FRANCIS PICABIA (Paris 1879 - Paris, 1953) Lot n° 17

UNTITLED Circa 1929 - 1931 Pencil and watercolour on paper mounted on cardboard Signed lower right "Francis Picabia" 24.3 x 18.4 cm Provenance: Private collection Bibliography: Will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné de l'OEuvre de Francis Picabia currently being prepared by the Picabia Committee. A certificate from the Picabia Committee will be given to the buyer. The work we present is part of Transparences, one of the most coveted series by the multidisciplinary artist Francis Picabia, produced between 1928 and 1932. The style of this drawing is marked by a simplification of form and the graceful superimposition of these two nudes. "I used to have a fever for calculated inventions, now my instinct guides me [...] My current aesthetic comes from the boredom caused by the spectacle of paintings that seem to me to be frozen in a motionless surface, far from human things. This third dimension, these transparencies with their corner of oblivion, allow me to express myself, in the likeness of my inner wills [...] I want a painting where all my instincts can give free rein..." F. Picabia, introduction to the Francis Picabia exhibition at the Galerie Léonce Rosenberg, 9 to 31 December 1930, quoted in, Francis Picabia, cat. exp., Paris, 1976, p. 156).