Gherasim Luca (; 23 July 1913 – 9 February 1994) was a Romanian

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

theorist A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. Born Salman Locker in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and also known as Costea Sar, and Petre Malcoci, he became an apatrid (stateless person) after leaving Romania in 1952.

Early life

Born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

the son of

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish tailor Berl Locker (died 1914), he spoke

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Career

During 1938, he traveled frequently to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

where he was introduced to surrealists.

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the official

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

in Romania forced him into local

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

. During the pre-

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

period of Romanian independence, he founded a surrealist artists group with

Gellu Naum Gellu Naum (1 August 1915 – 29 September 2001) was a Romanian poet, dramatist, novelist, children's writer, and translator. He is remembered as the founder of the Romanian Surrealist group. The artist Lyggia Naum, his wife, was the inspiration ...

, Paul Păun, Virgil Teodorescu and

Dolfi Trost Dolfi or Dolphi Trost (1916 in Brăila – 1966 in Chicago, Illinois) was a Romanian surrealist poet, artist, and theorist, and the instigator of entopic graphomania. Together with Gherasim Luca, he was the author of '' Dialectique de la dia ...

. His first publications, including poems in French followed. He was the inventor of

cubomania Cubomania is a Surrealist technique of making collages by cutting an image into squares and reassembling without regard for the original image at random to create something new. The technique was invented by the Romania Romania is a cou ...

and, in 1945 with Dolfi Trost, authored " Dialectic of Dialectic", a

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

of the surrealist movement Surautomatism. Harassed in Romania and caught while trying to flee the country, he left Romania in 1952, and moved to Paris through

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. There he worked among others with

Jean Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (; ; 16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born Hans Peter Wilhelm Ar ...

Paul Celan Paul Celan (; ; born Paul Antschel; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a German-speaking Romanian poet, Holocaust survivor, and literary translation, literary translator. He adopted his pen name (an anagram of the Romanian spelling Ancel ...

, François Di Dio and

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

, producing numerous

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

s, drawings, objects, and text-installations. From 1967, his reading sessions took him to

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Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

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, and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The 1988 TV-portrait by Raoul Sanglas, ''Comment s'en sortir sans sortir'', made him famous for a larger readership.

Personal life

At the end of the 1980s, Luca's residence building in Montmartre was deemed insalubrious by the French authorities. In order to be relocated to another building, he had to justify his citizenship. As he had been without one ever since leaving Romania, he acquired French citizenship by marrying his long time partner. He died on 9 February 1994, at the age of 80. The cause of death was

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

Selected works

Luca initially wrote most of his poetic works in his native Romanian. Two collections of these, ''Inventatorul Iubirii'' and ''Un lup văzut printr-o lupă,'' published in Bucharest in 1945, were translated into English (''The Inventor of Love and Other Works'') by Julian and Laura Semilian and published by Black Widow Press in 2009. With the authorisation of éditions Corti, a forthcoming chapbook of his poems translated by

Fiona Sze-Lorrain Fiona Sze-Lorrain (born 1980) is a writer, poet, literary translator, editor, and musician. She writes in English and translates from Chinese and French. Her fiction, poetry, and translations have received recognition, shortlisted and longliste ...

will be featured in "Poetry International", Issue no. 15, Spring 2010. * ''Un loup à travers une loupe'', Bucharest, 1942. Poems in prose, initially published in Romanian. Later translated into French by Gherasim Luca. Apart from ''Ce Château Pressenti'', they remained unpublished in French until 1998, Éditions José Corti * ''Quantitativement aimée'', Éditions de l'Oubli, Bucharest, 1944 * ''Le Vampire passif'', Éditions de l'Oubli, Bucharest 1945 * '' Dialectique de la dialectique'', together with Dolfi Trost, Éditions surréalistes, Bucharest, 1945 * ''Les Orgies des Quanta'', Éditions de l'Oubli, Bucharest 1946 * ''Amphitrite, Éditions de l’Infra-noir'', Bucharest 1945 * ''Le Secret du vide et du plein'', Éditions de l'Oubli, Bucharest 1947 * ''Héros-Limite'', Le Soleil Noir, Paris 1953 with an engraving and three drawings * ''Ce Château Pressenti'', Méconnaissance, Paris 1958, with

frontispiece Frontispiece may refer to: * Frontispiece (books), a decorative illustration facing a book's title page * Frontispiece (architecture) In architecture, the term frontispiece is used to describe the Façade, principal face of the building, usually ...

and engraving by

Victor Brauner Victor Brauner (, also spelled Viktor Brauner; 15 June 1903 – 12 March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealism (art), surrealist movement. Early life He was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a Jewish timber manufac ...

. This poem is part of ''Un loup à travers une loupe'' * ''La Clef'', Poème-Tract, 1960, Paris * ''L'Extrême-Occidentale'', Éditions Mayer,

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

1961 with 7 engravings by Jean Arp, Brauner, Max Ernst, Jacques Hérold,

Wifredo Lam Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by ...

Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), usually known simply as Matta, also as Sebastián Matta or Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known Painting, painters and a seminal figure in 20th ...

Dorothea Tanning Dorothea Margaret Tanning (25 August 1910 – 31 January 2012) was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet. Her early work was influenced by Surrealism. Biography Dorothea Tanning was born and raised in Galesburg, Illinois. ...

* ''La Lettre'', no editor mentioned, Paris, 1960 * ''Le Sorcier noir'', with Jacques Hérold, Paris 1996 * ''Sept slogans ontophoniques'', Brunidor, Paris 1963 with engravings by Augustin Fernandez, Enrique Zanartu,

Gisèle Celan-Lestrange ''Giselle'' is a ballet. Giselle, Gisele, Gisèle, Gisselle, may also refer to: People * Giselle (given name), a given name and list of people with the name * Gisele (given name) and 'Gisèle', a given name and list of people with the name * Gisel ...

, Jacques Hérold. * ''Poésie élémentaire'', Éditions Brunidor,

Vaduz Vaduz (; or ; High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' ...

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

, 1966 * ''Apostroph'Apocalypse'', Éditions Upiglio,

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

1967 with fourteen engravings by Wifredo Lam * ''Sisyphe Géomètre'', Éditions Givaudan, Paris, 1967 Book-sculpture designed by Piotr Kowalski * ''Droit de regard sur les idées'', Brunidor, Paris, 1967 * ''Déférés devant un tribunal d'exception'', no editor mentioned, Paris, 1968. * ''Dé-Monologue'', Brunidor, Paris, 1969 with two engravings by Micheline Catty * ''La Fin du monde'', Éditions Petitthory, Paris 1969 with frontispiece by Micheline Catty and five drawings by Ghérasim Luca * ''Le Tourbillon qui repose'', Critique et Histoire, 1973 * ''Le Chant de la carpe'', Le Soleil Noir, Paris, 1973 with sonogram and sculpture by Kowalski * ''Présence de l'imperceptible'', Franz Jacob, Châtelet; with no date of publication * ''Paralipomènes'', Le Soleil Noir, Paris 1976 with a cubomania by Luca * ''Théâtre de Bouche'', Criapl'e, Paris, 1984 with an engraving and nine drawings by Micheline Catty. * ''Satyres et Satrape'', Éditions de la Crem, Barlfeur, 1987 * ''Le Cri'', Éditions Au fil de l'encre, Paris, 1995 Others: * ''La proie s'ombre'' * ''La voici la voie silanxieuse'' * ''Levée d'écrou'', Éditions José Corti, 2003 In English translation: * ''The Passive Vampire'', Twisted Spoon, 2009. Tr. by Krzysztof Fijalkowski. * ''The Inventor of Love & Other Works'', Black Widow Press, 2009. Tr. by Laura and Julian Semilian. * ''Self-Shadowing Prey'', New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2012. Translation and introduction by Mary Ann Caws. * ''Something is Still Present and Isn't, of What's Gone''. A bilingual anthology of avant-garde and avant-garde inspired Rumanian poetry, Aracne editrice, 2018. Edited and translated by Victor Pambuccian. In Spanish translation: * ''La zozobra de la lengua'', El Desvelo Ediciones, Santander, 2018, 368 p. (translation in Spanish of French and Romanian poems by Catalina Iliescu, Vicente Gutiérrez Escudero, Jesús García Rodríguez y Eugenio Castro; introductory study by Vicente Gutiérrez Escudero). * ''Héroe límite'', añosluz editora, Buenos Aires, 2022. Tr. by Mariano Fiszman.

Filmography

* ''Comment s'en sortir sans sortir'' (1988), directed by Raoul Sangla, in which Gherasim Luca recites eight of his poems in a very sober setting.

References

External links

(in French, authorized by copyright holder)

(in French, authorized by copyright holder) {{DEFAULTSORT:Luca, Gherasim Romanian collage artists 20th-century Romanian poets Romanian male poets Romanian surrealist writers Romanian writers in French Jewish Romanian artists Jewish poets Writers from Bucharest Jewish Romanian writers Romanian emigrants to France Suicides by drowning in France 1913 births 1994 suicides 20th-century Romanian male writers 1994 deaths