(b Paris, 22 Jan. 1879; d Paris, 30 Nov. 1953). French painter, designer, writer, and editor. His talent as an artist was modest, but his restless and energetic personality gave him a significant role successively in the Cubist, Dadaist, and Surrealist movements, and through his publications he helped to disseminate avant-garde ideas. A private income enabled him to carry on his activities without having to worry about earning a living, as well as to indulge his love of fast cars, fast women, and wild living in general. Early in his career he was a successful painter of Impressionist landscapes. In 1908–9 he experimented with Neo-Impressionism, and then with Fauvism and Cubism. In 1911 he met Marcel Duchamp, who was to be the most important influence on his career, and with him became an exponent of Orphism.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


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