Yoryi Morel

Campesino cibaeño, 1941 (Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo)

Yoryi Morel (born Jorge Octavio Morel Tavares) (1906–1979) was a painter from the Dominican Republic. Along with Jaime Colson and Darío Suro, he is considered one of the founders of the modernist school of Dominican painting.

A native of Santiago de los Caballeros, he spent most of his career in Santiago Province. Although he studied under Juan Bautista Gómez in his youth, he is generally considered to be self-taught. Morel is the leading Dominican costumbrista painter and is known for his landscapes, genre paintings, and portraits.

Morel held his first solo exhibition in Santo Domingo in 1932. He participated in the Dominican Republic's first biennial art exhibition in 1942, and won first prize in the sixth biennial in 1952. He was declared the "Pintor Nacional" (national painter) by the Dominican Congress on October 25, 2006.

Morel founded a fine-arts school in Santiago de los Caballeros, which was attended by Clara Ledesma.

Two retrospectives were held to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth: Por los Caminos de Nuestra Expresión at the Museo Bellapart in Santo Domingo in 2006 and Autonomía y Trascendencia at Centro León in Santiago de los Caballeros in 2007.

See also

• List of Dominican painters

References

• Poupeye, Veerle (1998). Caribbean Art. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-20306-4. 
• González, Glenys (September 3, 2006). "El centenario del Pintor Nacional Yoryi Morel" [The Centennial of the National Artist Yoryi Morel]. El Caribe (in Spanish). Retrieved January 31, 2012. 
• de Tolentino, Marianne (January 20, 2007). "El Yoryi Morel moderno se destaca en exposición del Centro León" [The Modern Yoryi Morel Is Highlighted at León Center Exhibition]. Hoy (in Spanish). Retrieved August 24, 2013. 

External links

• La Pintura Moderna at the Museo Bellapart
• Bellapart retrospective catalog (PDF format)
• Centro Leon Retrospective photo gallery