Details
FRANCIS PICABIA
SANS TITRE
Signed Francis Picabia (lower left) and dated 1948 (lower right)
Oil on board laid down on panel
41⅜ by 29½ in.
105 by 75 cm
Painted in 1948.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Comité Picabia.
PROVENANCE
Vittorio Levi, Paris (acquired in the 1950s)
Private Collection (by descent from the above)
EXHIBITED
Hamburg, Deichtorhallen & Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Francis Picabia. Das Spätwerk 1933 - 1953, 1997-98, illustrated in color in the catalogue
CATALOGUE NOTE
Picabia’s Sans titre from 1948 stands out as an amalgamation of the artist’s life-long experiments with abstraction and figuration. The solidity of the opaque white and brown-gold background, coupled with the apparatus-like structure at center, recalls Picabia’s 'Mechanomorphs,' in which the artist portrayed his subjects with machinist aesthetics. The green, blue, and red rounded forms cascading from the top of the canvas evoke atomic imagery. Other distorted biomorphic shapes float in the same atmosphere, all attracted to the trapezoidal plane at center.
For all enquires, please contact David.Schrader@sothebys.com
SANS TITRE
Signed Francis Picabia (lower left) and dated 1948 (lower right)
Oil on board laid down on panel
41⅜ by 29½ in.
105 by 75 cm
Painted in 1948.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Comité Picabia.
PROVENANCE
Vittorio Levi, Paris (acquired in the 1950s)
Private Collection (by descent from the above)
EXHIBITED
Hamburg, Deichtorhallen & Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Francis Picabia. Das Spätwerk 1933 - 1953, 1997-98, illustrated in color in the catalogue
CATALOGUE NOTE
Picabia’s Sans titre from 1948 stands out as an amalgamation of the artist’s life-long experiments with abstraction and figuration. The solidity of the opaque white and brown-gold background, coupled with the apparatus-like structure at center, recalls Picabia’s 'Mechanomorphs,' in which the artist portrayed his subjects with machinist aesthetics. The green, blue, and red rounded forms cascading from the top of the canvas evoke atomic imagery. Other distorted biomorphic shapes float in the same atmosphere, all attracted to the trapezoidal plane at center.
For all enquires, please contact David.Schrader@sothebys.com
