Francis Picabia 1879-1953

Francis Picabia - Self portrait (1903)

Olga Picabia - Portrait (1930-35)

Francis Picabia was a French painter, illustrator, designer, writer and editor, who was successively involved with the art movements Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism. He was the son of a Cuban diplomat father and a French mother. After studying at the École des Arts Décoratifs (1895-–97), he painted for nearly six years in an Impressionist mode akin to that of Alfred Sisley. In 1909 he adopted a Cubist style, and, along with Marcel Duchamp, he helped found in 1911 the Section d'Or, a group of Cubist artists. Picabia went on to combine the Cubist style with its more lyrical variation known as Orphism in such paintings as I See Again in Memory My Dear Udnie (1913-–14) and Edtaonisl (1913). In these early paintings he portrayed assemblages of closely fitted, metallic-looking abstract shapes. As Picabia moved away from Cubism to Orphism, his colors and shapes became softer.

In 1915 Picabia traveled to New York, where he, Duchamp, and Man Ray began to develop what became known as an American version of Dada. Here Picabia exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, 291, and contributed to the proto-Dadaist review 291. About 1916 he gave up the Cubist style completely and began to produce the images of satiric, machine like contrivances that are his chief contribution to Dadaism. The drawing Universal Prostitution (1916-–19) and the painting Amorous Procession (1917) are typical of his Dadaist phase; their association of mechanistic forms with sexual allusions were successfully shocking satires of bourgeois values.

In 1916 Picabia returned to Europe. He settled in Barcelona, where he published the first issues of his own satiric journal 391 (named in reference to the New York review). He subsequently joined Dadaist movements in Paris and Zürich. In 1921 he renounced Dada on the grounds that it was no longer vital and had lost its capacity to shock. In 1925 he left Paris to settle in the south of France, where he experimented with painting in various styles. He returned to live in Paris in 1945, and he spent the final years of his life painting in a mostly abstract mode. Picabia was notable for his inventiveness, adaptability, absurdist humor, and disconcerting changes of style.

Picabia à dada (1919)

Picabia by Man Ray - 1923

Video on Francis Picabia

(paintings from various periods - source: YouTube)

Dadart and the Centre du XX^e Siècle are selling a photocopied reprint (with Picabia's permission) of his famous dada periodical, 391, with its critical apparatus, in two volumes, for 40 euros + postage.

In Dada & Modernist Magazines

391

Very comprehensive article on Picabia et 391.

391 n° 6 - Américaine

Midi (Promenade des Anglais) 1923/1926

We have no excuse for inserting this "painting" into a website on Dada, except that Dadart originates in Nice also. The explanation can be found in this article from The Boston Globe by Sebastian Smee, Picabia's mischievous postcard view of Nice.

"Picabia had split publicly from the other members of Dada a year or two before making this work. He felt that the iconoclastic movement was in danger of creating a "taste": "I was suffocating among them... I was getting terribly bored," he complained.

As these attitudes suggest, Picabia was irremediably naughty - and therein lies the source of his art's appeal."

Francis Picabia at the wheel of one of his many automobiles.

Francis Picabia - Villica-Caja in 1929

	Portrait d'une jeune fille américaine dans l'état de nudité -	(291, Nos 5-6, 1915)
Picabia in his studio		Gabrielle Picabia

In October 1964, the Editions du Temps published the first comprehensive monograph on Francis Picabia, now out of print. On December 4th of that year, friends and relatives of Francis gathered around the author, Michel Sanouillet, at the Galerie Carré, to sign the first copy. Among them were: René Clair, Max Ernst, Gabrielle Buffet-Picaba, Olga Picabia, Jeannine Bailly-Cowell Picabia, Jean et Marguerite Arp, Simone Breton-Collinet, Robert Valançay, Rodrigo de Zayas, Maurice Henry, Frédéric Deloffre, Camille Bryen, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, Jean-Jacques Lebel.

MoMA | The Collection | Francis Picabia

16 early paintings by Picabia with sources and commentaries.

Biography of Francis Picabia

Photos tagged with Francis Picabia

The Handsome Pork Butcher

The Handsome Pork Butcher (1924) wittily lampoons the conventions of traditional academic portrait painting. Rejecting grandiose settings and noble poses, this work was originally composed of household paint and sewing ephemera. Later Picabia substantially reworked the painting, creating a more complex image by superimposing a female face onto the original male portrait and replacing the variety of collage elements with just combs. Painted towards the end of his association with the Dada movement, this work demonstrates Picabia’s ability to combine artistic innovation with social satire.

Catch as Catch Can (1913)

Parade

L'Enfant carburateur

Tournez rare (1919)

Sold by:
Sotheby's on December 9, 2009 for 504.750 Euros (750.111 US$)
Having belonged to: Marcel Duchamp, Paris (Hôtel Drouot, Tableaux, aquarelles
et dessins par Francis Picabia appartenant à M. Duchamp, March 8, 1926)
André Breton, Paris
Simone Collinet, Paris (Galerie Furstenberg)
Matta, Paris (bought from Mme Collinet in the late 1950's)

Ici, c'est ici Stieglitz foi et amour

Réveil matin

La Feuille de vigne (1922)	Très rare tableau sur la terre (1915)	Danseuse étoile sur un transatlantique
Edtaonisl		Ville de New York aperçue à travers le corps