Francis Picabia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francis Picabia, 1913

Francis-Marie Martinez Picabia (born January 22, 1879 in Paris , France , † November 30, 1953 ibid) was a French writer , painter and graphic artist .

Life

education

Francis Picabia was the son of Francisco Vicente Martinez Picabia, a Cuban embassy employee of noble descent, and the French Marie Cécile Davanne, a commoner. The mother died of tuberculosis when he was seven years old. Since he was financially independent, he studied from 1895 to 1897 first at the École des arts décoratifs in Paris , then with Fernand Humbert and Albert Charles Wallet (1852-1918) and from 1899 with Fernand Cormon in his studio.

Exhibitions in Paris and New York

Francis Picabia (photograph taken between 1910 and 1915)
Marcel Duchamp , Francis Picabia and Beatrice Wood , New York 1917

Picabia changed the style several times. He began as an impressionist in the winter of 1902/03 and exhibited for the first time in 1903 at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants . He had his first solo exhibition in the Galerie Haussmann in Paris in 1905. In 1909 he painted his first picture with Caoutchouc , which dealt with Cubism and was at the same time abstract. However, he also processed elements of Fauvism and Neo-Impressionism .

In 1909 Francis Picabia and the music student Gabrielle Buffet married . The marriage, which had four children, ended in divorce in 1930.

1911 met Picabia at the Sunday meetings in the studio of Jacques Villon , among others, Fernand Léger , Roger de La Fresnaye , Albert Gleizes , Guillaume Apollinaire and Marcel Duchamp , whose friend he was familiar with, and participated in the same, and the following year at the Puteaux- Group . In 1913 he participated in the in New York held Armory Show in part, and Alfred Stieglitz , the Picabia in New York in the gallery 291 met, he established a solo exhibition of his works in his gallery. In 1912 he co-founded the Section d'Or alongside Marcel Duchamp, Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris and Jacques Villon .

In the USA he began the work of the "Mechanical Period" (1915–1921). The reasons for this lay in his visit to New York in 1915 and the resulting inspiration from the big city and its constant movement. The experience of a new dimension within the human-mechanical relationship led Picabia to the connection between title and image, which was found in the 1915 works of his mechanical period such as Ici, c´est ici Stieglitz, foi et amour, Portrait d´ une jeune fille americaine dans l´état de nudité, as can be seen in the portrait of Marius de Zayas and a self-portrait called Canter . The first works of the mechanical period appeared in the magazine founded in 1915 by Stieglitz, Marius de Zayas and Picabia, which they called 291 - with the same name as Stieglitz's gallery . Picabia developed in its mechanical period from humorous satirical portraits in 1915 to the sexual themes of 1917 and 1918 (works Prostitution Universelle, Machine tournez vite ) in the direction of the physical. In the last works, including Ortophone , the human and the mechanical are supposed to come together.

Foundation of the "391"

Picabia had a brief affair with Isadora Duncan and returned to Barcelona in 1917 . There he founded the Dada magazine 391 , the title was based on the 291 von Stieglitz; she paved the way for Dadaism in Europe with poetry, essays and graphics. The editions appeared from 1917 to 1924. In 1917 he met Joan Miró in Barcelona and met Marie Laurencin and Arthur Cravan , among others . At the invitation of Tristan Tzara , he became involved in the Dada movement in Zurich and helped found the Paris Dada movement in 1919, but broke away from it in 1922 and briefly approached surrealism .

Picabia at his home in Tremblay-sur-Mauldre

In 1922 he moved to Tremblay-sur-Mauldre near Paris with his new partner Germaine Everling, for whom he had the Château de Mai built in Mougins in 1924 , and returned to figurative art . In 1924 the last edition of 391 appeared , in which Picabia published an attack against André Breton . In December 1924 he starred in René Clair's Dadaist silent film Entr'acte . This film was part of the avant-garde ballet Relâche , for which Picabia had created the libretto . Erik Satie composed the music for the ballet and the film music for Cinema . It was the first time that a film was inserted into a play. The premiere took place in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and caused a tumult among the audience.

Picabia on the Cote d'Azur

From 1924 to 1928, after moving to Cannes , Picabia devoted himself again to a new style: In addition to Dadaist collages and paintings with Spanish subjects, he created the so-called monsters . These figurative representations mostly show couples whose facial features are distorted and depicted several times in the face of a single figure (e.g. Les Tropiques (Souvenir de Juan-les-Pins) from around 1925–1926). Already in the Monstres , the effect reminiscent of the superimposition of several faces indicated what Picabia was dealing with in his next group of works, the so-called Transparences .

Picabia was attracted to the concept of transparency and its technical implementation in oil painting . In the Transparances he interwoven numerous art-historical allusions in overlapping, transparent-appearing image levels, which in this combination create new, at times opaque levels of meaning. The Transparances are therefore one of Picabia's most eclectic creative phases. Picabia himself described the transparances as This third dimension, not made of light and shadow, these transparancies with their corner of oubliettes permit me to express for myself the resemblance of my interior desires ... I want a painting where all my instincts may have a free course ... William A. Camfield divides the transparances into two chronological phases: The first phase, from 1928 to 1932, he describes as transparancies or transparances (e.g. Sphinx from 1929 or Hera from approx. 1929) ; the subsequent superimpositions (1933 to 1940, e.g. Rêve from 1935) are characterized by even clearer lines and the decreasing number of overlapping image levels.

Later years

In the 1930s Picabia met Gertrude Stein , with whom he became friends and whom he portrayed in 1933. In 1940 he married Olga Mohler for the second time. Shortly before the Second World War , he turned to Impressionism again, following on from his early work. After the end of the war he returned to Paris; during this period his pictures became abstract and he wrote aphorisms . A trial in which he was to be charged with collaboration with the German occupation forces did not take place because he had suffered a stroke . Another followed in 1951, which led to symptoms of paralysis. Picabia died two years later in Paris. His tomb is on the Cimetière de Montmartre .

Francis Picabia is considered an eccentric artist who did not want to subordinate himself to any political or stylistic dogmas . He significantly influenced modern art , but above all Dadaism.

Exhibitions (selection)

Works (selection)

The following important information is missing from this article or section:
Location / owner missing
Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

  • Danseuse étoile sur un Transatlantique . 1913
  • Très rare tableau sur la terre . 1915
  • Portrait d'une jeune fille américaine dans l'état de nudité . 1915
  • Cinquante-Deux Miroirs . 1917
  • Machine, Tournez vite 1916-1918
  • Abstrait Lausanne . 1918
  • Pensées sans langage . 1919
  • Natures Mortes: Portrait de Cézanne, Portrait de Renoir, Portrait de Rembrandt , 1920
  • La femme aux allumettes 1920
  • La femme au chien . 1924-1926
  • Baigneuse . Around 1925–1926
  • Modèle vivant . Around 1924–1927
  • Masque en transparence . 1925-1928
  • Espagnole et agneau de l'apocalypse . Around 1927–1928
  • Ridens and Hera . Around 1929
  • Portrait de jeune fille . Around 1930
  • Portrait de femme . 1930-1931
  • Pieris . Around 1930–1931
  • Femme au serpent . 1939-1940
  • Two nus . Around 1941
  • Femme au chrysanthemum . Around 1942
  • Montparnasse . 1940-1941
  • Femme à la fenêtre et nue . Around 1941–1942
  • Suzanne . Around 1945
  • Bonheur de l'Aveuglement . 1947
  • Ça m'est égal . 1947
  • Bleu . 1949
  • L'encerclement . 1950
  • Mardi . 1951

Collected aphorisms / writings:

  • Francis Picabia: Our heads are round so that our thoughts can change direction. (= Small library for hand & head. Volume 31). Translated from the French by Pierre Gallissaires and Hanna Mittelstädt. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-89401-245-5
  • Francis Picabia: Ecrits 1913-1920 . Belfond Paris, 1975. ISBN 2-7144-0211-9
  • Francis Picabia: Ecrits 1921-1953 et posthumes . Belfond Paris, 1978. ISBN 2-7144-1120-7

script

literature

  • Allan Antliff: Anarchy and Art. Edition AV, Lich 2011, ISBN 978-3-86841-052-5 . (Contains a detailed chapter on Picabia's time in New York and his object portraits , in particular the portrait d'une jeune fille américaine dans l'état de nudit , depicted by a spark plug , which was directed against the Obscenity Laws.)
  • Annegret Boelke-Heinrichs among others: The 100 of the century. Painter. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-499-16456-6 , pp. 154/155.
  • William A. Camfield: The Machinist Style of Francis Picabia. New York 1966.
  • William A. Camfield: Francis Picabia his art, life and times. Princeton 1979, ISBN 0-691-03932-1 .
  • Arnould Pierre: Francis Picabia. La peinture sans aura. Paris 2002, ISBN 2-07-075893-1 .
  • Alexander Calder: Francis Picabia - Transparence. Exhibition catalog, Zurich. ed. by Alexander SC Rower. Ostfildern 2015, ISBN 978-3-7757-4052-4 .
  • Picabia et la Cote d'Azur. Exhibition catalog, Nice. ed. by Christian Arthaud. Nice 1991, ISBN 2-901412-42-4 .
  • Francis Picabia. Catalog raisonné. Volume II: 1915-1927. ed. from u. a. Camfield / Calté / Clements. Brussels / New Haven / London 2016.
  • Thomas Krens (foreword): Rendezvous. Masterpieces from the Center Georges Pompidou and the Guggenheim Museums . Guggenheim Museum Publications, New York 1998, ISBN 0-89207-213-X .

Web links

Wikiquote: Francis Picabia  - Quotes

"This visit to America ... has brought about a complete revolution in my methods of work ... Prior to leaving Europe I was engrossed in presenting psychological studies through the mediumship of forms which I created. Almost immediately upon coming to America it flashed on me that the genius of the modern world is in machinery and that through machinery art ought to find a most vivid expression. "

Commons : Francis Picabia  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beverley Calte: Francis Picabia. picabia.com, accessed December 9, 2014.
  2. ↑ Karin von Maur , Gudrun Inboden (arrangement): Painting and sculpture of the 20th century. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1982, p. 252.
  3. ↑ Richard Calvocoressi, Marianne Heinz, Judi Freeman a. a .: Picabia, 1879-1953. Edition Cantz, 1988, p. 37. (First edition: National Galleries of Scotland, 1988)
  4. ^ A b French Artists Spur On American Art. In: New York Tribune. October 24, 1915, p. 2.
  5. ^ William A. Camfield: The Machinist Style of Francis Picabia . New York 1966, p. 309 ff .
  6. ↑ a b Bernd Jordan (Ed.): The 100 of the century. Painter. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-499-16456-6 , p. 155.
  7. ↑ Grete Wehmeyer: Erik Satie. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998, ISBN 3-499-50571-1 , p. 113 ff.
  8. ^ William A. Camfield: Francis Picabia his art, life, and times . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1979, ISBN 0-691-03932-1 , pp. 229-254 .
  9. ^ Christian Arthaud: Picabia et la Côte d'Azur: exposition du 5 July to 6 October 1991 . Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, Nice 1991, ISBN 2-901412-42-4 .
  10. ↑ Alexander SC Rower (Ed.): Alexander Calder, Francis Picabia - Transparence. Exhibition catalog . Ostfildern 2015, p. 10-16 .
  11. ^ William A. Camfield: Francis Picabia his art, life, and times . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1979, ISBN 0-691-03932-1 , pp. 229 .
  12. ^ William A. Camfield: Francis Picabia his art, life, and times . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1979, ISBN 0-691-03932-1 , pp. 239 .
  13. ^ William A. Camfield: Francis Picabia his art, life, and times . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1979, ISBN 0-691-03932-1 , pp. 244-254 .
personal data
SURNAME Picabia, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Picabia, Francis-Marie Martinez (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer, painter and printmaker
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris , France
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1953
Place of death Paris , France