Return of the Astronauts

Raquel Forner, born in Argentina and raised in Spain, learned painting in National Academy of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires before travelling to Paris to complete her education. She became attracted to surrealism at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, as she felt that surrealism’s archetypal objects and figures were the only way to convey the suffering occuring in the place of her childhood. Once World War II broke out, her landscapes became increasingly apocalyptic. However, in the 1950s, Forner found the events of the space race inspiring, and her works began to take on a more hopeful tone. She depicted a complex, imaginary future in which humans would be transformed by their exploration of space. These newly advanced humans, “astro-beings”, would then bring enlightenment to those left on earth. In her paintings, humans yet to evolve through space travel are depicted in grayscale with red threads, like an umbilical cord, connecting them back to the earth.

- C Rasmussen 9/19