1906 moves to Stampa. Attends the école des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and the city's applied arts school. 1920 travels to Rome by way of Florence. Subsequent trips to Pompeii, Naples, and Paestum. 1922 sculpture class under Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, Paris. 1927 becomes friends with the Surrealist circle, and takes part in the major Surrealist exhibitions of the following years. 1932 first solo show at the Galerie Pierre Colle, Paris. 1934 increasing contact with Samuel Beckett, Pablo Picasso, and Jean-Paul Sartre. 1954 meets the writer Jean Genet. Visits the ailing Matisse in Nice. 1965 major retrospectives in London, New York, and Amsterdam.
