Picabia, Francis

Picabia, Francis fräNsēsˈ pĕkäˈbēä [key], 1878–1953, French painter, b. Paris. After working in an impressionist style, Picabia was influenced by cubism and later was one of the original exponents of Dada in Europe and the United States. He contributed to avant-garde periodicals and became associated with the Paris surrealists. Picabia, possessed of an intensely individual temperament, influenced numerous artists of different schools without ever confining himself to one mode of artistic expression. His work is in many museum collections; Physical Culture (1913) is in Philadelphia Museum of Art. Although primarily a painter, Picabia was also a poet, graphic and set designer, printmaker, filmmaker, editor and publisher, and impresario for various events, exhibitions, and performances.

See museum catalog ed. by A. Umland and C. Hug (2016).

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