Picabia, Francis

(1879-1953)

   painter and writer

   Born in Paris, Francis Picabia, who is associated with several avant-garde movements, studied at several studios and was especially influenced by alfred sisley. Up to 1907, he painted impressionist landscapes, then went over to cubism (Caoutchouc, 1908, Udnie ou la danse, 1913). In 1913, he made his first visit to New York City, where he enjoyed success, but his works, exhibited at the Armory Show, also provoked controversy. He returned again in 1915 with marcel duchamp, with whom, along with Man Ray, he had proposed a "pre-Dada" style. At this time, until the early 1920s, Picabia produced another distinctive body of work, in which the human form is drawn in the style of mechanical illustrations (Paroxysme de la douleur, M'amenez-y). This iconoclastic spirit is found in 39I, the dadaist magazine Picaba published between 1917 and 1924. After 1924, he broke completely with the dadaists, including André breton, and began a period of expressionism (La Femme au monocle), worked on collages (Les Centimetres), and helped to create a collaborative performance piece with music by erik satie. In 1928, he retired to the Midi and returned to figurative painting until 1945. Picaba's writings (Poèmes et dessins de la fille née sans mère, 1918; Pensée sans langage, 1919) are also expressions of his free, unfettered, and nondogmatic style. A number of Picabia's theories from the dada period became the basis for the tenets of neodadaism, pop art, and conceptual art.