholarly pursuit and mystical experience seem to blur. There is a nautical wheel-like structure affixed to the wall, and it seems to be part of an abstract mechanism involving other unknown instruments, a bird, and precisely positioned geometric shapes, suggesting a complex orchestration of elements at play.
Shadows and light are used to create a sense of depth, adding to the ethereal feel of the scene. The meticulous attention to detail in the rendering of objects, the textures of the materials, as well as the solemn demeanor of the figure, all contribute to the overall enigma of the artwork. Varo has masterfully created a world with its own internal logic, where each object and figure seems to be imbued with a mystifying significance, inviting onlookers to ponder the nature of harmony within a universe where science and mysticism intertwine.
