1879 -1953 · Impressionism, abstraction, Dada and modern metamorphoses

Bright landscapes, ironic machines, words, transparencies and incessant changes of style make Francis Picabia one of the most free and unpredictable artists of the 20th century.

Francis Martinez de Picabia was born in Paris in 1879 into a family of Cuban and French origin. Trained at the School of Decorative Arts, he began by painting landscapes close to impressionism and met with success at the Salon and in the galleries. The banks of the Loing or the port of Saint-Tropez show a divided touch, attentive to reflections and atmospheric variations. Around 1909, Picabia suddenly broke with this manner. Rubber, then the big ones compositions from 1912 and 1913, engage him in abstraction. Dance, movement, music and memory replace the description of the landscape. His presence at the Armory Show in New York in 1913 gave him an international dimension and strengthened his friendship with Marcel Duchamp. During the First World War, between New York, Barcelona and Switzerland, he invented mechanical portraits where wheels, pistons and industrial diagrams became ironic images of the modern individual. He founded the magazine 391, wrote poetry and manifestos, participated in Dada activities then publicly broke with the movement in 1921. The Cacodylate Eye, covered with signatures, inscriptions and drawings from his friends, transformed the canvas into space collective and provocative. Picabia then refuses any stylistic fidelity. Monsters, Spaniards, Transparencies superimposing several figures, nudes inspired by magazines, pseudo-classicism and late abstractions follow one another. He also participates in the film Entr'acte by René Clair and the shows by Rolf de Maré. This mobility is not a hesitation but a critical method: changing style allows you to escape schools, good taste and stable identity. Died in Paris in 1953, Picabia left a deliberately contradictory work which continues to challenge the linear narratives of modern art. The "Francis Picabia" selection notably compares Les Bords du Loing, autumnal effect and Le Port of Saint-Tropez, sun effect. Its reading favors movement.

Picabia makes change a discipline: each style is adopted with intensity, then abandoned as soon as it threatens to become an identity or a rule.