Timeline

Crotti was born in Switzerland and studied at the Arts Décoratifs School in Munich, before going to Paris to enrol at the Acadamie Julian in 1901. At this time he was fascinated by the Fauve and the Synethetist movements. He experimented with Cubism in 1911-12, and Orphism in 1913. But it wasn’t until 1915, when he abandoned a military assignment in the Caribbean to join Duchamp and Picabia in New York that he flourished in his own right.

In 1915 Jean Crotti shared a studio in New York with Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, and set up the influential avant-garde magazine “291” with Alfred Steiglitz, launching the Dada movement in America. Crotti’s mechanomorphic work on glass, became one of Dada’s trademarks, and inspired Marcel Duchamp’s “Large Glass”. Along with Picabia, Duchamp, and Gleizes, Crotti held many exhibitions in America, and in Europe.

After returning to France, in 1920 Crotti founded “Tabu-Dada”, (“Tabu”), which sought a projection of the sub-conscious and would later be an important source of inspiration for the Surrealists.

During his career he held many acclaimed shows in Europe and America, and in 1950 was awarded the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. After his death in 1958 he was honoured with retrospectives at the Musée Galliera in Paris, 1959; the Columbus Academy of Fine arts, Columbus, 1965.

The artist is represented in many museums including: Musée National d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre G.Pompidou; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London.