Francis Picabia

Francis Picabia (1879–1953) was a French avant-garde artist, writer and poet known for his shape-shifting style and influential role in modern art movements. Born in Paris to a Spanish father and French mother, Picabia studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and began his career painting in an Impressionist style before experimenting with Fauvism, Cubism and abstraction by the 1910s. His early work reflected a blend of modernist influences, evolving into a personal abstract style.

 

A prominent figure in the Dada movement, Picabia collaborated with Marcel Duchamp and Guillaume Apollinaire, contributing to avant-garde circles in New York, Zurich and Paris. He published the influential Magazine 391 during this period but distanced himself from Dada in 1921, criticizing it as no longer innovative. Briefly aligned with Surrealism, Picabia eventually returned to figurative art in the 1920s, later experimenting with abstraction again after World War II.

 

Known for his bold, often provocative approach to art and culture, Picabia's "kaleidoscopic" career spanned painting, poetry and magazine publishing. His work was celebrated in a 1949 retrospective in Paris, and he remains recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to modern art. Picabia died in Paris on November 30, 1953.