A Humanist Speaking from the Torture Chambers

I often like to tell the story of how I befriended one of the last survivors of the original group of Surrealists; the artists and writers admitted to the group by André Breton himself. I first came across Jorge Camacho’s art in 2005, somewhat by chance, at an auction in Paris. I had never heard of the artist before, and my first reaction to his compositions was probably that of most observers: shock and disgust. But somehow, the scenes of torture chambers, body parts and fluids, dancing skeletons, fires and smoke, alchemical apparatuses, secret funeral chambers, and charnel houses also fascinated me and did not cease to grip me over the next couple of months. As I learned more about his work, I put him on my search list of artists. Then, in 2007 I purchased, in Belgium, the third canvas from Camacho’s signature Dance of Death series, executed in the early 1970s.