André Salmon

André Salmon ( born October 4, 1881 in Paris, † March 12, 1969 in Sanary -sur- Mer, Provence) was a French poet and art critic. He was one of the advocates for the new art movement of Cubism, along with Apollinaire and Maurice Raynal.

Life

André Salmon grew up in an art-loving parents. His grandfather Théodor (1811-1876) was a painter, his father Émile -Frédéric (1840-1913) sculptor. During the years 1897 to 1902 he lived in Saint Petersburg ( Russia) with his parents, later he was employed as an assistant attaché at the French Embassy.

In 1902 he returned to France in order to perform military service. Due to his weak health, he was released after a few months. Beginning of the 20th century, he was participating in literary circles around the Latin Quarter in Paris. There he met the young, unknown writer Guillaume Apollinaire, and, together with him and other young artists, a group of artists. In 1904 he moved into the studio house Bateau Lavoir, where Picasso, Max Jacob, Kees van Dongen, Apollinaire and other artists lived. Amedeo Modigliani and Jean Cocteau were among his friends.

Salmon is one of the young art critic who redefined the profession. Not mere reporting of Salon exhibition was his concern, " but the aesthetic reflection and historical points mingled watching in his critical judgment ." Salmon made ​​, alongside Carl Einstein, Max Jacob, and Maurice Raynal, in numerous exhibition reviews and writings on the art of Cubism attentive and tried closer to the paintings of Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris and Georges Braque a skeptical audience. Early on, he pointed, out, along with Apollinaire and Carl Einstein, on the importance of African art by contemporary artists.

In 1964, the price of him poetry of the Académie française was awarded.

Works (selection)

• Créances (1926 )
• Carreaux (1928 )