Santiago Ribeiro and the american artist Liba Waring in her house in Paris
Santiago Ribeiro with Portuguese surrealist Isabel Meirelles a friend and collegue of André Breton, Maria Fernanda Pinto and Liba Waring in the Bonaparte cafe in the center of Paris
Surrealism, which was born after the first wold war, is characterized by its opposition to all social conventions, moral and logic. It is a movement immersed in dreams, instinct, desire, rebellion, and the liberty of life. It is also perhaps the movement most tied to imagination, a movement fully alive in the artistic and literary worlds. In Portugal, it is perhaps the link which ties these two worlds together. Prof. Perfecto Cuadrado said so aptly in one of his conferences: “The history of Surrealism, meaning anthologies, studies, catalogues (and exhibits) devoted to the so called International surrealism, needs to be divulged – the price, sometimes, in a simplified fight against other forms of simplification, when it is not against a total silence due to sectarianism, or ignorance whether French, Portuguese or International.” Surrealism through words, painting and sculpture continues, like life to be: insistent, concrete, daily and real. This exhibition in Paris, the birthplace of the movement, is proof that "International Surrealism" is still alive.
Maria Fernanda Pinto
Paris, 06/01/2012