New Book Reveals Intimate Letters and Political Life of Surrealist Óscar Domínguez
Renacimiento and TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes have published a collection of 34 letters from surrealist painter Óscar Domínguez to Marcelle Ferry, offering an intimate look at his life, political involvement, and creative evolution during the Spanish Civil War.
The publishing house Renacimiento, in partnership with TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, has released Letters from Óscar Domínguez to Marcelle Ferry. More than just a historical record, this collection offers an intimate look at the life and politics of the Spanish surrealist movement. As noted by Diario de Avisos, the book accompanies an exhibition at the Tenerife center running until October 18. It features 34 letters that trace the artist’s life between 1935 and 1938, a collection curator Isidro Hernández calls exceptional for its completeness and condition.
The letters, translated by Emma Hernández Navarro and Marie-Christine del Castillo-Valero, reveal new sides of the Tenerife-born painter. They challenge the idea that Domínguez was politically indifferent, as he describes his active involvement in the social unrest in La Laguna during the spring of 1936.
The book’s historical importance grows as it covers the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Domínguez, who was visiting the islands for an art exhibition, was forced into hiding in Puerto de la Cruz after the July 1936 coup. This period of isolation deeply influenced his work, shifting his style away from surrealism toward a more objective aesthetic, as seen in his portraits of his niece and nephew, Gloria and Víctor. The letters from this time vividly capture his fear and loneliness.
The volume also includes Ferry’s poetry collection, L’île d’un jour, and serves as a detailed account of their relationship. TEA acquired these materials at a Paris auction in 2018, supplementing them with other letters found in previous publications. The collection ends on a tragic note: a final letter from December 28, 1957—written just three days before Domínguez took his own life—in which he asks to meet Ferry one last time near Boulevard Saint-Germain.
This publication not only restores the voice of a major artist but also highlights how his personal life shaped his creative evolution, from his early surrealist objects to his later work. By preserving these archives, which were once held by the writer’s family, the book provides an essential resource for understanding the complex relationship between the artistic avant-garde and the turbulent history of the early 20th century.