Lately, I’ve been pondering some of the artists whose work I appreciate.

One of my favorites, at least this season, is…

Francis Picabia

The french painter Francis Picabia is best known as an early pioneer of the Dada movement.

Childhood: Picabia was born in Paris, January 22, 1879, the son of a Cuban diplomat father, and a French mother. From 1895-1897 he studied art at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Picabia studied under Fernand Cormon who took him into his academy at 104 boulevard de Clichy.

Early in his career he was a successful painter of Impressionist landscapes. He was also a very strong aphorist, which shows the influence of Nietzsche, the only writer he read with anything approaching real seriousness. He was influenced by the impressionist painting of Alfred Sisley.

As a painter, he considered himself a rival to Picasso, and when he couldn’t paint, he wrote poems, aphorisms, manifestos and diatribes.

His style: He painted his first abstract work in 1912. He visited New York in 1913 for the Cubist pictures in the Armory show, and Alfred Stieglitz gave him a solo exhibition at his gallery 291.

Later, in 1916, he started his well-known Dada periodical 391 with Barcelona Marie Laurencin and Robert and Sonia Delaunay.

Apart from his contributions to avant-garde magazines, Picabia published various pamphlets and wrote poetry.

Before breaking away from it after developing an interest in Surrealist art, Picabia continued his involvement in the Dada movement through 1919 in Zürich and Paris.

He found inspiration in the works of Henri Matisse and changed his manner of painting to Fauvism.

Exhibitions: Picabia travelled to New York City several times and took active part in the avant-garde movements. Some credit him with introducing modern art to America. These years can be characterized as Picabia’s proto-Dada period, consisting mainly of his portraits mécaniques, published in “291″.

With his brilliant reputation firmly established after the exhibition at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1909, Picabia abandons the past.

In 1940, he produced a series of paintings based on the nude glamour photos in French “girlie” magazines like “Paris Sex-Appeal”, in a garish style which appears to subvert traditional, academic nude painting. The work of American artists, John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage are contemporary threads to his work from this period.

Here’s a bit of trivia – in addition to artistic activities, Picabia was a significant collector of automobiles (way before Jay Leno).

In recent years, a Picabia painting has sold for as much as $1.6 million.

Towards the end: He returned to Paris where he resumed abstract painting and writing poetry. A large retrospective of his work was held at the Galerie René Drouin in Paris in the spring of 1949. Francis Picabia died in Paris in 1953 and was interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre.

The reason I admire Picabia’s work is not just because of the stylistic range. However, because of that, it’s easy to find work to like from an artist who explored or created so many styles in his career.

In addition to these various periods of work he wholeheartedly embraced, his later overlay work seems so fresh today – even though this work was painted more than a half a century ago.

I continue to admire and love his work. Hopefully there will be a good retrospective soon so Picabia can be seen once again amongst his peers.

©Wendy Coad, 2009

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEBSITE?

You can as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Renowned artist Wendy Coad, publishes the popular “Wendy Coad Art Newsletter” biweekly, bringing great art information, news, updates, articles, exhibitions and features from an artist’s perspective. Join subscribers from around the world and get your FREE art news, articles and tips now at http://www.wendycoad.com.