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Title: César Moro papers
Date (inclusive): 1854-1997 (bulk
1925-1956)
Number: 980029
Creator/Collector:
Moro, César,
1903-1956
Physical Description:
8 Linear Feet
(12 boxes, 1 flat file folder)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The papers of Peruvian Surrealist poet
and artist César Moro include notebooks, drafts of poems, manuscripts of articles, personal
diaries, exhibition catalogs, photographs, and correspondence with a number of other artists
of the era, including André Coyné, Benjamin Péret, Paul Éluard, Leonora Carrington, Wolfgang
Paalen, and Rufino Tamayo. Also included are two collages by Moro, a watercolor by Alice
Rahon [Paalen], an etching by Wolfgang Paalen, and several works by patients with mental
illness at the Hospital Larco Herrera, where Moro taught art. The collection also includes
books and journals from Moro's personal library.
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Language: Collection material is in Spanish
and French.
César Moro was born Alfredo Quíspez Asín in 1903 in Lima, Peru. He changed his name in 1923
to that of a character in a story by Spanish writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Two years later
he joined his older brother in Paris, where he intended to become a ballet dancer, but
instead began writing poetry in French and painting, both activities influenced by the
Surrealist movement. During his time in Paris he participated in exhibitions and published
poems in Surrealist publications. He also met and began long friendships with other artists,
including Benjamin Péret, Paul Éluard, and André Breton.
Moro returned to Lima in 1933, where he continued to write and paint, and established a
museum and taught art classes for patients diagnosed with mental illness at the Hospital
Larco Herrera. He also began a long friendship and collaboration with fello Peruvian Emilio
Westphalen soon after his return to Peru. In 1935 Moro organized the first Surrealist
Exposition in South America but had to leave Peru in 1938 after he and Westphalen published
and distributed a clandestine pamphlet in support of the Spanish Republic. He claimed
political asylum in Mexico, where he lived for the next ten years.
During his time in Mexico Moro wrote for various publications and co-organized the 1940
Exposición Internacional del Surrealismo along with André Breton and Wolfgang Paalen, which
gathered works by Pablo Picasso, Agustín Lazo, and Salvador Dalí, among others. Moro also
began new friendships with artists including Xavier Villaurrutia, Remedios Varo, and Leonora
Carrington. In 1942 Moro published
Lettre d'amour, a long poem in French. In
1943 he published his first book of poems,
Le Château de Grisou.
In 1944 Moro broke with the Surrealist movement, and Breton in particular, but he continued
to maintain friendships with other Surrealists living in the Americas. He also became close
to Mexican artists in the Contemporaneo group, particularly Rufino Tamayo and Xavier
Villaurrutia. Moro returned to Lima in 1948, where he dedicated himself to teaching at the
Alianza Francesa and the Colegio Militar Leoncio Prado. He died in 1956.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
.
César Moro papers, ca. 1925-1987 (bulk 1925-1956), The Getty Research Insititute, Los
Angeles, Accession no. 980029.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa980029
Acquired 1998.
The archive was first processed and described in 1998. Jennifer Osorio reprocessed it and
wrote a new finding aid in 2006 under the supervision of Jocelyn Gibbs. Andra Darlington
revised the finding aid in 2009.
The finding aid was reviewed by members of the Anti-Racist Description Working Group in
2021 and the following revisions were made: references to "mental patients" were changed to
"patients with mental illness" and "patients diagnosed with mental illness."
Scope and Content of Collection
The César Moro papers consist primarily of personal documents, manuscripts, and
correspondence from 1925 to Moro's death in 1956. The dates of the collection encompass
Moro's years in Paris from 1925 to 1933, his work in Lima in the 1930s, his ten years of
political asylum in Mexico from 1938 to 1948, and his final eight years back in Lima.
Moro's papers provide insight into the Surrealist and avant-garde movements in Europe and
Latin America over three decades. His correspondence with other Surrealist artists offers a
glimpse into Moro's interpersonal relationships before, during and after World War II; of
particular interest is his rocky relationship and eventual break with André Breton and
Surrealism. Moro's published and unpublished manuscripts, personal library, and collected
manuscripts and artwork by patients at the Hospital Larco Herrera illustrate his artistic
and literary interests.
The correspondence, manuscripts, and printed matter are supplemented by several pieces of
artwork, including two collages by Moro that were exhibited in Europe, and by personal
photographs of Moro, his friends and family.
Papers are organized in six series:
Series I. Official
papers, 1943-1948;
Series II. Manuscripts and
diaries, 1925-1959;
Series III. Artwork, undated;
Series IV. Correspondence, 1930-1955;
Series V. Photographs, 1925-1960;
Series VI. Printed matter, 1926-1987
Westphalen, Emilio Adolfo,
1911-2001
Villaurrutia, Xavier, 1903-1950
Moro, César, 1903-1956
Surrealism
Surrealism (Literature)
Poetry
Artists -- Latin American
Art-Latin America-20th Century
Art and mental illness
Art, Modern -- 20th century
Art, Latin America -- 20th century
Poets -- Political and social views
Surrealism -- Peru
Surrealism -- Mexico
Surrealism -- Latin America.
Surrealism -- France -- Exhibitions
Lettres D'Amour Los anteojos de azufre Trafalgar Square
Manuscripts for publication
Official documents
Collages
Drawings (visual works)
Exhibition catalogs
Artists' books
Watercolors
Correspondence, personal
Diaries
Printed ephemera
Photographic prints
Photographs, Original
Etchings
Carrington, Leonora,
1917-2011
Paalen, Wolfgang,
1907-1959
Moro, César,
1903-1956
Breton, André,
1896-1966
Éluard, Paul,
1895-1952
Coyné, André,
1927-
Rahon, Alice,
1916-1987
Villaurrutia, Xavier,
1903-1950
Tamayo, Rufino,
1899-1991
Westphalen, Emilio Adolfo,
1911-2001
Péret, Benjamin,
1899-1959