An artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements, although in his early years he also experiemented with Cubism. He challenged conventional thought about artistic processes and art marketing, not so much by writing, but through subversive actions (he famously dubbed a urinal art and named it 'Fountain').

His work greatly influenced the development of post-WWI Western art and advised on art collections and exhibitions, spending much of his life in the USA and eventually becoming an American citizen. He went on to abandon art and devoted the rest of his life to chess.