German painter, printmaker and sculptor who was a primary pioneer of the Dada and Surrealism movements. He was self-taught, but was influenced by van Gogh. In 1909, he studied philology, philosophy and art history in Bonn. During this period he befriended August Macke, Robert Delaunay and Guillaume Apollinaire and in 1914 met Hans (Jean) Arp in Cologne. The paintings of de Chirico helped to stimulate his interest in dream-like fantastic imagery and, following WWI, he founded the Cologne Dada group with Baargeld and Arp around 1920. In 1922 he moved to Paris, where his friendship with Breton and Éluard led to active participation in the Surrealist movement.

He was interned in France at the outbreak of WWI but, in 1940, with the aid of Peggy Guggenheim, whom he would later marry, he fled to the USA. After separating from her, he lived from 1943 onwards with the artist Dorothea Tanning, who became his wife in 1946 and the couple moved to the Arizona desert near Sedona. In 1953, they returned to France.