Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist.
Background
Tristan Tzara was born on April 16, 1896 in Moinesti, Bacau, Romania. His parents were Jewish Romanians who reportedly spoke Yiddish as their first language; his father Filip and grandfather Ilie were entrepreneurs in the forestry business. Tzara's mother was Emilia Rosenstock. Owing to the Romanian Kingdom's discrimination laws, the Rosenstocks were not emancipated, and thus Tzara was not a full citizen of the country until after 1918.
In 1916 they immigrated to Switzerland, and in 1919 they moved to France, where became naturalized citizens at the end of World War II.
Education
Tristan attended the Schemitz-Tierin boarding school. It is believed that the young Tzara completed his secondary education at a state-run high school, which is identified as the Saint Sava National College or as the Sfântul Gheorghe High School.
Career
Tzara's career changed course between 1914 and 1916. In autumn 1915, as founder and editor of the short-lived journal Chemarea, Vinea published two poems by his friend, the first printed works to bear the signature Tristan Tzara. During the period, Tzara's works were sporadically published in Hefter-Hidalgo's Versuri și Proză, and, in June 1915, Constantin Rădulescu-Motru's Noua Revistă Română published Samyro's known poem Verișoară, fată de pension.
Tristan co-founded the magazine Simbolul with Ion Vinea and Marcel Janco. In 1915 he went to Zurich, a hotbed of revolutionary ideas.
Before the end of the war, Tzara had assumed a position as Dada's main promoter and manager, helping the Swiss group establish branches in other European countries. Tzara and Ball opened the Galerie Dada permanent exhibit, through which they set contacts with the independent Italian visual artist Giorgio de Chirico and with the German Expressionist journal Der Sturm, all of whom were described as "fathers of Dada".
Tristan was the cultural ambassador to the Spanish Republic for the Writers’ Association for the Defense of Culture, and also had a lecture tour through Central and Eastern Europe for French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946.
From 1914 to 1915 Tristan was the member of the Communist Party.
Views
Tzara found and propagated Dada in Zurich during World War I, determined to find an alternative to tradition, history, and the continuation of what he considered the pernicious bourgeoisie.
During the final part of his career, Tzara combined his humanist and anti-fascist perspective with a communist vision and was devoted to these ideas.
Membership
Writers’ Association for the Defense of Culture
Interests
African art and poetry
Connections
Tristan was married to Swedish artist and poet Greta Knutson.