Darío Suro

Darío Antonio Suro García-Godoy (June 13, 1917, La Vega – January 18, 1997, Santo Domingo) was a Dominican painter, art critic, and diplomat from La Vega, Dominican Republic, remembered as one of the most influential Dominican artists from the 20th century. Suro's paintings encompassed a wide range of styles from the impressionist mood of his early paintings, to the neo-realism of his maturity, and finally to the abstraction of his later works. Together with his contemporaries Yoryi Morel, Jaime Colson, and Celeste Woss y Gil, he is known as one of the progenitors of modernist art in the Dominican Republic.

In his country he studied first under his uncle, the painter Enrique García-Godoy. He worked as a diplomat throughout his career with his first appointment in 1943 as the cultural attaché of Dominican Republic to Mexico; during his stay in Mexico, Suro studied with Diego Rivera, Jesus Guerrero Galván, and Agustín Lazo. Upon his return to the Dominican Republic, Suro had an important solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Fine Arts.

Suro resided in Spain during the early 1950s where he became fascinated with the art of El Greco, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco Goya. In the late 1950s, Suro left his home country for New York City, where he lived for many years. Four years after the Dictator Rafael Trujillo's assassination, Suro returned to Dominican Republic in 1965, resuming his career as a diplomat serving in various embassies, culminating in a post in Washington, DC.

In addition to a career as a prolific painter, Suro wrote extensively on art and frequently contributed to Dominican and international art magazines. In 1969, Suro also produced a survey of modern Dominican painting consisting of brief monographs of the country's major artists. Throughout his long career, Suro was recognized with many honors, being the first artist to receive the 'Premio Nacional de Artes Plasticas' awarded by President Joaquin Balaguer in 1993.