Figure composition
Signed GK. Canvas 97 x 130 cm.
Colour loss. Minor tears. The canvas is slightly uneven.
Greta Knutson-Tzara was born in Stockholm in 1899 and became a versatile Swedish artist, writer and translator. Although she was active in the art world throughout her life, she has largely been forgotten.
In 1920, she moved to Paris to study art. There she became part of the avant-garde art scene and, in 1925, married the Dadaist Tristan Tzara. Their home in Montmartre became a meeting place for many famous Surrealist artists. Despite her connection to Surrealism, Greta developed her own style. Her art was mainly modernist and post-Cubist, with portraits, interiors and still lifes as common subjects.
During the Second World War, she left Paris and moved to southern France. Together with the poet René Char, she became involved in the French Resistance and helped refugees escape to Spain.
Greta was also talented with languages and worked as a translator between Swedish, French and German. In her later years, her art became more dreamlike and surreal.
She died in Paris in 1983. Today, her works can be found at, among others, the Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet and the Centre Pompidou. Greta Knutson-Tzara was an independent artist whose importance deserves to be recognized more widely.
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