Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos

1923–2006 / Lisbon, Portugal
Classical Surrealism PaintingCollageSoprografiaCadavres-exquis

About

Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos was a pivotal figure in Portuguese surrealism, renowned as both a poet and visual artist. Born in Lisbon in 1923 to a well-off family, he displayed an early rebellious spirit, studying at the Escola Industrial António Arroio (1936-1943) and music under Fernando Lopes-Graça. Initially involved with neo-realist circles at Café Herminius, he rejected their orthodoxy, parodying them under the pseudonym Nicolau Cansado, and co-founded Portuguese Surrealism in 1947 with the Grupo Surrealista de Lisboa alongside figures like Alexandre O’Neill and José-Augusto França. That year, he traveled to Paris, attending the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and meeting André Breton, which deepened his surrealist commitment. He later formed a dissident group, Os Surrealistas, and sustained the movement through poetry, theoretical texts, and anthologies even as others dispersed.[1][2][3][4][7]

Surrealism

Selected Exhibitions

  • First Surrealist Exhibition, Lisbon (1949)
  • Second Surrealist Exhibition, Lisbon (1950)
  • 1a exposição surrealista, São Paulo (1967)
  • Exposição surrealista mundial, Chicago (1976)

Awards

  • Grã-cruz da Ordem da Liberdade (2005)
  • Prize from Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (2005)