Francis PICABIA (1879-1953) [FRANCE] - Lot 23

Lot 23
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120000 - 180000 EUR
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Result : 130 000EUR
Francis PICABIA (1879-1953) [FRANCE] - Lot 23
Francis PICABIA (1879-1953) [FRANCE] La paysanne, circa 1941-1942 Oil on cardboard. Signed lower right. 45.3 x 37.8 cm Antique label on the back inscribed: n° 47 La paysanne Certificate of inclusion in the Picabia catalog raisonné from Madame Beverley Calté dated May 11, 2017. Bibliography: Catalog raisonné of the artist, Tome IV (1940-1953), illustrated under no. 1682. Exhibition: Aix-en-Provence, Musée Granet, "Picasso-Picabia, la peinture au défi", September 9-23, 2018, illustrated p. 224. In June 1940, fleeing the German occupation, Francis Picabia settled with Olga Mohler in Golfe-Juan and married her. Since 1938 and the end of a psychologically and artistically difficult decade (marked by abstractionist or neo-Dadaist hesitations), Picabia renewed his inspiration by pastiching or quasi-reproducing photographs from newspaper covers: actresses or starlets, suggestive nudes from charm magazines (Paris Magazine, Paris sexappeal, Voici Paris), heroes or heroines in naive pauses or erotic situations. Some female portraits are literally painted after photographs of contemporary stars (Greta Garbo, Danielle Darrieux, Viviane Romance). Some, such as Max-Pol Fouchet, were scandalized by the return of the pompous and vulgar. On the contrary, historians today see in the stereotyped nature of the faces, in the artificiality of the scenes, an unsurprising boldness from one of the inventors of Dada: the denunciation of the artificial and superficial, an anticipated critique of "the society of the spectacle". Beyond the themes, the formal layouts (plunging, diagonal, dynamic, boldly cut) are inspired by those of the photographic avant-gardes of the inter-war period, led by the "New Vision" movement. Peasant or Madonna? Our painting is a perfect example of Picabia's artistic audacity in the 1940s. It would be hard to imagine a peasant woman with such elaborate make-up. The painting is quite similar to certain portraits of the actress Viviane Romance, wearing a veil, scarf or lace mantilla. With its heavy make-up, inspired gaze skyward and vivid colors, the portrait literally steps out of the picture frame. Peasant, saint or madonna? Picabia gives us a poetically haunting image.
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