Arthur Cravan

Adventurer as well as poet and boxer, Fabian Avenarius Lloyd (1887-1918) – a towering ‘mystic Colossus’ – assumed the pseudonym Arthur Cravan on arriving in Paris in 1909. He was a highly enigmatic man, a uniquely colourful character whose life merged into his work, and whose birth and death remain as obscure as his livelihood.
Cravan, nephew of Oscar Wilde, achieved fame through the non-conformist magazine Maintenant, of which he was director, editor and sole contributor. Given his mysterious background, his behaviour and his sense of provocation, Cravan is clearly entitled to a place among the key precursors of Dadaism. Surely the least of Cravan’s feats included entering the ring against world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, selling his poetry in the streets of Paris like a barrow-boy hawking fruit and vegetables, and on numerous occasions giving active voice to his views under the imperious and imperative title: MAINTENANT.

Barcelona, Museu Picasso, October 2017 - January 2018