Profession: writer

Padgett, a lasting friend from schooldays, wrote a memoir following Brainard’s death. Berrigan, also met in his hometown, shared a New York storefront apartment with him. Porter (one of his idols — Katz was another), Waldman and Burckhardt met him soon after his re-arrival in New York. Rivers helped him break through. Guest, Koch and Schuyler were among the poets he associated and collaborated with. He did set-designs for Baraka and O’Hara. He said O’Hara, with whom he collaborated energetically, was his hero, because he lived life uninhibitedly. Ashbery called him one of the nicest people he’d ever known.

Picasso and Gonzalez were among the Els Quatre Gats bohemian set he was involved with in Barcelona (he had grown up nearby). He helped Gaudí with stained-glass windows in Palma and Barcelona. Huidobro wrote about him, and Miró visited him to show him his paintings. Picasso, Lipchitz, Arp and Mondrian were among his lasting acquaintances and friends; Van Doesburg became a great friend and collaborator; Hélion another collaborator. Varèse, Duchamp and Stella were among acquaintances when he moved to New York. He sent his children to study with his colleague Ozenfant. His legacy is in the flourishing of S. American constructivism.

Leiris was a school-mate. Jacob, Apollinaire and especially Delaunay were good friends: meeting Jacob led him to Apollinaire, and then Picasso and Braque. Léger, Delaunay, Gleizes and he presented the first organised show of overtly cubist work. He joined Gris (met through Duchamp and Villon’s Puteaux group) and Lipchitz to avoid Paris bombardments towards the end of WWI; Rivera, Cendrars and Reverdy were among a circle of friends following the war. Popova was one of his students, and Gleizes his co-author on the first major study of cubism.