Romanian-born painter and sculptor introduced to the surrealists through Constantin Brancusi and Yves Tanguy. Officially joined the group in 1923. Best known for his Ubuesque series of canvases entitled "Monsieur K" and the gruesomely prophetic canvases of distorted figures with gouged-out eyes. In 1938 lost his own eye during a fight between Domínguez and Esteban Francés, and thenceforth was known by Breton as the clairvoyant and magician of the group. During the occupation he lived in forced seclusion in Bases-Alps. With lack of materials improvised an encaustic from candle wax and developed a graffito technique. His postwar painting focused on mythology, hieroglyphics, and Mexican codices. Exhibit in the Exposition internationale du surréalisme at the Galerie Maeght in Paris in 1947 and the Venice Biennale in 1954 and in 1966. He died in Paris in 1966.
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Under a revolutionary, emancipatory spell: Venice exhibition explores Surrealism’s interest in the occult
The Art Newspaper APR 2022Major show at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection includes works by leading lights of Surrealism, including Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning Waiting for their visas to...Read more -
Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity Co- Curator, Gražina Subelytė Interviewed
Christie's MAR 2022As the exhibition Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity opens in Venice, its curator Gražina Subelytė talks to Christie's about the role of the occult in...Read more
