Arturo Schwarz

Arturo Umberto Samuele Black ( born February 3, 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt ) is an Italian art historian, poet, writer, art collector and curator of international art exhibitions, who lives in Milan. He published the Catalogue raisonné of Marcel Duchamp. In the 1950s he also published under the pseudonym Tristan Sauvage. From 1961 to 1975 he led the Art Gallery Galleria Schwarz in Milan.

Life and work

Arturo Schwarz is the son of Richard Black Germans and the Italian Rita Black. The family has Jewish roots. His German relatives were deported in the period of National Socialism from Dusseldorf and killed by the Germans. Schwarz studied at the American University in Cairo in 1942 and received a diploma; 1943 to 1944 he continued his studies at the University of Farouk I continued with a medical degree. In 1946 he was co-founder of the Egyptian branch of the Trotskyist 4th International. He was arrested because of his political activities, released in 1949 and moved to Milan in Italy. In 1951 he married Vera Zavatarelli († 1984), their daughter 's Silvia Schwarz.

Black led from 1952 to 1959 a small publishing house, in which he published, for example, writings on André Breton, Albert Einstein, Daniel Guérin, Maurice Nadeau, Benjamin Péret and Leon Trotsky. From 1954 he exhibited there mainly of works of Dadaist and surrealist artist. In 1961 he founded the Art Gallery is black, which existed until 1975. Subsequently, he worked only as a writer and devoted himself to research. He has written or edited more than fifty books.

In 1998, Black donated the more than 700 -piece collection of Dada and Surrealist Art in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel. In 1972, the museum had already received 13 replicas of Duchamp's ready -mades, followed in 1991 by its document collection Arturo Schwarz Dada and Surrealist Library. Among the donated replicas are for example Fountain and LHOOQ In April 2003, the museum received another donation of 17 surrealist and Dadaist works.

In October 2009 Black curated an exhibition Dada e surrealismo riscoperti ( Dada and Surrealism rediscovered ) in the Vittoriano in Rome, with over 500 units and a specially written a catalog essay.

Black ' extensive collection of art from Dada and Surrealism contains many works of personal friends like Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Man Ray and Hans Arp. In the 1977 published book on Man Ray's work and life, he revealed for the first time Ray's Real name Emmanuel Radnitzky. Black is also known for publications on Kabbalah, Tantra, Alchemy, prehistoric and tribal art as well as art and philosophy of Asia in addition to his writings on Marcel Duchamp, Surrealism and Dadaism.

Black described himself in his autobiography published in 2007, writing as atheistic anarchists. And Jews.

Awards

Publications (selection)

• Tristan Sauvage: En Clef de ré si voeux. Black Editore, Milan 1954
• Tristan Sauvage: Birolli et la mer. Black Editore, Milan 1956
• Limited Edition by Pierre de Massot's Marcel Duchamp, propos et souvenirs with 38 replicas of LHOOQ Galleria Schwarz, Milan, 1964
• As editor: The complete Works of Marcel Duchamp. Thames and Hudson, London, 1969; The complete works of Marcel Duchamp. Revised and Expanded Paperback Edition. With 1222 Illustrations, 222 in color. Two volumes in one volume. Delano Greenidge Editions, New York, 2000, ISBN 0-929445-06-6
• Marcel Duchamp: Sixty -six Creative Years; From the First to the Last Painting Drawing. Galleria Schwarz, Milan, 1972
• New York Dada: Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia. Prestel, Munich 1973
• Almanacco dada: Antologia letteraria - artistica, Cronologia e delle repertorio riviste. Feltrinelli, Milan 1976
• Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination. Rizzoli International, New York 1977 German: Man Ray. From the Italian by Benjamin Black. Rogner and Bernhard, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-8077-0115- X

Exhibitions (selection)