Views
One of the most important writers and art/literary theorists of his time. His "cubist" novel Bebuquin, published in 1912, was highly influential for Dada and illuminated his call for an end to the realistic psychological novel. He published one of his first monographs on African art, Negro Sculpture (1915), and his Art of the 20th Century (1926) was equally important. In 1919 he co-edited two of the most political of the Dada journals with Grosz, periodicals that fiercely attacked the spirit of the Weimar republic, which he abandoned for France in 1928. In Paris, apart from co-editing Documents, he collaborated on Jolas' Transition, wrote a major book on Braque and the screenplay to Jean Renoir's Toni. In 1936 he left for Spain where he fought with the legendary anarchist Durutti Column. He was arrested for his part in the civil war on returning to Paris and committed suicide in 1940 when he realised he would be unable to escape from Fascist persecution after the German invasion.