Moro (César) Papers, 1854-1997 (bulk 1925-1956)

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Summary

Title:

César Moro papers

Dates:

1854-1997 (bulk 1925-1956)

Creators:

Moro, César, 1903-1956

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.

Extent:

8 Linear Feet (12 boxes, 1 flat file folder)

Language:

Collection material is in Spanish and French.

Preferred citation:

César Moro papers, ca. 1925-1987 (bulk 1925-1956), The Getty Research Insititute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 980029.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa980029

Background

Scope and content:

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 Moro's published and unpublished manuscripts, personal library, and collected manuscripts and artwork by patients at the Hospital Larco Herrera illustrate his artistic and literary interests.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.

Arrangement note

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

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:

Acquired 1998.

Processing information:

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."

Physical location:

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Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:: Jennifer Osorio
Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-09-12 16:58:51 -0700 .

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Restrictions:: Open for use by qualified researchers.
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