Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara Samuel (Samy) Rosenstock
Robert Delaunay's portrait of Tzara, 1923
Born	April 16, 1896 Moinești, Romania
Died	December 25, 1963(1963-12-25) (aged 67) Paris, France
Pen name	S. Samyro, Tristan, Tristan Ruia, Tristan Țara, Tr. Tzara
Occupation	Poet, essayist, journalist, playwright, performance artist, composer, film director, politician, diplomat
Nationality	Romanian, French
Period	1912–1963
Genre	Lyric poetry, epic poetry, free verse, prose poetry, parody, satire, utopian fiction
Subject	Art criticism, literary criticism, social criticism
Literary movement	Symbolism Avant-garde Dada Surrealism

Tristan Tzara (French: [tʁistɑ̃ dzaʁa]; Romanian: [trisˈtan ˈt͡sara]; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; April 16 [O.S. April 4] 1896 – December 25, 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement. Under the influence of Adrian Maniu, the adolescent Tzara became interested in Symbolism and co-founded the magazine Simbolul with Ion Vinea (with whom he also wrote experimental poetry) and painter Marcel Janco. During World War I, after briefly collaborating on Vinea's Chemarea, he joined Janco in Switzerland. There, Tzara's shows at the Cabaret Voltaire and Zunfthaus zur Waag, as well as his poetry and art manifestos, became a main feature of early Dadaism. His work represented Dada's nihilistic side, in contrast with the more moderate approach favored by Hugo Ball.

After moving to Paris in 1919, Tzara, by then one of the "presidents of Dada", joined the staff of Littérature magazine, which marked the first step in the movement's evolution toward Surrealism. He was involved in the major polemics which led to Dada's split, defending his principles against André Breton and Francis Picabia, and, in Romania, against the eclectic modernism of Vinea and Janco. This personal vision on art defined his Dadaist plays The Gas Heart (1921) and Handkerchief of Clouds (1924). A forerunner of automatist techniques, Tzara eventually aligned himself with Breton's Surrealism, and under its influence wrote his celebrated utopian poem The Approximate Man.