He was born on January 9th, 1906 in La Laguna (Tenerife), and being only 1 year old he was left motherless. In 1927 his father sent him to Paris to take care of the family export business. Oscar lived the Parisian night to the fullest until his father died, leaving the family in a precarious economic situation. He then started working as an advertisement designer. His lover, the Polish pianist Roma, introduced him to the artistic circles of the capital. In 1932 he presented his first surrealist paintings at Tenerife's Circle of Fine Arts. In 1935 he settled in a studio in Montmartre and started a friendship with Marcel Jean, Dali, Max Ernst and André Breton. He presented his drawings at the surrealist collective exhibition organized by the Quatre-Chemins Gallery and, together with Eduardo Westerdahl, he organized this group's first exhibition in Tenerife.
During the Civil War he created the technique of "Decalcomania" and took part in several exhibitions in London, Copenhagen and Tokyo. His work was exhibited at the exhibition called "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" in New York's Museum of Modern Art. After a first suicide attempt, he settled in his second studio in Montparnasse.
He took part in the surrealist exhibition of Oslo and exhibited at the Galerie des Beaux Arts in Paris. During the Second World War he lived in Paris and became friends with Picasso and Paul Eluard. He opened his first individual exhibition at the Carre Gallery in Paris. His partner was executed by the Gestapo. Since 1947 he started to move away from André Breton's movement. He exhibited at the Hugo Gallery in New York, Umelecka Besada (Prague), Apollo (Brussels), Georges Moos (Zurich) and the Parisian galleries La Demeure, Diderot and Rive Gauche, among others.
He started an intimate friendship that would last until his death with the viscountess of Noailles, descendant of the Marquis de Sade, a surrealist idol. In 1955 a big exhibition with his works was organised at the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels. He committed suicide on December 31st of 1957, by slashing his wrists.
After his death, his works have been exhibited in big museums and galleries worldwide, from Tokyo's National Museum of Modern Art to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Leeds City Art Galleries in London, Reina Sofia National Art Museum and Leandro Navarro Gallery.