Born in a liberal middle class Jewish family, he arrived in Paris in 1929, 17 years old, and was admitted into the "Acadèmie de la Grande Chaumière".
He socialized in Gertrude and Leo Stein's circle and makes friends with famous people such as Jean Cocteau, Francis Picabia, Paul Éluard, Robert Desnos, Max Ernst, Pierre Tal-Coat and Youki Foujita.
During World War II he sought refuge in the "Zone libre" but in 1942 was arrested in Golfe Juan as a Jewish foreigner and sent to Auschwitz then to Blechhammer (Judenlager), while an exhibition of his work together with Picabia's in Cannes enjoyed a great success.
[2] Seriously ill, he returned to France in 1945, and spent months recovering in Grasse at his friend Dor de la Souchère's in Cannes.
In 1946 in Golfe Juan, he met Picasso again, and obtained for him a large studio in the Grimaldi museum in Antibes, given by Dor de la Souchère.