Profession: cultural animator

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

F. T. Marinetti

poet, futurist ideologue, cultural animator

1876 (Alexandria, Egypt) – 1944 (Bellagio, Italy)

Balla was arrested with him, Loy was a lover, Tzara sent him Dadaist publications. Carrá, Boccioni, Severini and Russolo (as well as Balla) all rallied to his Futurist flag; Prampolini and Depero joined up too. When he went to Moscow he found Mayakovsky and Burliuk away, but Goncharova met and toasted him, and he caught Kruchenykh in St Petersburg. Diaghilev asked him about sound, and was invited to hear Russolo’s ‘intonarumori.’ At a concert in Paris, Marinetti and Tzara competed with each other to stir up trouble. Kafka and d’Annunzio were at the same 1909 air-display as him, though the three didn’t meet.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti knew…

Alioune Diop

intellectual, publisher, cultural animator

1910 (Saint Louis, Senegal) – 1980 (Paris)

Césaire, Niger and Tirolien were his colleagues when he founded the celebrated and influential review and publishing-house ‘Présence Africaine’ in Paris; Senghor, Wright and Leiris aided and abetted. Camus (whom he’d first met when studying in Algiers), Sartre and Gide were on its editorial board. Rabémananjara was a close friend as well as colleague, Césaire and Senghor lifelong friends. Anta Diop was another whose work he published who also became his friend. He was instrumental in bringing Fanon, Bâ, Price-Mars and many others together for the first black writers’ congress.

Alioune Diop knew…

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Steiglitz

photographer, gallerist, cultural animator

1864 (Hoboken, N.J.) – 1946 (New York)

Both Helmholtz and Hofmann taught him before he turned to photography. His accomplice Steichen (with Kasebier, Coburn and White, a fellow-member of the breakaway Photo-Secession group) took him around to Stein’s to see the Picassos and also introduced Marin to him. O’Keeffe married him and was his great artistic companion; Marin, Dove, Hartley and Strand were the other artists he remained close to as well as supporting in their lives and careers. Duchamp had him photograph his urinal, Picabia helped him with his journal, Ray was encouraged by him, and Adams and Grosz were among those he exhibited.

Alfred Stieglitz knew…