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Francis Picabia




Francis-Marie Martinez Picabia ( January 28 , 1879 - November 30 , 1953 ) was a well-known painter and poet born of a French mother and a Spanish father who was an attaché at the Cuban legation in Paris, France .

Born in Paris , he studied at École Des Beaux-Arts and École Des Arts Decoratifs . In the beginning of his career, from 1903 to 1908 , he was influenced by the Impressionist painting of Alfred Sisley . From 1909 , he came under the influence of the Cubists and the Golden Section (Section D'Or) .

Around 1911 he joined the Puteaux Group , which met at the studio of Jacques Villon in the village of Puteaux. There he became friends with artist Marcel Duchamp . Some of the group's members were, Apollinaire , Albert Gleizes , Roger De La Fresnaye , Fernand Leger and Jean Metzinger .

, ''Machine Turn Quickly'', .]]

From 1913 to 1915 Picabia traveled to New York City several times and took active part in the avant-garde movements, introducing '' Modern Art '' to America. These years can be characterized as Picabia's Proto-Dada period, consisting mainly of his Portraits Méchaniques . Later, in 1916 , while in Barcelona he started his well-known Dada periodical ''391'', in which he published his first ''mechanical drawings''. He continued the periodical with the help of Duchamp in America.

, ''Hera'', c. 1929 , oil on cardboard, 105 x 75 cm, private collection.]]
Picabia continued his involvement in the Dada movement through 1919 in Zürich and Paris , before breaking away from it after developing an interest in Surrealist art. (See ''Cannibale'', 1921 .) Again he changed his style in 1925 , when he returned to figurative painting.

During the 1930s , he became a close friend of Gertrude Stein . Before the end of World War II , 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 spring 1949 .

In addition to artistic activities, Picabia was a significant collector of automobiles, owning as many as 150 of them.

Francis Picabia died in Paris on November 30 , 1953 .

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


SEE ALSO

, (c. 1929), gouache and watercolor on cardboard, 104 x 74 cm, private collection.


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