Jean Varda, Never on Sunday, 1960, mixed media, 54 x 38 in

Jean Varda

Jean Varda’s (1893-1971) life seems like something straight out of a movie. Between his famous friends and his propensity to immerse himself in the avant-garde, his biography reads like a history book. One of his own students, Deborah Remington, even said that knowing him was, “like a history book come to life.” Throughout his long life, he was icon wherever he went. Drawing others to him like a magnet, he continues to be remembered for his charisma and his dedication to the purity of art.

A true Renaissance Man, Varda thrived within the Bohemian circles in Europe throughout the first half of the twentieth century. His activities with both the Cubists in Paris and the Bloomsbury Group and Surrealists in England resulted in a cultivated social network. Upon departing Europe at the outbreak of WWII, he found himself enmeshed in a thriving art scene on the West Coast. In establishing new social milieus in Monterey, San Francisco, and Sausalito, he formed attachments to the leading writers and artists of the Beat Movement. He remains best remembered perhaps for his raucous parties, particularly upon his house boat - the S.S. Vallejo - in Sausalito. In bringing together people from every walk, he reaffirmed his consistent life ideology to live with an open heart and mind.

Varda’s early experiments in collage and assemblage sculpture stand out even today. His tenable impact on dozens of influential students from his years teaching at the California School of Fine Arts remains as a poignant reminder of his exuberant style of teaching.

Jean Varda Artwork