Yoryi Morel

Yoryi Morel (born Jorge Octavio Morel Tavárez; 25 October 1906,–1979) was a painter from the Dominican Republic. Along with Jaime Colson and Darío Suro, he is considered one of the founders of the modernist school of Dominican painting.

Morel was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, the son of Enrique Morel Bocanegra and Ana Teresa Tavárez Cabreja. He spent most of his career in Santiago Province. Although he began his art studies at the age of 11 at Bellas Artes with his mentor and also his teacher Juan Bautista Gómez, he is generally considered to be self-taught. Morel for many years was devoted to teaching in Dominican Republic . His teachings influenced several generations of Dominicans artist such as Ney Cruz, he was leading Dominican costumbrista painter and is known for his landscapes, genre paintings, and portraits.

Morel held his first solo exhibition in Santo Domingo in 1932. He participated in the Dominican Republic's first biennial art exhibition in 1942, and won first prize in the sixth biennial in 1952. He was declared the "Pintor Nacional" (national painter) by the Dominican Congress on October 25, 2006.

Morel founded a fine-arts school in Santiago de los Caballeros , which was attended by Clara Ledesma. He married Hungarian Ilonka Szabó, daughter of Károly Szabó and Szanet Czeglédy, with whom he had three children: Jorge Enrique Morel Szabó (1946), Janos Laszlo Morel Szabó (1949), and Ilonka Morel Szabó (1954). He also had two daughters from a previous relationship with Rosa Flete: Yolanda Antonia Morel Flete (1943) and Filomena Morel Flete.

Two retrospectives were held to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth: Por los Caminos de Nuestra Expresión at the Museo Bellapart in Santo Domingo in 2006 and Autonomía y Trascendencia at Centro León in Santiago de los Caballeros in 2007.