Still Life Reviving (Naturaleza muerta resucitando)

Still Life Reviving (Naturaleza muerta resucitando) — Remedios Varo. 1963.

Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 109.9 × 80.1 cm (43 1/4 × 31 1/2 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Still Life Reviving , Remedios Varo’s final painting, transforms the quietude of a traditional still life into a supernatural scene. Set in a Gothic tower, a table for eight begins to levitate. Above it, apples, peaches, pomegranates, and strawberries orbit like planets in a solar system. The emergence of new life is a common theme of Varo’s work of the 1960s. Here, in addition to the seedlings sprouting up, the cloth itself seems animated. Everything flows into the vortex, except four mosquitos that look on warily as the fruits collide. This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. Click here to learn more about the collection.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.