PARIS, FRANCE.- The Cervantes Institute in Paris is holding an exhibition of some of the best paintings made by Oscar Dominguez. Nearly fifty years after the death of the painter, whose gigantic deformed body was buried in the Montparnasse cemetery, he will be honoured with the showing of 18 of his paintings in an exhibit titled Oscar Dominguez: Volcanic Surrealism. The government of the Canary Islands will also name the new institute of contemporary art and culture after him, project which was designed by Herzog & De Meuron. Dozens of activities have been planned to go along with the celebration of the artist´s birthday. Oscar Dominguez was two years younger than Dalí. He was born on January 9, 1906 in Tenerife, Domínguez suffered the loss of his mother at a young age. His father died soon after and he had to scrounge for food. Born in San Cristóbal de La Laguna on the island of Tenerife, Domínguez spent his youth with his grandmother in Tacoronte and devoted himself to painting at a young age after suffering a serious illness which affected his growth and caused a progressive deformation of his facial bone frame and limbs.

He went to Paris at 21 where he first worked for his father in the central market of Les Halles, and spent his nights drinking in cabarets. He then frequented some art schools, and visited galleries and museums. Domínguez was rapidly attracted by avant-garde painters, notably Yves Tanguy and Pablo Picasso, whose influences were visible in his first works. At 25 he painted a self-portrait full of premonition as he showed himself with a deformed hand and with the veins of his arm cut.

In 1933 Domínguez met André Breton, a theoretician of Surrealism, and Paul Éluard, known as the poet of this movement, and took part a year later in the Surrealist exhibition held in Copenhagen and those of London and Tenerife in 1936. His 1937 oil painting The Infernal Machine fetched a world record price of 2 770 000 FF (US $ 404,375) on June 8th 2000 at Drouot-Montaigne in Paris. He was an active member of the surrealist movement in Paris from 1934 to 1940. He made many discoveries, like decalcomania and even action painting, but was unable to make full use of these in his paintings. His painting suffered after the war since he had been cast in the role of social entertainer. His dreams of tapestries and paintings on felt never came to pass.When he was older, a tumor made his body quite a deformity. Dominguez died on a Christmas day after he arrived at his apartment drunk and cut his veins in his bathroom.