Francis Picabia’s oeuvre is as versatile as it is difficult to summarize. Playfully flaunting all expectations, he seems to escape easy categorization as a painter belonging to any particular movement. A solo show dedicated to the artist at Galerie Michael Haas in Berlin offers a glimpse of Picabia’s idiosyncratic style and its development in paintings from different periods. Picabia was born in Paris in 1879. His artistic training began at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, where Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had studied before him. His beginnings as a painter were directed towards Impressionism and Pointillism, which were both still prevalent at the beginning of the twentieth century, albeit his interest in symbols and abstraction can already be detected in his early works. “Paysage au torrent,” (1909, oil on panel), for example, while portraying a fairly conventional landscape, also draws the viewer’s attention to the vigorous brushwork which slightly distorts the forms of the trees and the river. Picabia is clearly indebted to the impressionistic technique of painting in this work, with quick dabs and strokes melting into each other, creating a dynamic interplay of colors. Rather than focusing on the vibrancy of the color itself, however, he was more interested in conveying the feelings that such a landscape might inspire — to “paint not the thing, but the effect it produces,” as the Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé put it — with the dark colors and swaying forms of the trees exuding a sense of melancholy. Picabia’s style evolved considerably within the following 20 years, as he became affiliated first with the Cubists, and then with the Dada movement both in France and the United States. The exhibition in Berlin omits his early excursions into the world of abstract painting, focusing instead on his figurative works and tracing the artist’s interest in objects as metaphors for deeper emotionsWhile exploring non-figurative techniques, he also created works tied to his interest in conventional subject matter, such as his portraits of Spanish women of which “Espagnole à la Guitare” (1926-27, Gouache on board) is on view in Berlin. Picabia’s most striking creations are perhaps the so-called Les Transparences, painted chiefly in the 1930s. Intricate compositions of figures and objects layered on top of each other, the Transparences evoke classical myths with innovative means. “Transparence (Samson et Dalila)” (ca. 1935-1937, oil on canvas), for example, superimposes an image of Delilah’s face onto the scene of Samson breaking the pillars of the temple where he is held captive.To a certain extent, the Transparences reference Picabia’s Cubist phase, when the painter focused on representing forms as collages of autonomous parts. “Samson et Dalila” is painted with a clear black outline, which, instead of presenting the figures as separate entities, creates a network of intertwined symbols. Unlike his Cubist works, however, Picabia’s Transparences are figurative compositions with identifiable subject matter.The surreal atmosphere of his paintings can furthermore be attributed to the artist’s affinity with the Dada movement, especially the experimentation in the field of photography where artists such as Marcel Duchamp or Man Ray also produced images superimposed on one another as in Ray’s Rayographs. Picabia seems to have transposed this technique onto painting.The intimate show at Galerie Michael Haas gives viewers the chance to get acquainted with one aspect of Picabia’s talent rather than overwhelming them with the wealth of information about his entire career. The unique style which the artist developed over the course of his lifetime places him outside the traditional dichotomy between “conservative” and “modern” art. Whilst drawing on his experiences as a prolific member of the avant-garde in Paris, Picabia remained ironically detached from it, pursuing his own artistic path.“Francis Picabia” is on view through June 27, 2015 at Galerie Michael Haas in Berlin. Click here for more info.
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