Wilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollonaris de Kostrowicki (pseudonyme:
Guillaume Apollinaire), born on August 26, 1880, in Rome, Italy. His
Russian-born mother, Angelica Kostrovicka, claimed belonging to Polish
Szlachta nobility. His father is unknown. His mother was later gambling
and living in Monaco. There young Apollinaire received a French college
education and assumed the identity of a Russian Prince.
Apollinaire was fluent in French, Russian, and Italian. He settled in
Paris at the age of 20, and worked for a bank. In 1903 he founded his
own magazines, 'Le Festin d'Esope', and 'La Revue immoraliste',
alluding to the 1902 work of his friend André Gide. He also published
semi-pornographic books. His first collection of poetry was
'L'enchanteur pourissant' (1909). With the publication of 'Alcools'
(aka.. Alcohols) (1913) Apollinaire established his reputation as a
highly original voice in modern poetry. 'Alcools' includes poems
written over 15 years, ranging from transcriptions of street
conversations to classical verse forms in combination with experimental
imagery and absence of punctuation. It's opening poem 'Zone' is a
depiction of the tormented poet, who is wandering after the loss of his
girlfriend.
In 1909 Apollinaire brought Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque together. In 1911 he
helped them organize the Cubist room 41 at the Salon des Independants.
Living at 'La Ruche' artists community at Monparnasse, he was arranging
art shows and writing reviews about his friends, such as Henri Matisse,
Marc Chagall, Giorgio De Chirico, Andre Derain, Marcel Duchamp, Ossip Zadkine, Pablo Picasso,
Georges Braque, and other artists. He collaborated with writers Max Jacob,
Blaise Cendrars, Jean Cocteau, Pierre Reverdy, Gertrude Stein. Apollinaire was the artistic
adviser to Sergei Diaghilev and worked with the "Ballets Russes" in Paris. He
write librettos and collaborated with composers Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc
among others.
He had a talent of bringing great people together and producing a
lasting impact on the world of art. After his successful introduction
of Picasso and Braque, which conceived Cubism, he was instrumental in
other productive partnerships. Apollinaire's role in art and literature
may be paralleled to that of Gertrude Stein. In 1918, Apollinaire organized
the first comparative exhibition of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse on
Montparnasse. He also published a Matisse-Picasso catalogue, where he
wrote an article about the two artists. Apollinaire stimulated the
extraordinary artistic dialogue between Matisse and Picasso, which took
a form of a "visual conversation" and a continuous exchange of their
paintings with mutual respect.
Apollinaire's unusual personality was an example of disobedience being
an essential part of his powerful innovative creativity. He forged a
reputation of himself as a dangerous foreigner and thief. He was once
detained for a week on suspicion of stealing the Leonaro's Mona Lisa
from the Louvre, which was soon found to be untrue. He helped define
the movement of Cubism, in his writings about Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.
Apollinaire also coined the term Surrealism in his program note for the
ballet 'Parade' by composer Erik Satie and librettist Jean Cocteau. He wrote
his own play ''Les Mamelles de Tiresias' in the style described as
surrealist. He also coined the term Orphism in definition of such group
of artists as Robert Dalauney, Fernand Leger, Francis Picabia, and Frantisek
Kupka. Apollinaire applied the term Metaphysical art to his definition
of the early works by Giorgio De Chirico.
Though he never publicly admitted his authorship, Apollinaire wrote the
well-known erotic novel 'Les Onze Mille Verges' (The Eleven Thousand
Rods, 1907). Various underground printings of it circulated widely for
many years, while it was officially banned in France until 1970, then
it was made into a film titled 'The 11,000 Sexes' (1975). Apollinaire
is also credited for another erotic novel 'Les Exploits d'un jeune Don
Juan' (The Exploits of Don Juan), which was made into an eponymous
movie in 1987.
In 1914, at the beginning of the First World War, Apollinaire took the
Franch nationality and enlisted in the Army with the goal to liberate
Poland from Russia. He fought at the front-line and was seriously
wounded in the head. After that he became engaged to a schoolteacher
named Madeleine Pages. Then he met Jacqueline Kolb (La Jolie Rousse),
whom he married in 1918. She was Apollinaire's last romance and the
inspiration behind some of his risqué poems. During the war he wrote
experimental 'Calligrammes' (1918), also known as "Word Pictures", a
collection of his concrete poetry, in which typography and layout adds
to the overall effect of his verses.
Guillaume Apollinaire contracted influenza during the 'Spanish Flu'
pandemic of 1918. He died on November 9, 1918, in Paris, France, and
was laid to rest in the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise.
Pablo Picasso depicted Apollinaire as 'Pierrot' in several important
paintings. Henri Matisse made several portraits of Apollinaire.
