French writer who was, during his adolescence, strongly influenced by Paul Valéry and Gustave Moreau who were, for many years, responsible for his perception of beauty. He was also considerably influenced by Guillaume Apollinaire, through whom he came into contact with such figures as Marie Laurencin, Derain, De Chirico and Picasso. He was responsible for the organisation of the first exhibition by the surrealist group, La Peinture Surréaliste, in 1925, of which he was the indisputable leader. In 1927, he joined the French Communist party. He left Europe in 1941 to travel around India and the United States, where he lived sharing surrealist ideas with, among others, David Hare, Gorky, Enrico Donati and Wifredo Lam. In 1946 he returned to Paris and, in 1959, published 22 prose pieces together with gouache works by Miró.
