Arthur Cravan: The Disappearing Dadaist
Unconventional and provocative, did the Dada artist sometimes known as Arthur Cravan save his boldest work for last?
The last time anyone saw Arthur Cravan alive, he was sailing off, alone, into the Pacific Ocean on a leaky boat. The nephew of Oscar Wilde, he was a poet, a boxer, a fraudster, a draft-dodger – and, according to some, the inventor of performance art. He was also on the run. It was early November 1918. After arranging to meet his pregnant wife in Argentina, he had bought the only boat he could afford and set off from Puerto Angel in southern Mexico, intending to pick up some friends along the way. No one ever saw him again. No wreckage was ever found. No body was identified. It was as if he had vanished into thin air. What had happened to him? Had he drowned? Was he still alive, hiding out in Central America? Was it suicide? Even murder? Or, was it art?
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