Beschreibung:

Jeudi (Thursday) signed and dated 'Francis Picabia 1951' (lower right) oil on canvas, 46x38,5 cm Provenance: -Anon. sale, Loudmer Paris, 23 March 1992, cat. no. 175. -Collection Galerie Beaubourg, Marianne and Pierre Nahon, Ventes. -Galerie Lasés, Amsterdam, where acquired by the present owner. Literature: M.L. Borràs, 'Picabia', London 1985, p. 500, cat. no. 1149, illustrated. 'Francis Picabia Anthology', p. 195, cat. no. 124, illustrated in colour. Exhibited: -Paris, Palais des Congrès, 'Picabia: dandy et héraut de l'art du XXe siècle', 1980-81, cat. no. 79. -Milan, Studio Marconi, 'Picabia, Opere 1898-1951', February - March 1986, cat. no. 48, illustrated in colour. -Florence, Galleria Vivita 1, 'Francis Picabia', 14 October - 10 December 1988, p. 47, illustrated in colour. -Montrouge, 39ème Salon de Montrouge, 'Picabia et Montrouge-Barcelone', April - May 1994, p. 56, illustrated in colour. -Lisbon, Centro Cultural de Belém, 'Francis Picabia antologia/anthology', 1997, p. 195, cat. no. 36, illustrated in colour. -Vence, Galerie Beaubourg, 'Picabia', July - October 1998. The elusive and mercurial Francis Picabia (1879-1953) dedicated his life escaping any and every label that could possibly be put on him, whether it regarded his personal life or his artistic endeavours. In 1912 a New York Times critic called him the “Cuban who out-cubed the Cubists”, much to Picabia’s pleasure, as he loved to provoke and to play up his “exotic” background. Born in Paris to a wealthy Cuban father and a French mother with her own fortune, Picabia actually never fitted in any specific culture or art scene, nor could he or would he play the ‘poor Romantic painter’ card. After studying at the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Picabia tries his hand at Impressionism, but whereas Monet and his colleagues work en plein air, Picabia uses postcards as inspiration. This approach is key to his art: he is playing with the assumptions and structures of a certain style, translating these into a ready-made style, and thus questioning the whole movement altogether. The next typical Picabia move is to then make a clean break and jump to a completely different style, while vehemently condemning the previous one. This procedure would become Picabia’s very trademark. Picabia’s career is one that covers most art movements of the first half of the 20th century. After a brief period of experimenting with Impressionism and Fauvism, he transitions to Cubism, only to denounce the latter again at the onset of World War I. During WWI Picabia spends quite some time in New York, then a haven for European artists escaping the war. Here he plays a catalytic role in bringing modern art to America. He dives head over heels into Dadaism together with his Dada friends Marcel Duchamp Man Ray and the photographer Alfred Stieglitz His Portraits Mécaniques, in which bodies morph into pistons and pumps, were exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery 291 while Stieglitz’s journal of the same name carries numerous other Picabia’s Dada contributions. Travelling between New York, Zürich and Barcelona, Picabia picks up new artistic ideas and art friends as new toys to play with, ever ready to let go of them as soon as he becomes captivated by new ones. By 1920 Dada slowly sizzles out and we see Picabia denounce the movement in his typical way with the cryptic statement: “I separated from Dada because I believe in happiness and I loathe vomiting; the smells of cooking make a rather unpleasant impression on me.” Dadaism is followed by a short fling with Surrealism while the frenzied mood of the 1920s and 1930s is reflected in Picabia’s skipping between abstraction, figuration and optical illusion on an almost daily basis. Time and time again he is playing with the fictional idea of originality and the boundaries of good taste. Materials like household paint, feathers and pasta are put to good use in his everlasting attempt to deliberately mock the holiness of a certain style. In 1937, P