Stefan van Raay, curator of the 2010 exhibition Surreal Friends at Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, UK, shares insights into Horna, Carrington and Varo's relationship.
In words of Stefan van Raay, "despite obvious visual and thematic differences between Horna’s work and that of her friends, her inclusion in Surreal Friends positions her as an important contributor to the trio. Horna’s photographs contextualise and communicate the world beyond Carrington and Varo’s visualisation. We are given an insight into the experiences and emotions which shaped their paintings. Without this, their paintings would remain difficult to decode - so tightly woven are their mysteries and symbolic motifs. ‘Horna provides us with the visual proof of the subject.’ Therefore where Carrington and Varo enigmatically painted their reactions to the conflict in Europe, Horna supported this trauma with photographs of the frontline of the Spanish Civil War. When motherhood came into their lives, Carrington and Varo wove the home into their artworks, but Horna reinforces this with documentation of their families, whether her own daughter’s first day at school, or a nativity play with Carrington dressed up as one of the wise men. Horna’s documentation shows us the life behind the fantasies and is a key to understanding the cryptic works of her Surreal Friends."
