Cossette Zeno (1930 - )

Cossette Zeno (1930 - ) was the most prominent member of the El Mirador Azul (The Blue Lookout), a surrealist group encouraged by the exiled Spanish artist Eugenio F. Granell at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. In contrast to the conservative academicism taught at the university, Zeno produced protofeminist, biomorphic abstractions - 'scorching inventions', as Granell wrote, that acted 'on the world of visual representations like a magical blowtorch'.

In 1953, Zeno won a scholarship to study in Paris, and Granell wrote letters of recommendation to André Breton and Benjamin Peret, describing her as a most promising artist. Zeno arrived in Paris in September, 1953, and joined the surrealist group three days later. She enrolled in the École du Louvre art academy, taking classes during the day, and in the evenings attended meetings with the surrealists at the Café de la Place Blanche. Of these meetings, Zeno recalled:

"Breton and Péret almost always arrived earlier, and almost always had a visitor or two. We were nine to fifteen people, sometimes more. Breton led the conversation, introducing the visitor: poet, writer, painter, sculptor... all of them surrealists. As soon as I started speaking more confidently, I started asking questions and answering questions and participating in discussions. Sometimes I brought with me a drawing or small oil painting that they asked for. We met five days a week."

She was enthusiastically received by the surrealists, and Zeno's work developed with their support and appraisal. Outside of group meetings, Breton invited Zeno to his home to meet with his Chilean wife, Elisa, as well as his daughter, Aube. Breton also introduced Zeno to Méret Oppenheim, and Zeno visited her in Bern where the pair struck up am important and mutually-fruitful friendship.

Zeno exhibited at L'Étoile Scellée in July 1954, together with Simon Hantai, Toyen, Eugenio F. Granell. Located on rue du Pré aux Clercs in the 7th arrondissement, the gallery served as an influential centre of Surrealism from 1952 to 1956. Thanks to financing by the gallerist Sophie Babet, Breton was able to launch a bold program, inviting young surrealist artists to show their work alongside the canonical figures. On this occasion, Zeno exhibited an emblematic work from her time in Paris - Dreams Suspended in the Desert - which reveal the sensuality of her line as well as the influence of psychic automatism. The painting was widely praised, and of the show, Zeno recalled that one could hardly walk because of the number of visitors.

By December, 1954, the declining health of Zeno's father precipitated her return to America, and triggered a series of exoduses that plagued the artist. She settled first in Havana, Cuba, where her family had relocated, but the Fulgencio Batista regime caused great political and emotional uncertainty. Zeno then emigrated to New York. She married her husband, Robert Bates, on December 17th, 1955, and although her output slowed as she raised three children, Zeno presented her work in several group exhibitions, including El Mirador Azul's March 1956 Exposición de pinturas.

The re-discovery of Zeno's work marks an important milestone in the history of surrealism, and her paintings were recently included in the ground-breaking exhibition - Surrealism Beyond Borders - at the Tate and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.