Francis Picabia

Francis Picabia (1879–1953) was born in Paris and worked principally between Paris, New York, Zurich and the south of France during a career that made him one of the most restless and inventive figures of modern art. Associated variously with Impressionism, Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, he is best known for painting, drawing, printmaking and writing, and for a practice that shifted constantly between styles. His work ranges from abstract compositions and mechanomorphic images to sensual figurative paintings and the celebrated Transparencies, often addressing modernity, desire, irony, authorship and the instability of identity. Picabia’s works are held in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate, London, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. He is recognised as a canonical twentieth-century artist rather than as a prize-winning one, with his reputation resting on historical importance and critical influence. In market terms, Picabia is a firmly established blue-chip name: major works from his key periods are regularly traded and can command strong prices, although liquidity is strongest for the most historically significant examples.