Belgian musician, poet, collagist, exhibition organizer, and dealer, born in Brussels. He was a talented composer in his youth, but he gave this up in 1923 to concentrate on poetry. His interest in the visual arts developed under the influence of *Duchamp and *Picabia, whom he met in Paris in 1921, and he was influenced towards *Surrealism by the paintings of *de Chirico. He became a friend and champion of *Magritte and a highly active figure in the Surrealist movement, although more as an organizer than an artist. In 1936 he was the Belgian representative on the committee of the International Surrealist Exhibition in London, and he settled there in 1938. He became director of the London Gallery in Cork Street, the headquarters of Surrealism in England, organizing exhibitions of the work of many European artists there (including *Ernst, *Schwitters, and *Tanguy); he also edited the gallery's publication, the London Bulletin, an important documentary source for the period (it ran for twenty issues, 1938–40; the first issue was called London Gallery Bulletin).