Antoine Mayo was born in 1905 in Port Saïd, Egypt. His father was Greek and his mother was French. He moved to Paris in 1924 and met Man Ray, Desnos, Tzara, and Salmon in Montparnasse. In 1927, René Crevel introduced him to André Breton, leader of Surrealism*, but Mayo had no interest in participating in a collaborative movement. Two years later in 1929, Mayo exhibited with Chirico at the Galerie des Quatre Chemins.

During the 1934 economic crisis in France, Mayo returned to Egypt where he continued to work. He eventually moved back to France. Mayo spent the six years of French occupation in Cannes with Prévert; he designed theatre costumes among other work.

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