What Has Become ·of Them?
A Check-List of European Artists, Writers and Musicians
EDITOR's
NoTE:
As the war continues, reshaping the structure of
European society, scattering writers and artists througlwut the world, it
seems useful to try and set down the most recent available information
on what
has
happened to the more significant representatives of European
culture. In the following notes, WiLliam Petersen has summarized data
obtained from the newspapers, from publishers' releases, from personal
interviews and letters. Because of the nature of the subject, it is impossible
to get completely reliable information: no doubt some of the data given
below are already obsolete (or were never true in the first place.) Nor is
completeness possible with any technique slwrt of a WPA project: Mr.
Petersen u:as able to learn nothing definite about such important figures as
Brancusi, Miro, Cocteau, and LeCorbusier. We invite our readers
to
sup·
plement and correct the information given below, and we shall be glad to
print any letters we receive on the mb ject.
PAINTERS
Among the artists now in Paris are:
Pablo Picasso, Henri Laurens,
Georges Rouault, Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, Cesar Domela,
and
possibly also
Constantin Brancusi.
Until last October, Picasso was in
Royan, in the unoccupied territory; he then went to Paris intending to go
to Marseille and thence to Mexico. But some difficulty arose, apparently
because he is a Spanish citizen, and he has not been allowed to leave occu·
pied territory. (Another report is that friends in America urged him to
come here but that he refused to desert Paris; still another states that he
has been stripped of all his possessions.)
Hans Arp
and his painter-wife,
Sophie Henriette Tiiuber-Arp,
were at
their home in Meudon, near Paris, until the invasion. They are now in the
south of France, hoping to come to America.
Max Ernst, Andre Derain,
and
Andre Masson
are also in unoccupied France, and Ernst is also arrang–
ing for an American visa.
Marc Chagall
is living near Avignon.
Henri–
Matisse
has remained at his home in Nice.
Rene Magritte,
who was in
Brussels when Belgium was invaded, is now in the south of France. Nothing
has been heard from
Paul Delvaux,
who was also in Brussels. The sculp–
tor,
Gonzalez,
and his son-in-law,
Hartung
are in southern France.
Vasily
Kandinsky
is in Vichy.
lean Helion
sailed from the United States in January of last year to
join the French army; he is now a prisoner somewhere in Germany.
Oskar
Kokoschka
is still living in London.
Ben Niclwlson
and
Barbara Hepworth
are in Cornwall, as is also
Naum Cabo.
Of those in the United States,
several have been here for some time-for example,
Giorgio de Chirico
59
