Profession: artist

Ball, Tzara, Huelsenbeck and Arp were fellow-founders with Jancohttps://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/janco-marcel of Zürich Dada (Richter came along a little later). Tzara got Janco and Huelsenbeck to recite simultaneist verse with him at Cabaret Voltaire, which had been started by Ball. Janco’s posters and masks were always cited as an important ingredient in the mix (he and Tzara had worked together on a journal in Bucharest before heading west). Hennings, Ehrenstein and Eggeling were all involved too.

Arguably the most influential twentieth-century artist. Picabia, Delaunay and Léger were members of his brothers’ (Villon and Duchamp-Villon) discussion-group. Apollinaire, a close friend, wrote about his work, and crossed France with him in Picabia’s fast car. Stella went to buy the famous urinal with him; Brancusi entrusted him with selling his work; Man Ray filmed his wedding. Varèse and Williams were among his earlier friends in New York. He edited ‘VVV’ with Breton and Ernst, coined the term ‘mobile’ for Calder, and taught Cage chess. Tinguely met him in a Paris bistro, Hamilton collaborated on a classic remake.

Roerich, Bakst and Dobuzhinsky taught him; Guro and Matyushin were fellow-students. Before he left for Paris, he shared a studio and took drawing classes with Nijinsky. Apollinaire, Cendrars, Ehrenburg, Léger and Delaunay became friends when he settled in Paris: also Salmon, Laurens, Modigliani and Soutine. Cendrars helped him find titles for his paintings. In post-Revolutionary Vitebsk, he taught with Malevich and Lissitzky, but Malevich disagreed on fundamental principles (Lissitzky siding with him), and made Chagall’s position untenable. He collaborated with Massine in New York though primarily exiled in France.

Stieglitz encouraged him. Duchamp became his closest (and lifelong) friend, and collaborator, and told him of a Paris hotel room just vacated by Tzara. Éluard, Cocteau, Picasso, Dalí, Brassai and Breton, as well as Tzara, were among his Paris circle of friends. Boiffard, Abbott and Miller all worked as his assistant, Miller becoming his lover, collaborator then friend for life. Brandt, whom Pound said he’d introduced, was more of a student. Atget disapproved of Ray’s promotion of his work. Oppenheim posed for him, Ernst married in a double ceremony with him, and Antheil recalled him punching someone at a première.

Davis was a fellow-student at Juillard; they’d smoke cannabis together before exams, and were lifelong friends. Hofmann and Baziotes taught Rivers. Koch, Katz and Schuyler were all friends and colleagues in the so-called New York School art/poetry scene of the 1950’s and 60’s, and O’Hara a friend, supporter and occasional lover. Ashbery, Koch, O’Hara and Southern all collaborated with him, as did his drinking-mate Baraka. Corso and Ginsberg appeared alongside him in Leslie and Frank’s film ‘Pull My Daisy.’ Tinguely and Saint Phalle had Paris studios (Impasse Ronsin) next to Rivers; he worked with both Tinguely and Klein.

Among Dada colleagues, Schwitters introduced himself to Hausmann in a Berlin café, got on particularly well with Arp, contributed to Richter’s magazine ‘G’ and appeared in his film ‘Dadascope’, and became close friends with Höch, who contributed to his continuously expanding Merzbau installation (he was a true pioneer of the genre, as well as a master of collage). He collaborated with his friend Lissitzky, published a children’s book with van Doesburg, stole a pencil from Mies van der Rohe, gave Moholy-Nagy advertising work, and had Grosz’s door slammed in his face. He risked his life sending Tzara microfilm of Hannover under the Nazis.

Appel helped form CoBrA with Constant, Jorn, Alechinsky, Noiret and Dotremont, Dotremont remaining a close friend. Francis lent him a New York studio (Noguchi a neighbour) – Davis and Basie came to have portraits painted. De Kooning and Kline were met during a summer on Long Island. He collaborated with his friend Ginsberg and with the choreographer Tanaka (the composer Dao also working with Appel on one production). He also worked with Baker, and with his friend Gillespie. Ginsberg and Corso helped him celebrate his 70th birthday, across the street from Corso’s methadone clinic. A projected collaboration with Bacon never materialised.

Picasso helped Gris find a studio in the Bateau-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_GrisLavoir. Other early friends included Jacob, Apollinaire, Léger, Salmon and Braque (who however could be dismissive of him). Modigliani painted him, Reverdy, Radiguet and Stein collaborated with him, and the Delaunays went out on the town with him. An introduction to Villon and Duchamp’s Puteaux group led to him knowing Gleizes, Metzinger and Picabia. His friend Severini, like Picasso and Gris himself, was able as a foreigner to work in Paris throughout WWI (Stein helping financially at this time). Artaud, Leiris and Masson were met through the dealer Kahnweiler.

Stella met Duchamp, Picabia and Gleizes  in New York, and famously accompanied Duchamp when he went to buy the urinal that became the notorious ‘Fountain’. Duchamp and he had previously discussed the idea of a lowly object as a work of art. Ray sat on an exhibition committee with both of them, and photographed them together. Picasso, Matisse, Severini and Boccioni had all been met in Paris. Varèse and Stella – good friends – sailed together from New York to France.