Profession: artist

Graham was an influential mentor in the 1930’s, taking Smith to meet Gorky (the 3 planned a collaborative painting, unrealised), introducing him to Davis and Willem de Kooning, and giving him a welded sculpture by Julio Gonzalez. Diller was a fellow-student, through whom he met Avery and the Ukrainian Futurist, Burlyuk. Pollock and Gottlieb were also met in pre-war New York, while Kline and Leslie were further Cedar Bar drinking colleagues in the 1950’s. O’Hara interviewed him. Motherwell, Frankenthaler and Noland were all close friends; Caro got a supply of his raw materials following his fatal accident.

Oldenburg and Kaprow were early artist colleagues of Dine’s, involved together with him in the staging of happenings. Samaras, Segal and Whitman were also part of the same crowd. Rauschenberg (an enthusiastic supporter) and Lichtenstein were fellow New York artists involved in the move away from abstract expressionism. Grooms opened a gallery in his studio, and gave Dine and Oldenburg their first show in New York. Dine knew and admired O’Hara, but said that he had “got it all wrong” in his account of Oldenburg, Grooms and himself. Creeley (a friend, like Koch) and Padgett were among his poet collaborators.

Hofmann taught him (Grooms’ mother had seen an article about him in ‘Life’ magazine). He opened his studio as a gallery, and gave Dine and Oldenburg jointly their first shows in New York, also exhibiting Katz, almost the first person Grooms met when he moved to the city. Burckhardt, whom Grooms thinks he met through Katz, made several films with him; Glass was another collaborator.

Gonzalez knew Torres García (and almost certainly Picasso) from Els Quatre Gats in Barcelona. Gargallo, Gris, Modigliani and Jacob became friends in Montmartre. He got to know Brancusi soon after the Romanian arrived in Paris, and later worked for him, making up his armatures. This led to his old friend Picasso asking for his help with metal sculptures, Gonzalez working alongside him for 3 years and teaching him to weld (which he himself learned working for Renault). Hartung married his daughter. Varèse took his friend González to meet his beloved grandfather, González using garlic juice to fix his drawing of him.

Picasso took Lam under his wing in Paris, introducing him to artists including Matisse, Léger and Miró. He sailed to Martinique to escape occupied France on the same boat as Breton, Lévi-Strauss, Brauner and Masson; interned on arrival, he was befriended by Césaire. He spent four months in Haiti with Breton (whose poem ‘Fata Morgana’ he illustrated), extending his knowledge of voodoo and other such practices. Kahlo and Rivera had him to stay in Mexico. En route to Paris after WWII, he met Matta, Gorky and Duchamp in New York. A long friendship with Jorn began after his return to France.

West and Kauffman were co-founders with Reynolds of the Royal Academy of Arts, Reynolds becoming its first president. Johnson, Goldsmith and Garrick were among his close circle of friends and members of the Literary Club (a.k.a. Turk’s Head Club) that he founded; Boswell and Sheridan were among its other members. Reynolds encouraged Fuseli, who had been working as a translator, to dedicate himself to painting. Although the truth is not known, rumours of a romantic liaison with Kauffman are probably unfounded. Montagu left him a gold ring engraved with their names.

Tanguy and Prévert met on military service. Duhamel rented a house so that the three could share it and “avoid misery”; Queneau and Péret also stayed there, with Breton among other surrealist visitors. Tanguy illustrated the work of Aragon, Tzara, Péret and Éluard, and approached Duchamp about the idea of moving to America. Motherwell had known Tanguy in France and kept up the friendship when he crossed the Atlantic. Lévi-Strauss was a Greenwich Village companion, Matta regarded him as mentor and friend, while Richter lived near him in Connecticut, involved him in a film, and introduced him to Huelsenbeck.

Arman, a fellow Nice judo enthusiast met at 18, stayed a close friend for life. Spoerri, Saint Phalle, Arman, and Tinguely were all members of the Nouveaux réalistes, founded in Klein’s Paris flat and promoted by Restany; Christo joined later. Klein had met Tinguely in Germany, Tinguely introducing Spoerri to him. Klein’s wedding reception ended up in Rivers’ studio, Christo setting out to immortalise it (he didn’t finish). Henry provided music for Klein, Manzoni met him at his first Italian show, Parent worked with him on elemental fountains and an air ceiling, and Saint Phalle invited him to shoot at her sculptures.

Associated both with Fluxs and Pop Art, Vostell’s dark and politicised vision is the antithesis of the detachment characteristic of both. While studying in Paris, he worked as Cassandre’s assistant. He organised the first Fluxus Festival with Paik and Maciunas in Wiesbaden. Beuys and he took part in an artists’ protest together, and Dalí asked him for a piece of his work for his own museum. Cage, Kaprow, Oldenburg, Brecht, Young and Warhol were among artist/composer friends he met in America.