Description
This publication, the fourth volume of an important catalogue raisonne of the work of Francis Picabia (1879-1953), includes paintings and selected drawings dating from 1940 into 1952. During the war years, while still residing in the south of France, Picabia was primarily occupied by figural subjects -multi-figure allegories, female nudes, and glamorous female "portraits" -painted in bold illusionistic relief. Notorious even in his lifetime, most of these works are now known to have adapted photographic illustrations in older "girly" magazines and other popular media.
Upon his return to Paris in the post-war period, Picabia renewed his earlier interests in abstract and sometimes non-objective art, still often drawing upon published sources ranging from prehistoric art to Nietzsche, and pursued frequent exhibition of his distinctive, constantly mutating responses to critical currents of the day. These included a series of severely reductive, subtly effective "point" or dot paintings beginning in 1949-three years before ill-health effectively ended Picabia's half-century of artistic provocation.
Distributed for Mercatorfonds
About the Author
Candace Clements is an independent art historian and scholar based in Houston.
Arnauld Pierre is professor of art history, Sorbonne Universite, Paris.
William A. Camfield is professor of art history emeritus at Rice University, Houston.
Beverley Calte is an independent scholar and current president of the Comite Picabia, Paris.
Book Information
ISBN 9780300266962
Author Candace Clements
Format Hardback
Page Count 480
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press