César Moro (August 31, 1903 – January 10, 1956) is the pseudonym of Alfredo Quíspez-Asín Mas, a Peruvian poet and painter. Most of his poetic works are written in French; he was the only Latin American poet included in the 1920s and '30s surrealist journals of

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...

and the first Latin American artist to join the surrealist group on his own initiative, as opposed to being recruited by Breton.

Life and career

Moro moved to Paris on August 30, 1925, initially to pursue ballet dancing, but shortly after focused his artistic efforts on creating art and poetry. He participated in his first group exhibition at the Cabinet Maldoror in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

alongside Santos Balmori, Jaime Colson, and Isaías de Santiago. He contributed to the

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

artistic and literary movement while in France, becoming fully integrated into the group by the 1930s. He openly criticized the politics of the time by contributing writings to ''La mobilisation contre la guerre n'est pas la paix'' (Mobilization Against the War is Not Peace), an anti-war

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

. Moro embraced the Surrealist's critiques of bourgeois social values and cultural hierarchies. He used Surrealist art and literature to "articulate his own marginality or sense of invisibility as a homosexual man negotiating his place in the international art world." Around 1926, Moro briefly adopted a more

cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

style of painting and shifted away from depicting Peruvian scenes. This likely came as a "response to expectations of

primitivism In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism propo ...

and nationally specific subject matter in Paris." Moro returned to

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

in 1933 and attempted to establish himself as a leader of Surrealism in South America, following in the footsteps of

César Vallejo César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators ...

and

José Carlos Mariátegui José Carlos Mariátegui La Chira (; June 14, 1894 – April 16, 1930) was a Peruvian writer, sociologist, historian, journalist, politician, and Marxist philosopher. A prolific author despite his early death, El Amauta (from Quechua: ham ...

who had both published analyses of Surrealism. He produced art and literature while in Peru, established a museum, and taught art classes for the mentally ill at Hospital Larco Herrera. In 1935, he co-organized the first ever Surrealist Exposition in South America with Emilio Adolfo Westphalen at the Academy Alcedo in Lima. In 1938 Moro was forced to flee

to avoid arrest for publishing and distributing a "clandestine pamphlet in support of the Spanish Republic." Moro relocated in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

as a cultural ambassador to the French government. Here, he connected with various progressive artists of the time, including

Wolfgang Paalen Wolfgang Robert Paalen (July 22, 1905 in Vienna, Austria – September 24, 1959 in Taxco, Mexico) was an Austrian-Mexican painter, sculptor, and Aesthetics, art philosopher. A member of the Abstraction-Création group from 1934 to 1935, he joine ...

Alice Rahon Alice Phillipot (Alice Rahon) (8 June 1904 – September 1987) was a French-born Mexican poet and artist whose work contributed to the beginning of abstract expression in Mexico. She began as a surrealist poet in Europe but began painting in Mex ...

Xavier Villaurrutia Xavier Villaurrutia y González (27 March 1903 – 25 December 1950) was a Mexican poet, playwright, translator, and literary critic whose most famous works are the short theatrical dramas called ''Autos profanos'', compiled in the work ''Poesía ...

, Remedios Varo, Gordon Onslow Ford, and

Leonora Carrington Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 191725 May 2011) was a British-born, naturalised Mexican Surrealist painter and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movem ...

. Moro organized the 1940 ''Exposición internacional del surrealismo'' (International Exposition of Surrealism) at the Galería de Arte Mexicano in Mexico City, with help from

and with guidance from

. The exhibition included work by artists from all over Europe, South America, and the United States. Four of Moro's artworks were included in the international section of the exposition, including ''Pedestrian'' (1926), ''Untitled Painting with the Inscription "Eluard"'' (1926), ''The Art of Reading the Future'' (1935), and ''Cover for the Blind'' (1939). In 1944 Moro broke with the Surrealist movement and established close connections with Mexican artists of

Los Contemporáneos ''Los Contemporáneos'' (which means "The Contemporaries" in English) can refer to a Mexican modernist group, active in the late 1920s and early 1930s, as well as to the literary magazine which served as the group's mouthpiece and artistic vehi ...

. In Mexico, Moro had his poetry published in various journals and periodicals, and had his

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

and surrealist texts circulated throughout the country. In 1948 Moro returned to

where he taught at the Alianza Francesa and the Colegio Militar Leoncio Prado until his death in 1956. Moro's friend André Coyné, a French poet and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, is credited with safeguarding and organizing Moro's works after his death.

Works

Selected works: *1926: ''Pedestrian'' (used as the cover of the Surrealist Exposition of South America catalogue) *1943: ''Le château de grisou'' *1944: ''Lettre d'amour'' (frontispiece by Alice Paalen (Rahon)) *1954: ''Trafalgar Square'' (illustrated by Remedios Varo) *1957: ''La tortuga ecuestre y otros poemas'' *1973: ''Amour à mort'' *1987: ''L'ombre du paradisier et autres textes''

References

External links

Tribute to César Moro in ''Revista Miríada''

English Translations of César Moro by Guillermo Parra at the blog ''Venepoetics''César Moro papers, 1854–1997
Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California {{DEFAULTSORT:Moro, Cesar 1903 births 1956 deaths 20th-century Peruvian poets Peruvian artists Mestizo writers 20th-century Peruvian painters 20th-century Peruvian male artists Peruvian male poets French-language poets 20th-century Peruvian male writers Peruvian male painters