Arthur Cravan [born Fabian Avenarius Lloyd], 1887 Lausanne, Switzerland-1918 Gulf of Mexico.
Originally interested in Dada through the Barcelona group (via Picabia) where he had escaped the draft and WWI. He claimed to be the nephew of was Arthur Cravan, a natural Dadaist who claimed to be a nephew of Oscar Wilde. He was writing poetry but was better know as a very antagonistic critic of contemporary poetry and painting. The original writer/ professional prize fighter (before Hemingway) he had heard about Jack Johnson problems with the American authorities and he invited him for an international title since Johnson was world heavy-weight champion. Jack Johnson knocked him out in the first round - or the sixth according to other accounts- but the event gained fame as a true scandalous (later "dada") event (poet against world heavy weight champion). Following Picabia's suggestion, Cravan left Barcelona early in 1917 and came to New York, where Duchamp and Picabia, who had recently returned, arranged for him to give a lecture on modern art at the Grand Central Gallery. They hoped to create a scandal, and they were not disappointed. A large audience, which included many wealthy and socially prominent ladies eager for aesthetic enlightenment, waited for an hour or more until Cravan made his unsteady appearance and tottered up to the platform. He took off his jacket, muttering incoherently and waving his arms about. Then he began to remove his pants. He shouts insults and obscenities at the audience. The police, who had already been summoned, rushed out at this point and subdued him, and only some intervention by Walter Arensberg prevented his being thrown into jail. During that time he met a woman poet, Mina Loy, who was a futurist and they got married in Mexico City. A few months later, while sailing out of Salina Cruz (Gulf of Mexico) he disappeared. Mina Loy who was pregnant at the time never believed in his death and went back to Europe to look for him, convinced that his disappearance was a ploy to return to his free and tumultuous life on the continent.