(Paris 1879–1953)
Untitled, ca. 1938/39, signed Francis Picabia, gouache on cardboard, 75.8 x 52.8 cm, framed

Photo-Certificate:
Beverley Calté, Comité Picabia, Paris, 16 October 2023

Provenance:
Galerie de 4 Mouvements, Paris, 1977
Private Collection, Germany

Exhibited/Literature:
Cologne, Galerie Michael Werner, Francis Picabia, 14 March – 15 April 1980, exhib. cat. no. 10, p. 58 with ill.
Berlin, Galerie Springer, 18 April – 17 Mai, 1980
Hamburg, Galerie Neuendorf, 20 May – 20 June, 1980
Munich, Galerie Fred Jahn, 24 June – 23 July, 1980

Literature:
William A. Camfield, Beverley Calté, Candace Clements, Pierre Arnauld, Francis Picabia, Catalogue Raisonné vol. III, 1927–1939, Brussels 2019, p. 404, no. 1550 with b/w-ill., Inv. 1800

Self-invention and self-extinction are important constants in Picabia's life but also in his work. Born in Paris in 1879, the artist was a follower of Nietzsche’s nihilism and therefore quickly found access and recognition in the Zurich Dada group in 1918. The fact that he did not want to limit himself to one style is only one facet of a highly complex personality. Marcel Duchamp, with whom Francis Picabia had been friends since 1911, described the back and forth as a "kaleidoscopic series of art experi­ments that were barely related to each other in their appearances, but marked by a strong personality."

The 1930s, leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War – the period in which the two artworks set for auction were created – show a rare consistency in Picabia’s personal life circumstances, alongside a certain volatility in his approach to painting. Apart from a group of abstract compositions, his entire body of work during this period remained figurative. However, within these figurative works, a variety of shifting styles emerged, encompassing elements of both realism and transparency. Picabia’s transparency paintings commenced around 1927, spanning a period of nearly five years. During this phase, he layered individual motifs in simultaneous depictions, an effect reminiscent of multiple photographic exposures. The paintings coalesce into an illusionistic, enigmatic allegory of a surreal dream or transcendental experience, resisting conventional interpretation. Gaston Ravel offered his own perspective: “The multi-layered impressions we’ve used and exploited in our films”, said the French director, “are here rendered immobile by his magical brush!” What might “at first glance appear somewhat perplexing” gradually becomes clear: “It’s a marvel! It’s an enchantment, a – perhaps unintentional – homage to cinema.” Picabia revisited the concept of superimposition towards the end of the 1930s. Unlike the intricately layered surfaces of his earlier Transparencies, the current “portrait” represents the evolution of this technique. Stripped down to the essential elements of the dominant figure’s head and three birds, they are captured with bold brushstrokes, enveloped by a radiant, deep blue.