Arturo Umberto Samuele Schwarz (2 February 1924 – 23 June 2021) was an Italian scholar, art historian, poet, writer, lecturer, art consultant and curator of international art exhibitions. He lived in Milan, where he amassed a large collection of Dada and Surrealism, including many works by personal friends such as Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Man Ray, and Jean Arp.[ Arturo Schwarz, L’ami De Marcel Duchamp]
Biography
Schwarz was born in Alexandria, Egypt from a German father and an Italian mother. In 1952 he relocated to Milan, where he opened an independent art publishing house. In 1961 Schwarz converted his place into a gallery, organising exhibitions of Dada and Surrealism artists. The gallery officially closed in 1975, and Schwarz started working as curator and writer, writing extensive publications on the work of Marcel Duchamp, as well as books and numerous essays on the
Kabbalah,
Tantrism, alchemy, prehistoric and tribal art, and Asian art and philosophy. His 1977 book on Man Ray's works and life was the first to reveal Ray's real name (Emmanuel Radnitzky). A follower of
Leon Trotsky, Schwarz published
The Revolution Betrayed with a note which criticized
Joseph Stalin.
[ Arturo Schwarz: «Ho conosciuto Breton. Per amore di Trotskij rischiai l'impiccagione»]
In 1964, he published the portfolio The International Avant-Garde: America Discovered which included Andy Warhol's only intaglio print, Cooking Pot (1962).
Between 1972 and 1998, he donated his collection of Dada and Surrealist art to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, including thirteen replicas of readymades by Marcel Duchamp (Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art).[ SCHWARZ DONA LE SUE OPERE]
On 6 March 1998, he was awarded the Diploma of First Class with gold medal for outstanding merits in the fields of culture and the arts by the President of Italian Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, on the recommendation of the Minister of Cultural Heritage Walter Veltroni.[ Arturo Schwarz: "A novant'anni sono avido di vita mi sento più trotskista che mai"]
In 2006 he won Italy's Premio Frascati for his collected works of poetry (1946–2007).
In October 2009 Schwarz curated an exhibition of Dada and Surrealism, "Dada e surrealismo riscoperti" (Dada And Surrealism Rediscovered), at the Vittoriano Museum Complex in Rome.
Schwarz died in Milan on 23 June 2021, at the age of 97.[ Arte: è morto Arturo Schwarz, il grande studioso e collezionista dei Surrealisti ]
Selected works
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Marcel Duchamp: Sixty-six Creative Years; From the First Painting to the Last Drawing, Gallery Schwarz (Milan, Italy), 1972.
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New York Dada: Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia, Prestel Verlag (Munich, Germany), 1973.
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Almanacco dada: Antologia letteraria-artistica, cronologia e repertorio delle riviste, Feltrinelli (Milan, Italy), 1976.
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Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination, Rizzoli International (New York, NY), 1977.
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André Breton, Trotsky, et l'anarchie, Union Generale d'Editions (Paris, France), 1977.
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The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, H. N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1969, reprinted, Delano Greenidge (New York, NY), 1997.
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Peter Halley: Utopia’s Diagrams, Tema Celeste Editions and Gabrius Multimedia (Milan, Italy) 1998.
See also
External links
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Israel21c, "Arturo Schwartz - benefactor to art and Israel", Rick Radin, 20 April 2002
