Remedios Varo's A Visit To A Plastic Surgeon

Many forms of artwork are modes of defining, defying, and expressing social ideas. Painter Remedios Varo used her artistic creations to symbolize the unconscious mind, unrestricted by social standards. Varo would employ a para-surrealist style to confront the question of defining and interpreting collective concepts of feminine beauty. Beauty can be defined as qualities in an individual or object that causes satisfaction to the senses, the mind, or satisfies the physical being. Women are judged collectively by this abstract definition. In fact, many dictionaries use the female gender to explain the concept of beauty. The artist Remedios Varo uses this social and cultural characterization to show the impossibilities of obtaining their idea of

This can be seen in the woman that stands in the doorframe of the surgeon’s office. She conceals her facial features with a veil, yet the veil is transparent. The woman is hiding herself externally, because internally she is unfilled and feels an unworthiness. She is trying to conform physically to social concepts of beauty. The idea of universal beauty is an intangible idea because it every transforming. Consequently, this woman can never find personal fulfillment and must continue to transform herself surgically. Social ideas of beauty depend on the cultural aspects of the collective. Cultures differ and thus the physical qualities deemed essential are indefinable. The explanation of beauty is in “the eye of the beholder” and collective ideas can be inconsistent. Physical beauty cannot be defined by a single entity. Therefore, universal beauty cannot be achieved by any human being. The goal of women, such as the one in Varo’s painting, will continue to manipulate their bodies for an image that is a subjective