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 attach? at the Cuban legation in Paris, France.

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Born in Paris, he studied at ?cole des Beaux-Arts and ?cole 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).

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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.

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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 m?chaniques. 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.

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Picabia continued his involvement in the Dada movement through 1919 in Z?rich 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.

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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.

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A large retrospective of his work was held at the Galerie Ren? Drouin in Paris in spring 1949.

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

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Francis Picabia died in Paris on November 30, 1953.

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

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January 28: January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 337 days remaining (338 in leap years)....

1879: 1879 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar)....

1953: 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday....

Francis Picabia related Images and Photos (experimental)

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Anne Francis	Anne Francis	Steve Francis	Steve Francis
Connie Francis	Francis I of France	Sir Francis Bacon	Sir Francis Crane