SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Nicanor Parra, the Chilean artist and writer who described himself as an “antipoet,” died on Tuesday at the age of 103, the country’s president said.

Regarded as one of the most important Latin American poets of the 20th century, Parra remained active, eloquent and provocative throughout his long life.

“Chile lost one of the greatest authors in the history of our literature and a singular voice in Western culture,” President Michelle Bachelet wrote on social media.

Noted for his black humor, his sense of irony and his refusal to take poetry too seriously, his most influential work is probably the 1954 collection “Poems and Antipoems.” He was a friend of U.S. poet Allen Ginsberg and has often been cited as an influence on the Beat movement, as well as Chilean writers like Roberto Bolano. 

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