Camilo Mori

Camilo Mori

Camilo Mori Serrano (September 24, 1896 in Valparaíso, Chile – December 7, 1973 in Santiago, Chile) was a painter and a founder of the Grupo Montparnasse.

The son of an Italian immigrant, Camilo Mori entered the "Escuela de Bellas Artes" (School of Fine Arts) at the University of Chile in 1914 and studied under masters Juan Francisco Gonzalez, Richón Brunet and Alberto Valenzuela llanos. In 1920 he was sent by the Chilean government to further his studies in Europe. Over the next three years Mori spent time in Rome and Paris, in this last city he joined the great gathering of artists in the Montparnasse Quarter in Paris, France. There, his encounter with Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris greatly influenced his ideas of painting. However it is the influence of the works of Paul Cézanne that challenged Mori to move away from the realism that marks his earlier work and starts experimenting with a variety of styles which later formed to basis of modern art. He exihibts in the Salon d'Automne of 1920 in Paris where his "Circo de la Feria" receives an honorable mention.

He returns to Chile and becomes one of the founding members of the Grupo Montparnasse, key influence in the diffusion of the new European painting trends in Chile. In 1928 Camilo Mori is named director of the National Museum of Fine Arts (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes or MNBA), during his time in this post he was responsible for many initiatives aimed at promoting the art in Chile. In 1928, as an initiative to mitigate the closure of the School of Fine Arts, Mori is once again sent by the Chilean government to Europe, this time to direct the studies of a group of young painters known as the "Generation of 28" (Spanish: Generacion del 28), which culminated in twentysix of the most outstanding young Chilean artists being sent to study in Paris for five years.

Camilo Mori returns to Chile in 1933 where he takes a position as professor of drawing and color in the Universidad de Chile, post he retained for over 30 years. In 1937 he moves to the United States where he spent two years exploring some of the newest artistic trends of the time. He is place in charge of supervising the decoration, and made a mural, for the pavilion of Chile at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

For his contribution to Chilean art, in 1950 he received the National Prize of Art. His work was complex and multifacetic and moved through postimpressionism, expressionism, cubism and surrealism, with the common trend among them being a prominent treatment of color.