Lot 13
  • 13

Francis Picabia

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 EUR
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Description

  • Francis Picabia
  • Les deux Masques
  • signed Francis Picabia (lower right)
  • oil on cardboard laid down on panel
  • 18 7/8 x 15 7/8 in.

Provenance

Art Contemporain, Paris
Private collection, Paris

Exhibited

Nice, Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, Picabia et la Côte d'Azur, 1991, no. 73, illustrated in the catalogue p. 106
Gijón, Palacio Revillagigedo, Centro internacional de Arte, Picabia entre guerras, 1991, no. 60, illustrated in the catalogue p. 98

Condition

Board laid down on panel. The board is stable and the panel is sound. There is a milky and uneven varnish resulting with irregular fluoresce. There appears to be some spots of infiling in places. There are natural irregularities to the surface of the board. This work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Picabia spent most of the year 1938 in the South of France, aboard the Horizon III and the Yveline with Olga (Mohler). A year before the “sun does not set/that everything becomes suspect/ that everything becomes older” (Picabia, about the World War in Poèmes de Dingalari), he seems to have enjoyed a period of relative personal stability. This followed a year of crisis involving his break up with Germaine (Everling) and the long complexity of the fluctuating relationships between Germaine and Olga who joined the family circle in 1925 as governess.

After the Transparences, which doubtless reflect the confused feelings of this period, Picabia committed himself to the Dimensionism movement. A refuge from a motley avant-garde intrigued by the new concepts of space-time derived from Einstein’s theories, Dimensionism aspired to the advent of an absolutely new art: an art where the four dimensions of space incorporate the frame of the painting.

Following the Portrait de Marlène Dietrich (1938) where the spatial construction is more superficial, Les deux masques is probably the most perfect example of a plunge into unfathomable dimensions. If the interlocked faces emerging from the black depths can be seen as that of a man and a woman, then the plunge is all the more vertiginous and beautiful.