Beschreibung:

Francis Picabia La Danseuse Française (The French Dancer) 1944 Oil on cardboard. 49 1/2 x 29 7/8 in. (125.7 x 75.9 cm). Signed “Francis Picabia” lower right.
Provenance Collection Olga Picabia, France; Galerie Neuendorf, Frankfurt; Galerie Hauser &Wirth, Zurich; Collection Urs Schmidhauser, Grub; Zwirner & Wirth, New York Exhibited Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Royal Scottish Academy, July 30 - September 4, 1988; and Frankfurt/Main, Galerie Neuendorf, September 28 - November 5, 1988, Picabia, 1879 - 1953; New York, Panicali Fine Art, Francis Picabia Nudes, April - May, 1989; Zurich, Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Francis Picabia Fleurs de chair, fleurs d’âme, Nus, Transparences, May 30 - July 19, 1997; Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Francis Picabia – The Late Works 1933 - 1953, October 30, 1997 - February 1, 1998; and Rotterdam, Museum Boijman Van Beuningen, February 28 - June 1, 1998, Francis Picabia – The Late Works 1933 - 1953 Literature Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, ed., Picabia, 1879-1953, Edinburgh, 1988, cat. no. 57, p. 109 (illustrated); C. Troster, ed., Francis Picabia Nudes, NewYork, 1989, p. 23 (illustrated); Galerie Hauser & Wirth, ed., Francis Picabia Fleurs de chair, fleurs d’âme, Nus, Transparences, Zurich, 1997, p. 98 (illustrated); Z. Felix and K. Kussmann, eds., Francis Picabia – The Late Works 1933 - 1953, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1998, p. 101 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Emerging in the early decades of the 20th Century, Francis Picabia’s artistic directions have intrigued the art world and forced critics and historians to evaluate the artist’s unique position in art history. Having first appeared on the art-radar as an Impressionist painter, Picabia, after making the acquaintance of Marcel Duchamp swiftly found himself mingling with artists of New York’s Dada movement and befriending the likes of Walter and Louise Arensberg—influential American contemporary art collectors at the time. Perhaps most famous for his investigations into Dada, Picabia was an extremely prolific artist who carried his career with myriad creative sources. The present lot, La danseuse française, from 1944 is a striking composition and exemplified a stage in Picabia’s late artistic oeuvre, in which the artist’s expression of previous styles combine in a fantasy of feminity and taste. At the time of his first exposure inthe United States, through the 1936 exhibition organized b Gertrude Stein at the Art Institute of Chicago, Picabia’s new works, “were greeted with incomprehension by the critics. Undeterred, Picabia continued to paint in a realistic style, although he did not hesitate to create wholly abstract works at the same time. In the early 40s, by which time Picabia had been living in the South of France for a decade, there was yet another break in his work.” (Z. Felix and C. Dercon, Francis Picabia The Late Works 1933 - 1953, Hamburg, 1998, pp. 7-8). While painting La danseuse française, the artist lived in the South of France and produced a series of veristic figure paintings (cf. Figure 1 for a similar example to the present lot, completed in 1935). Painting female nudes, which were based on Black and White photographs, from magazines such as ‘Paris Magazine’ and ‘Mon Paris’ (cf. Figure 2), La danseuse française is perhaps the epitome of his ever-changing directions – the culmination of all his artistic talent, never relinquishing his obtained knowledge from his past artistic path. Taking a certain ironic yet distant approach, the present lot employs Impressionist brushstroke techniques with the flamboyant figure of a ‘Can- Can’ dancer. According to French writer Carole Boulbès, his play with light and color enables his technique to display itself: “the painter must ‘make an intense study of the light conditions…[where] black outlines and the use of complementary colours to intensify the contrasts creates a powerful effect …”. (Z. Felix and C. Dercon, Francis Picabia The Late Works 1933 – 1953, Hamburg, 1998, pp. 7-8). Besides the erotic, even voyeuristic aspect of the picture, it is possible to discover other levels of meaning in the work. Based on the exact imag