Sympathy (Cat’s Rage)

Remedios Varo had been involved in the Catalan and Parisian surrealist movements of the 1930s, but during her years in Mexico, she distanced herself from the movement and began to employ much more controlled techniques to create her works.

Although she is particularly well known for her dreamlike paintings and drawings, she was a multifaceted artist who studied the laws of perspective in depth and developed an interest in botany and zoology. "Sympathy (Cat’s Rage)" is an iconic example of her complex visual world and perfectly illustrates her “animistic faith in the power of objects and in the interconnection between plants, animals, human beings, and the universe of machines,” according to historian Whitney Chadwick.

In this painting, the exchange of glances between the human figure and the cat at the center of the composition is combined with a series of inanimate elements that expand into a constellation full of possible meanings and associations.