Francis PicabiaTête de femme
Circa 1940-1942
Pencil on paper
Signed lower right
13.82 x 8.86 in ( 35.1 x 22.5 cm )ZoomInquiry - Tête de femme, Circa 1940-1942
Certificat
Provenance
Private Collection, Paris
Artwork's description
This drawing, created in the south of France in 1940-1942 during the Second World War is part of a cycle of figurative piece of art initiated by Picabia from 1935 onwards, characterized by a popular realism. During this tumultuous period, Picabia produced realistic drawings, often inspired by erotic photographs from the 1930s, but also nightclub advertisements, postcards, and pin-up magazines. "Tête de femme" depicts a woman with a languid and sensual gaze, finely drawn eyebrows, and Cupid's bow lips, reminiscent of 1930s starlets. Picabia deliberately draws from popular culture as a legitimate source of inspiration, which has led many critics to consider him a precursor of the "Pop Art" movement.
Artist's biography
Francis Picabia was born in 1879 in Paris. His work was created on the idea of developing the art of immortality. He quickly got to know Guillaume Apollinaire who became his friend and accomplice. Both in an avant-garde approach, they looked as melancholy as ironic towards a world in transition.
In 1895, he began his apprenticeship at the School of Decorative Arts but also frequented a lot at the Louvre School where he met Georges Braque and Marie Laurencin.
Francis Picabia discovered Impressionism alongside Alfred Sisley and the Pissaro family, his canvases are inspired by it and for more than 10 years, more than a hundred canvases will be born and will seduce the public immediately.
From 1903, he decided to create a break with this current and painted Rubber six years later and today considered one of the founding works of abstract art.
His meeting with Marcel Duchamp added a cubist touch to his work and together they created the living room of the Golden Section, which allows the group of Puteaux that he joined to join an intellectual approach by creating new movements.
Following a trip to New York, he joined the Dadaist movement in 1916 for five years. Indeed, he finally decides to abandon this movement to join that of the surrealists.
Throughout his life, Francis Picabia has continued to reinvent himself by offering an art in constant evolution.
Francis Picabia died in 1953.