Yoryi Morel


Yoryi Morel was a painter from the Dominican Republic. Along with Jaime Colson and DarĂ­o Suro, he is considered one of the founders of the modernist school of Dominican painting.

Life and career

Morel was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, the son of Enrique Morel Bocanegra and Ana Teresa Tavárez Cabreja. He spent most of his career in Santiago Province.
Although he began his art studies at the age of 11 at Bellas Artes with his mentor and also his teacher Juan Bautista GĂłmez, he is generally considered to be self-taught. Morel for many years was devoted to teaching in Dominican Republic. His teachings influenced several generations of Dominicans artist such as Ney Cruz, he was 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. In 1940, he founded the "Yoryi" Academy, a fine-arts school in Santiago de los Caballeros, which was attended by Clara Ledesma. He participated in the Dominican Republic's first biennial art exhibition in 1942, and won first prize in the sixth biennial in 1952.

Awards

He was declared the "Pintor Nacional" by the Dominican Congress on October 25, 2006.
Morel was also appointed Deputy Director of the National School of Fine Art in 1948 and was honored by the Dominican government in 1973 with the “Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella” and the rank of "Caballero."
Two retrospectives were held to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth: Por los Caminos de Nuestra ExpresiĂłn at the Museo Bellapart in Santo Domingo in 2006 and AutonomĂ­a y Trascendencia at Centro LeĂłn in Santiago de los Caballeros in 2007.

Personal life

He married Hungarian Ilonka Szabó, daughter of Károly Szabó and Szanet Czeglédy, with whom he had three children: Jorge Enrique Morel Szabó, Janos Laszlo Morel Szabó, and Ilonka Morel Szabó. He also had two daughters from a previous relationship with Rosa Flete: Yolanda Antonia Morel Flete and Filomena Morel Flete.

Gallery