Camfield

The Machinist Style of Francis Picabia
Author(s): William A. Camfield

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 48, No. 3/4 (Sep. - Dec., 1966), pp. 309-322
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3048388
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The Machinist Style of Francis Picabia 309
WILLIAM A. CAMFIELD
The signs of the accelerating Industrial Revolution these paintings has hardly been disturbed. Nevertheless,
had not
failed to excite some nineteenth century artists, but statements
only in by Picabia and the paintings themselves discredit
the twentieth century were the industrial sites, the machines
the popular notion that his machines are deliberately senseless,
and machine-made products of the modern world seized defiantbycontraptions. Most of them have a definite function
and content, and efforts to determine this are not foolish
artists as truly important subjects-subjects which, moreover,
were perceived as sources of new aesthetic systems and asso-
iconographical exercises. Indeed, the function of the machine
ciated with fundamental attitudes toward life. is often a vital element of the painting, coordinated with the
The machinist style of Francis Picabia is one of the most
formal properties of the work and in harmony with aesthetic-
interesting examples of this phenomenon. His machinist paint-
philosophical convictions held by Picabia throughout his life.
Accordingly, a fresh consideration of Picabia's machinist
ings are intriguing in themselves, but beyond that they express
a remarkable attitude toward our highly mechanized twentieth
style is needed, for the popular misconceptions engulfing this
century society; they comprise a major contribution to Dada,
period of his career not only misrepresent Picabia, but they
they had an invigorating influence on diverse Americantaintand
our view of Dada and the entire question of the machine
European painters around 1915 to 1923, and during the in past
twentieth century art. In this article I offer a new assess-
decade many young artists have found their work and lives
ment of Picabia based on the origins and chronology of his
stimulated by the example of Picabia and his good friend Mar-
machinist paintings, a description of their considerable variety,
an interpretation of their content, and a brief consideration of
cel Duchamp.1 Recently, Duchamp in particular has attracted
increasing attention, most of which has expanded ourtheir influence.4
knowl-
edge about this man and his work. Picabia has fared less well.
Confusion surrounding the beginning of Picabia's machinist
Despite a revival of interest in him, biographical data style5and
is largely dispelled by his statements in a little-known
commentary on his work have become almost standardized at conducted in Duchamp's New York apartment dur-
interview
a relatively superficial level.2 Picabia himself is partly responsi-
ing 1915: "This visit to America ... has brought about a com-
ble for this situation. He discouraged scholarly inquiryplete
intorevolution
his in my methods of work.... Prior to leaving
work and contributed a number of inaccurate "facts" about Europe I was engrossed in presenting psychological studies
his life. Moreover, he baffled everyone with the variety (and through the mediumship of forms which I created. Almost im-
often the coexistence) of styles in his career, and with the mediately upon coming to America it flashed on me that the
rapidity and unpredictableness of their succession. But above genius of the modern world is in machinery and that through
all, Picabia has mystified his audience with the forms and in- machinery art ought to find a most vivid expression."'
scriptions in his machine paintings. Too often when con- Picabia's machinist style began, then, in New York in the
fronted with these improbable machines and seemingly cryptic summer of 1915, and it was one of the sudden changes in his
inscriptions, authors have assumed a "dada complex," sus- career which have caused many critics to question his serious-
pended critical analysis, and dismissed the paintings as "ab-ness. Though the shift in style was radical, the content and
surd machines that had no function except to mock scienceaesthetic preoccupations of Picabia's paintings remained much
and efficiency."" Since Picabia disdained explanations and his the same so that his machinist style was not a frivolous or
family and close friends have offered none, the privacy ofprovocative maneuver, and cannot be properly assessed with-
1 The relevance of Duchamp and Picabia for artists associated with various avant- rose Fund of The American Philosophical Society have made possible further
garde movements since the 1950's lies beyond the scope of this article. The topic research crucial to this article and to a monograph on Picabia being prepared for
may be pursued in William C. Seitz, The Art of Assemblage, The Museum of publication at the Princeton University Press.
Modern Art, New York, 1961, and, for specific reference to Picabia, in Sauvage, 5 In numerous exhibition catalogues (e.g., Mushe Cantini, Picabia) machine paintings
Nuclear Art, Stockholm, 1962, 13, 17. are dated 1913 and 1914 while 1915 is specified as the beginning of the machine
2 Some new material was presented by Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia in Aires abstraites, style. Sanouillet, Picabia, 24, states that Picabia's "vrais tableaux m6caniques"
Geneva, 1957, and in several articles written during the 1950's. In 1962 the first date from 1915, but he also sets 1913 as the beginning of the machine period (p.
scholarly exhibition of Picabia's work was undertaken at the Mus6e Cantini 140) and calls Catch as Catch Can (1913) the first mechanical painting (p. 28).
(Picabia, Marseille, March 20-May 15, 1962). M. Poupard-Lieussou contributed 6 New York Tribune, "French Artists Spur On American Art," October 24, 1915,
valuable bibliographies to the Musee Cantini catalogue and to Michel Sanouillet's pt. iv, p. 2. Picabia was mobilized in 1914 and sent to the Caribbean in 1915,
recent booklet, Picabia, Paris, 1964. Prof. Sanouillet's booklet is unfortunately supposedly to purchase sugar or molasses for the French forces. His ship docked
marred by numerous errors, but two of his other publications make accessible first in New York early in June (see letter from Agnes Ernst Meyer to Alfred
vital documents concerning the dada epoch in Picabia's career: Dada A Paris, Stieglitz, June 15, 1915, Alfred Stieglitz Archives, Yale Collection of American
Paris, 1965, and Francis Picabia, 391, M. Sanouillet, ed., Paris, 1960. Literature, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.), and he became so involved with
3 Sir Herbert Read, A Concise History of Modern Painting, New York, 1959, 120. the activities of his friends there that he remained for several months. Hereafter
4 This article is largely based on the author's unpublished dissertation, Francis the Alfred Stieglitz Archives in the Yale Collection of American Literature will be
Picabia (1879-1953); a Study of His Career from 1895 to 1918, accepted by Yale abbreviated to ASA, YCAL.
University in June, 1964. Grants from the University of St. Thomas and the Pen-
310 The Art Bulletin
out knowledge of his earlier work. Neither can Picabia's ma-Prior to the development of his machinist style, Picabia was
chinist style be evaluated apart from the milieu in whichexposed
he to such ambivalent attitudes and to their expression
lived, for his claim that it merely "flashed" upon him in that
the art of his contemporaries. From 1912 onward he was
machinery was a source of vivid expression in art is not ac-
familiar with the Italian Futurists who glorified the modern
machine-dominated world in their manifestos and strove in
ceptable. Picabia's machinist style was nourished by artistic
their paintings (though they rarely depicted machines) to ex-
precedents and its very existence depended on a mental cli-
mate so imbued with the triumphs of science and technologypress emotions exacerbated by the simultaneous experience of
that the term "machine age" has been employed to character-
the speed, power and noise of that machine age. A determina-
ize the era. tion to cope with and to express a new era also marked some
of Picabia's colleagues in the "Section d'Or," and is apparent
Descriptions and dates for the machine age are not easily
formulated, but a survey of popular newspapers and journals
in the work of the poets and writers-Blaise Cendrars, Guil-
laume Apollinaire and Henri Martin Barzun-associated with
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries provides a revealing
general impression. Such publications show a rapid increase
those painters.1o
But Picabia's first moving encounter with the concept of a
in the presence of machines and a heightened interest in sci-
ence and technology which becomes so accelerated by machine
the age came on the occasion of his initial visit to New
early twentieth century that it is impossible to overlook York
the in 1913.11 The vitality of that great urban and industrial
environment was unforgettable for him, yet more important
reality of a machine age.7 Siegfried Giedion and Reyner Ban-
still were the friendships he established with Alfred Stieglitz,
ham refine this general image of the machine age as mass con-
Marius de Zayas, and other members of 291. Stieglitz, founder
cern for omnipresent machines. They concur that after long
maturation it was finally realized during the second decadeand
of director of 291, is perhaps best known in the history of
art for his almost single-handed endeavor to introduce modern
the twentieth century, and further agree that it was character-
ized by a stage of mechanization in which an abundance European
of art to America before the Armory Show; that, how-
machines that altered everyday life (typewriters, telephones,ever, was an aspect of a larger ideal concerned with determin-
electrical appliances and automobiles) came to be owneding andthe relationship of art and photography and their relevance
operated by the middle classes.8 No class was unmarked, how- to modern American society. Stieglitz was convinced that ma-
ever, by the impact of industrial exhibits at world fairs, chines
by could produce not only articles of high quality but art
as
exhilarating advances in such popular fields as airplanes, auto-well-as he labored to demonstrate with a machine, the
camera. His associate, Marius de Zayas, was on the verge of
mobiles and the cinema, or by startling developments in sci-
ence including the discovery of new atomic theories, X-rayconcluding
and that science and scientific methods of inquiry in all
the emission of rays from radium."9 fields of knowledge would offer final answers to the problems
Reaction to such "progress," however, was often ambiva- of art.12 Stieglitz and De Zayas were resolving these ideas
lent. Many people were confident that industry, technologywhen the Armory Show opened and Picabia appeared, charm-
ing, vital, and excited about the possibility of a "language" of
and science had carried the twentieth century to the threshold
of a new and superior age which would dispatch the future abstract art. Broad common interests immediately united him
needs of man with unprecedented efficiency. But others, with the members of 291 in a friendship that endured for
stirred by the fundamental mystery of life, looked uponyears.
the Animated meetings occurred daily at 291, and before
triumvirate of science-technology-machine as a false and pomp- departed Stieglitz organized a one-man exhibition of
Picabia
ous trinity. the paintings he had executed in New York.13
7 Most standard newspapers and illustrated magazines reflect this trend, for example 10 Picabia's colleagues in the Section d'Or (Galerie de la Boetie, Paris, October
in France and America, New York Times, Le journal, le sais fout and Le figaro 10-30, 1912) who exhibit concern for the machine age include Duchamp, L6ger,
illustr6. Villon, Jean Marchand, Duchamp-Villon, and Archipenko. Cendrars exalts the
8 Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age, New York, 1960, modern industrialized age in "Pacques A New York" (1912) and "Contrasts"
9-12, sets 1912 as the beginning of full mechanization and specifies the automobile (October, 1913), and a similar spirit is expressed by Apollinaire in "Zone" (Les
as its symbol. Siegfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command, New York, soirees de Paris, No. 11, December, 1912, 331-37). For the convictions of the poets
1948, 41-44, finds the conditions of full mechanization about 1918 to 1920, and and painters associated with Henri Martin Barzun on the review Pokme et drame
offers a broader basis for describing the machine age. see Henri Martin Barzun, Orpheus, New York, 1956, 15-20.
9 Siegfried Giedion in Space, Time and Architecture, 3rd ed., Cambridge, Mass., 11 Picabia went to New York to witness the Armory Show and to promote abstract
1962, 241-88, discusses the broad impact of industrial exhibits at world fairs. For art. He arrived about January 20, 1915 (American Art News, New York, 11, No.
a historical study and bibliography of such fields as aeronautics, the cinema, and 16, January 25, 1913, 4) and remained until April 10 (letter from Alfred Stieglitz to
the gasoline engine, see Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall, and I. Wil- Arthur B. Caries, April 11, 1913, ASA, YCAL).
liams Trevor, A History of Technology, Oxford, 1958, v. For interesting supple- 12 For a succinct account of this aspect of Stieglitz' work see William B. McCormick,
mental material see trade journals and manuals, e.g., Electrical World, New York, "Patrons Vote to Decide Fate of Photo-Secession Gallery at No. 291 Fifth Avenue,"
January, 1883 to present. New York Press, October 4, 1914, 6, and an unsigned article, "'291' the Mecca
FRANCIS PICABIA 311
nothing
Back in Europe during 1913-1914 Picabia encountered that cannot be stood on its head and glorifi
anew
the work of the Italian Futurists and the rayonist-futurist
infinite, the uncertain, the paradoxical, is the scarlet p
paintings of Goncharova and Larionov. He knew of the robot- intoxication.
intellectual
like figures in Leger's paintings and in Archipenko's relief
Anarchy? No. It is the triumph of discrimination, the
constructions; he was familiar with the symbolicfication
locomotives
of paradox, the sanctification of man by man ..
in De Chirico's canvases, and the curious machine forms cre-
Nothing which lasts is of value. .... That which ch
ated by Marcel Duchamp. He probably saw Villon's collages
perpetually lives perpetually. Incessant dying and rene
which incorporated reproductions of real machinesincessant metamorphosis, incessant contradiction ...
clipped out
of journals, and followed the visual and functionalI analogies
desire as many personalities as I have moods ... I
between animal and machine that Duchamp-Villon toevolved
be ephemeral,
in protean ...
the Horse of 1914-1915. Picabia may also have knownI find my thesupremest joy in my estrangements . . . I
to become
work of the Vorticists who attributed to machinery unfamiliar to myself ... I cling to nothin
a crucial
role in the burgeoning dehumanization of society with
and nothing,
devel- am used to nothing, hope for nothing.
oped a machine-inspired aesthetic which rendered man and
perpetual minute.15
nature alike in dynamic, semi-abstract compositions of hard,
sharp-edged, and vaguely machine-made forms.14 More directly influential were Jarry, Roussel and Duc
While it is probable that Picabia was modestly indebted to
who employed pseudo-scientific procedures, mathemat
all these men and movements for directing his attention
fantastic to
machines to mock the follies of man-often by
the machine age, he was not significantly influencedof a themevisually which devaluated sexual love. Picabia deligh
or theoretically by any of them save one, Marcel their Duchamp.
ridicule of man's excessive dependence for securi
His literary and philosophical debts, however, eitherare broader,
suprahuman guidance or such hallowed institutio
including, among others, Bergson, Nietzsche, Alfred temsJarry,and ideals of man as governments, churches,
Raymond Roussel, as well as Duchamp. love, morality, patriotism, law and science.
Bergson's concept of the constant flux of life appealed
Alfred to Jarry founded a new science, pataphysics, "la
Picabia, who bore an inherent need for unrestricted thought
du particulier." He dedicated pataphysics to the study
and action and resisted anything that threatened lois toquiimpose
regissent les exceptions," and utilized this scien
routines or boundaries on his life. Nietzsche's concept of the
such projects as the mathematical proof of God, wh
superman who lived outside bourgeois standards of law
fixed and
algebraically as "le plus court chemin de zero g l'in
morality provided life-long support for Picabia whoseIn Leeffort to Jarry presented sexual intercourse as a sc
surmile,
live by similar convictions generated frequent experiment
social, moral in a manner than not only devaluated one
and legal turmoils in his life. Here again the trip most
to New York human experiences but also mocked scien
intimate
was a critical event, for his previous admiration technology,
of Nietzscheand portrayed man as a creature devoid of
was rekindled by Benjamin de Casseres, a member and of 291 and
love."17
a flamboyant disciple of that philosopher. De Casseres'Raymondarticles
Roussel excelled in the creation of elaborate rit-
in Camera Work exactly express Picabia's ideal of uals
life:and demonstrations centered about either humans who
perform with mechanical perfection, or about fantastic ma-
In poetry, physics, practical life there is nothing
chines...whose
that is
operation depends equally on magic and extraor-
any longer moored to a certainty, nothing that dinary
is forbidden,
scientific-technological knowledge. In matter-of-fact
and the Mystery of Art in a Fifth Avenue Attic," The Sun, New York, October and his close association with Apollinaire and the artists and writers who con-
24, 1915, 6. For De Zayas' aesthetic and philosophical convictions see his articles tributed to Les soirdes de Paris. To date no documents have been discovered which
in Camera Work ("Photography" and "The Evolution of Form-Introduction," No. verify that Picabia knew the Vorticists, but he probably knew about them through
41, January, 1913, 17-20, 44-48) and the booklet, A Study of the Modern Evolution Marius de Zayas who interrupted his summer of 1914 with Picabia in Paris (letter
of Plastic Expression, New York, March 1, 1913, written in colloboration with Paul from Marius de Zayas to Alfred Stieglitz, June 11, 1914, ASA, YCAL) to interview
Haviland.
artists, photographers and art critics in London while the Vorticists were prominent
Stieglitz operated a Fifth Avenue gallery named "The Little Gallery of the on the London art scene.
Photo-Secession" but popularly referred to by the address of the building, 291. In 15 Benjamin de Casseres, "Modernity and the Decadence," Camera Work, No. 37,
1915 this number was adopted as the title of a magazine (291, Nos. 1-12, New January 1912, 17-19.
York, March, 1915-February, 1916) edited by Stieglitz and De Zayas in addition to 16 Alfred Jarry, Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll in Oeuvres completes,
Stieglitz' older publication, Camera Work (Nos. 1-50, New York, 1903-1917). Lausanne, n.d. [1948], 1, 217, 317-20. Jarry was often discussed in the circle of
13 Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession, Picabia Exhibition, New York, March 17- artists and writers at Les soirdes de Paris, and his letters were published in several
April 5, 1913. issues of that journal during 1914.
14 Picabia's contact with the above-mentioned artists came through old friendships 17 Ibid., 111, 197-229.
descriptions of the awe and delight with which the characters It is not necessary to probe deeply into the complex, enig-
of Impressions d'Afrique viewed the alternately absurd, cruel,matic content of the Big Glass, but it should be noted that it
or miraculous machine performances, Roussel attained a level is an intricate philosophical statement about life expressed
of irony irresistible to Duchamp. s through the theme of sexual love-a view which is not only
In the formation of his machine style, Duchamp has re- supported by Duchamp's notes but dependent upon them,
peatedly stressed the intellectual stimulation of Roussel and since the forms of the Big Glass are not explicit in them-
Jarry and his disgust over the propensity of artists to becomeselves.20 By correlating Duchamp's notes and the Big Glass,
enamored with their genius in the merely physical manipula- becomes evident that he has stripped the sexual act of all
it
tion of pigments.1 By employing mechanical drawing instru- love, intimacy and delight by making its procedure prepos-
ments and the modern materials of glass and metal, Duchamp terous and by frustrating its consummation. And this devalu-
did create forms which appear amenable to (if not the resultation of love, devastating as it is, is only a piercing means to
of) mass production. He thereby eliminated the mark of thethe larger comment that man is not a creature distinguished
facile artist and expanded the challenge to conventional mediaby powers of reason and love. Outwardly, man, as repre-
of art issued by Braque and Picasso in their collages. However,sented by the malic molds, is determined by (and often judged
Duchamp's adoption of a machine style was more than a de- by) his uniform or mold; inwardly he is activated by biologi-
sanctification of the media and techniques of art and the rolecal drives which function with the relentless rhythm of a
machine, and taunted from above by woman, an erotic motor
of the artist. Roussel enabled him to see that the visual proper-
ties and mechanical operation of machines poignantly ex- whose parts and their relationships are incommensurable.21
pressed two basic aspects of his personality and his art: his Duchamp perceived in machines not the beauty of logic and
preoccupation with movement and change; and his experience economy that thrilled Leger, nor the speed and power glorified
of man's isolation, of the absence of meaningful human bonds by the Italian Futurists; he dealt with animated mechanisms
or communication, which suggests in turn the absence of anythat operated without will, intelligence or passion-mecha-
nisms fraught with visual, functional and psychological analo-
order to life and the futility of man's systems. Duchamp tends
to express these concerns in a sexual idiom that becomes in-gies to his view of life as a folly-ridden affair wanting mean-
creasingly apparent from Sonata and Sad Young Man on ingful a communication on earth and knowledge of any final
Train of 1911 through such major works of 1912 as the King goal.
and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes, the Bride, the Virgin, Familiarity with the fundamentals of Duchamp's work is
and the Passage of the Virgin to the Bride. By 1913 he elimi-essential since Picabia's machinist paintings often suggest a
nated from his oeuvre those exquisite organic-mechanical visual debt to Duchamp, or seem to reflect even the themes
forms and began to construct an anti-rational universe peo-and spirit of his work. Vast differences, however, mark the
pled by fantastic machines and governed by absurd physics characters of these two friends, and close comparison of their
and metaphysics that culminates in the Bride Stripped Bare bywork indicates that ultimately Picabia's machinist style is his
own, consistent with his view of life and his preceding art,
Her Bachelors, Even, or as it is known by its short title, the
Big Glass (Fig. 1). and distinct in its sources, variety and purposes.
s18 The first performance of Impressions d'Afrique was given in the ThbAtre F6mina version by Richard Hamilton of Marcel Duchamp's Green Box, translated by
aux Champs Elys6es on September 30, 1911 and a second run began in May, 1912 George Heard Hamilton, New York, 1960.
at the Th6atre Antoine (John Ashbery, "Les versions sc6niques 'd'Impressions Interpretations of the Big Glass have been published by Andr6 Breton ("Phare
d'Afrique' et de 'Locus Solus'," Bizarre, Paris, Nos. 34-35, 2eme trimestre, 1964, de la Maribe," Minotaure, No. 6, Paris, winter, 1935), Michel Carrouges (Les
20-21). Duchamp attended one of the performances with Apollinaire (Marcel machines cdlibataires, 27-59), Robert Lebel (Marcel Duchamp, 65-75), and Marcel
Duchamp, statement in "Eleven Europeans in America," Museum of Modern Art Jean (L'histoire de la peinture surrialiste, Paris, 1959, chap. iv).
Bulletin, 13, Nos. 4-5, 1946, 21) and probably with Picabia as well (Robert Lebel, 21 The Bride is also subject to directions beyond her control by an "inscription du
Marcel Duchamp, George Heard Hamilton, trans., New York, 1959, 7). haut" that Duchamp had not included in the Big Glass by 1923, but which is
The numerous mechanisms in Roussel's Impressions d'Afrique (Paris, 1912) in- mentioned in his notes. See Marcel Duchamp, Marchand du sel (6crits de Marcel
clude a painting machine that satirizes Impressionism (pp. 195-209) and an ap- Duchamp reunis et presentbs par Michel Sanouillet), Paris, 1958, 49.
paratus that mocks color organs and the concept of synesthesia (pp. 52-61). 22 New York Tribune, "French Artists Spur On American Art," October 24, 1915, pt.
Michel Carrouges describes some Roussel inventions as celibate machines in his iv, 2.
important study, Les machines cilibataires, Paris, 1954, 61-92. He extends this 23 In all the published studies of Picabia from 1920 to this date, only one short
interpretation to Jarry's Le surmfle (pp. 93-104) and to Duchamp's La marige article (Philip Pearlstein, "The Symbolic Language of Francis Picabia," Arts, 30,
mise A nu par ces cdlibataires, mgmes (pp. 27-59). January, 1956, 37-43) seriously considers the matter of mechanical symbolism.
19 Duchamp, "Eleven Europeans in America," 20f. 24 In catalogue prefaces for Picabia's one-man exhibitions of impressionist paintings
20 Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachleors, Even, a typographic (Galerie Haussmann, Paris, February, 1907, and Galerie Georges Petit, Paris,
FRANCIS PICABIA 313
Picabia clearly stated the aim of his machinist in the paintings

work of Duchamp and Jarry) is based on events in his
shortly after he began to develop them in New private Yorklife and continues to characterize many of his ma-
during
1915: chinist paintings.
The foremost example is I See Again in Memory My Dear
I have been profoundly impressed by the vast mechanical
development in America. The machine has become more Udnie (Je revois en souvenir ma chbre Udnie, Fig. 2), an enor-
mous and striking canvas, but one which is visually disturbing
than a mere adjunct of life. It is really a part of human life ...
and thematically bewildering.25 The name "Udnie" refers to
perhaps the very soul. In seeking forms through which to in-
an exotic dancer of Picabia's acquaintance, and his memory
terpret ideas or by which to expose human characteristics I
of her seems to deal with a sexual experience.26 However, far
have come at length upon the form which appears most bril-
from enshrining a memory of sensual pleasure, Picabia has
liantly plastic and fraught with symbolism. I have enlisted
made a statement of futility and frustration. Limited sexual
the machinery of the modern world, and introduced it into
excitement may be granted to the lighter, warm-colored fe-
my studio.
male forms in the lower center of the canvas, but the probing
Of course, I have only begun to work out this newest stage
male forms are denied satisfaction. Shifted to a philosophical
of evolution. I don't know what possibilities may be in store.
level, Picabia's statement suggests that life is denied fulfill-
I mean simply to work on and on until I attain the pinnacle
ment and has no order; and these ideas are intimately em-
of mechanical symbolism.22
bodied in the forms, space and colors of this composition:
The mechanical symbolism of Picabia's machinist style has thermogenetic colors, a labyrinthine space which compels
been almost totally ignored.23 Yet symbolism is evident in the exploration yet leads nowhere, and forms which create a
paintings, his statements about this matter are clear, and his half-visceral, half-animated plant landscape of vaguely an-
preoccupation with human-machine correspondence springs thropomorphic forms that beg to be identified yet remain
directly from aesthetic convictions which had guided his work tantalizingly out of reach.
since 1905 or 1906. At that time he was introduced to the Faint suggestions of Picabia's later machinist paintings can
theory of correspondance, and from then on through periods be found in several canvases of 1913-1914, especially in
visually indebted to Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Fau-Udnie (Fig. 3) where icy colors and hard, sharp-edged color
vism, Cubism and Orphism, Picabia remained dedicated to planes evoke qualities of finely rolled steel. There is even one
the uninhibited manipulation of form and color to expresssmall watercolor, Mechanical Expression Seen Through Our
emotional responses to nature and to events in his personal
Own Mechanical Expression (Fig. 4), which predicts the form
life.24 and spirit of the machinist paintings of 1915. However, this
Prior to 1913 Picabia expressed himself in personal versions is a minor and solitary work; no other machinist paintings or
of styles fashioned by others; during 1913-1914 he developed drawings can be securely assigned a date prior to the summer
a completely personal art which sought to express psychologi- of 1915 when Picabia said he began to produce them, and the
cal states by abstract pictorial equivalents. The content of metallic qualities of paintings like Udnie do not prepare one
many of these paintings (though reminiscent of themes found visually for the appearance of Picabia's machine style. The
March, 1909) L. Roger-Milds states that Picabia dealt with inner impressions of the exhibition, Picabia's self-portrait as a soldier, which he finished just before
nature rather than retinal reflections. Musical analogies and the concept of going to the front (Newo York Herald, January 19, 1915). The concentric circles
synesthesia are prominent in Roger-MilWs' descriptions of the paintings. The and undulating lines in these two paintings are features present only in docu-
artist does not copy nature, but (much as a composer employs melodies and mented works of 1914. Presently there are no known paintings by Picabia in the
rhythms) manipulates forms, colors and brushwork in order to attain visual months separating these paintings and his first machinist drawings.
equivalents of the emotional sensations generated by nature. Picabia's continued 26 The theme of Udnie refers to Mlle. Napierkowska, an exotic dancer present on the
allegiance to this theory of correspondance can be traced in critical reviews and in vessel which carried the Picabias to New York in 1913 (Buffet-Picabia, "Picabia
his own statements (Le journal, Paris, November 22, 1911, and The Little Gallery l'inventeur," L'oeil, No. 18, June, 1956, 35). The word "Udnie" is one of several
of the Photo-Secession, Picabia Exhibition, New York, 1913). created by Picabia at that time for paintings inspired by his New York trip, for
25 A date of 1913 is widely accepted for this painting, although it is probably one example, EdtaonisI (Art Institute of Chicago), whose alternate letters form a
of the canvases mentioned by Marius de Zayas as under way during the summer compound of "dans" and "Etoil" (Philip Pearlstein, The Paintings of Francis
of 1914 (letter from Marius de Zayas to Alfred Stieglitz, June 30, 1914, ASA, Picabia, unpublished Master of Arts Thesis, New York University, Institute of
YCAL). De Zayas returned to New York from France in the fall of 1914 bearing Fine Arts, New York, 1955, 109), referring again to Mlle. Napierkowska whom
many art objects from the Picabia collection, and I See Again in Memory My Picabia commemorated in two watercolors of 1913 as the Danseuse 6toile sur un
Dear Udnie was soon exhibited at The Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession (New transatlantique (collection Mme. Simone Collinet, Paris) and Danseuse 6toile et
York, January 12-26, 1915) as a "recent painting" never before exhibited any- son 6cole de danse (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Various solutions
where. Stylistic support for a date of 1914 is provided by another painting in are possible for Udnie, but the most likely is an adaptation of Undine.
links between the works of 1913-1914 and the machinist for Haviland, but certain details and inscriptions in this draw-
paintings of 1915 are not visual; they exist on the level of ing are perplexing without knowledge of the conditions which
content and of aesthetic means. prevailed among Stieglitz and his younger associates. Stieglitz
Mechanical symbolism is not evident in one of Picabia's believed the Armory Show had concluded the work he had
first quasi-machinist drawings of 1915, Fille nee sans mere sought to accomplish at 291, and since 1913 he had looked for
(Fig. 5), but it does introduce at the outset of his machine an opportunity to terminate his gallery.3o Haviland and De
oeuvre a theme which preoccupied him for years-the ma- Zayas disagreed; they believed that much remained to be
chine as a female being produced by man, that is, a "daughter accomplished and that Stieglitz, despite his "faith and love,"
born without a mother."27 An additional insight into this con- had failed to realize his ideal of discovering America and help-
ception of the machine as the creation and extension of man ing Americans to discover themselves through art and photog-
is provided in a contemporary statement by Picabia's asso- raphy. De Zayas expressed this exact view in a summer issue
ciate on 291, Paul Haviland: of the gallery publication, 291, and a pictorial equivalent of
his statement formed the cover of that issue-Picabia's por-
We are living in the age of the machine.
trait of Stieglitz as a broken, exhausted camera which had
Man made the machine in his own image. She has limbs
failed to attain its ideal.31
which act; lungs which breathe; a heart which beats; a nervous
No one has probed beyond these obvious machine sources
system through which runs electricity. The phonograph is the
despite that fact that as early as 1921 a journalist discovered
image of his voice; the camera the image of his eye. The ma-
and published Picabia's use of an engineering diagram as the
chine is his "daughter born without a mother." That is why he
model for a more enigmatic painting, Les yeux chauds.32 By
loves her. He has made the machine superior to himself. That
no means do all of his canvases have such sources, but the
is why he admires her. Having made her superior to himself,
quest for them is advisable since many paintings can be traced
he endows the superior beings which he conceives in his poetry
to machines or to mechanical diagrams, and often enough
and in his plastique with the qualities of machines. After
those sources are significant.
making the machine in his own image he has made his human
Concurrent with the appropriation and slight adjustment
ideal machinomorphic.28
of simple machines to serve as symbolic images, Picabia re-
In some of Picabia's first machine paintings this correspond- duced machines to highly abstract compositions whose pre-
ence of man and machine is expressed in terms as simple as cision and geometric simplicity were related to the rising
those employed by Haviland when he associated the phono- sensitivity for machine aesthetics. This is particularly evident
graph with man's voice and the camera with his eye. In a in Fantaisie (Fig. 9) which seems to represent an extreme re-
portrait of Haviland, Voila Haviland (Figs. 6, 7), Picabia duction and aesthetic adjustment of an early nineteenth cen-
merely selected an advertisement for a common portable tury horizontal-beam steam engine (Fig. 10).33 Picabia's pri-
electric lamp, copied it, eliminating a few unnecessary details mary interests in this painting lie, however, neither with
and inscriptions, and submitted this simplified image as a machine aesthetics nor with antique machines, but with
symbolic portrait of his friend. Although it is possible to per- symbolism-symbolism which is apparent when one coordi-
ceive the lamp as an upright figure, Picabia was primarily nates the visual image and its accompanying inscriptions, the
interested in functional analogies, that is, Haviland and the title "Fantaisie" and a subtitle, "L'homme crea Dieu ' son
lamp correspond as sources of light. An inscription added to image." Contrary to many authors who see no association
the portrait by Picabia, "La po6sie est comme lui," supports between the images and inscriptions in Picabia's paintings
this interpretation, and even Picabia's use of a portable lamp (except an intent to mock and mystify), Picabia said that they
was deliberate. Haviland was preparing to leave for Europe were intimately related: "In my work the subjective expression
and therefore about to become a mobile or "portable" light.29 is the title, the painting is the object. But this object is never-
Picabia's portrait of Alfred Stieglitz (Fig. 8) seems as simple theless somewhat subjective because it is the pantomime--the
and perhaps more comprehensible than the electric lamp used appearance of the title; it furnishes to a certain point the
27 Fille nie sans mkre is recorded at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a work of have stayed at the Brevoort in 1915. Most significantly, Picabia states that he
1912, and several authors consider it an important drawing of 1913 which initiates began his machine style in 1915 in New York, and it is there that we have the
Picabia's machinist style (Pearlstein, "The Symbolic Language of Francis Picabia," first irrefutable evidence of the existence of Fille nee sans mkre-a reproduction
39, and Sanouillet, Picabia, 26f.). The drawing is not dated, but the fact that it and an important statement (291, No. 4, June, 1915, and Nos. 7-8, September-
is on the reverse of a sheet of stationery from the Brevoort Hotel (Picabia's October, 1915).
residence while visiting the Armory Show) may have prompted attributions for a 28 Paul B. Haviland, statement in 291, Nos. 7-8, September-October, 1915.
date of 1913. However, Fille nee sans mkre was not exhibited at 291 with the 29 Haviland sailed to Europe soon after a farewell party on July 4, 1915 (letter from
drawings and watercolors known to have been executed in New York during 1913, Agnes Ernst Meyer to Alfred Stieglitz, July 4, 1915, ASA, YCAL).
and it does not figure in any known document of that year. It could have followed 30 Letters from Alfred Stieglitz to Mme. Buffet-Picabia, January 15, 1914, and De-
rather than preceded I See Again in Memory My Dear Udnie, and Picabia could cember 30, 1914; letter from John Weichsel to Alfred Stieglitz, July 31, 1917 (ASA,
FRANCIS PICABIA 315
means of comprehending the potentiality-the very entheart

times of
and in different places 'without collusion'.""* At a
man./34 cursory glance the major lines of the typed portrait and the
In Fantaisie the subtitle, "L'homme crea Dieu ' son image," drawn portrait do suggest compositional relationships. This is
suggests that God is the "Fantaisie" because He has been not sustained upon closer examination, but the content of the
created by man in his [man's] own image. And since Haviland two portraits is similar. De Zayas' poem is a scathing denun-
and Picabia also believed that man had created the machine ciation of the unknown woman as a creature without intelli-
in his own image, the following set of equations can be estab-gence and wholly consumed by carnal desires; Picabia's mes-
lished according to the geometric theorem that the equals of sage is less evident but expresses a similar attitude.
equals are equal: The prominent forms in his machine consist of a mount
supporting a pistol, a target, and mechanical linkage connect-
God = creation of man in man's own image
ing them. Sexual symbolism is evident in these objects and
Machine = creation of man in man's own image
their arrangement, for the pistol is clearly a male form and
God -= Machine
targets are repeatedly used by Picabia in conjunction with the
And if God were a machine, what machine could be more female sex.36 Moreover, the pistol is accurately aligned with
appropriate for his symbol than the steam engine, king amongthe target so that if fired it cannot miss, and the linkage
machines and path-breaker for the Industrial Revolution? between gun and target implies that a target hit would cause
Picabia continued to employ simple machines and machine the pistol to be re-cocked and discharged again, establishing
parts (both "purified" and relatively realistic) throughout hisa repetitive, mechanical reaction that characterizes Voila elle
machinist period, but they comprised only one aspect of his as an automatic love machine akin in theme and spirit to
varied oeuvre. During the summer of 1915 he also combined Duchamp's Big Glass.
real and fanciful machine parts in complex inventions which Duchamp and Picabia were lifelong friends and few studies
might be classified as composite-imaginative machines. Dehave failed to stress the close relationship of these men and
Zayas! De Zayas! (Fig. 11), a symbolic machine portrait oftheir art, especially during the Dada epoch. Voila elle attests
Marius de Zayas, is chiefly derived from schematic diagrams to this relationship, but it also suggests significant differences
of electrical systems (Fig. 12); however, Picabia has devisedbetween the two men. In contrast to the Big Glass, Picabia's
his own system incorporating heterogenous items which, machine images tend to be simpler in both form and content,
moving clockwise from the upper left, can be partly identifiedless marked by painstaking craftsmanship, and less dependent
as: an empty corset joined by a line from the region of the upon external documents-although such documents or bio-
heart to what appears to be a gigantic spark plug in a ven-graphical information are usually necessary for a full compre-
tilating apparatus, a hand crank, and two automobile head-hension of his symbolism. Moreover, Picabia's machines are
lights (lower right and left) with a female plug between them frequently based on specific persons and events in his private
that eventually connects to the empty corset (as does the handlife while Duchamp seems never to have admitted personal
crank) at its point of sex. Given the preceding paintings, onemementos into the metaphysical realms of his machines-a
suspects an intelligible content exists here, too, and is temptedphenomenon wholly in accord with their respective personali-
to speculate about it. But the content is a private one that willties. Both ridiculed man's tendency to attach undue impor-
continue to frustrate interpretation until all parts of the ma- tance to any ideal or institution whether it be reason, love,
chine have been identified and properly associated with each morality, church, state, art or whatever, but Duchamp did so
other and the inscriptions. to free himself from the follies demanded by false gods while
A less enigmatic example of Picabia's composite-imagina-Picabia was less concerned about the falsity of those gods
tive machines in the summer of 1915 is Voil elle (Fig. 13) than with their power to check the fulfillment of his every
which was exhibited with De Zayas' psychotype poem, Elle.impulse. Duchamp possessed uncanny discipline and objec-
One critic reported that "according to the artists' sworn word tivity; Picabia was an utter hedonist. And in light of this it is
these works were portraits of the same woman made at differ-interesting to note that Duchamp left the Big Glass unfin-
YCAL). ender, Art and the Industrial Revolution, London, 1947, pl. xv).
31 291, Nos. 5-6, July-August, 1915. Picabia's machinist drawings were reproduced 34 Francis Picabia, statement in 291, No. 12, February, 1916.
in several issues of 291, and since many copies were mailed to Paris (letter from 35 Unsigned review, Arts and Decoration, November, 1915, 35f.
Marie Rapp Boursault to Alfred Stieglitz, August 11, 1915, ASA, YCAL) his 36 La nuit espagnol (ca. 1922, collection of Mr. and Mrs. William N. Copley, New
machinist style was known there by the late summer of 1915--well in advance of York), first referred to as Nuit d'amour (unpublished letter from Georges Ribemont-
the pronounced interest in machines and machine aesthetics that emerged among Dessaignes to Tristan Tzara, August 17, 1922, cited in Sanouillet, Dada A Paris,
painters in Paris toward the end of the war. 370), is the most straightforward example of the association of targets and female
32 Le matin, "La Turbine et le Dada," Paris, November 9, 1921. erotic zones in Picabia's work. In some instances his target-like forms represent
33 A closer visual source (also a steam engine) exists in an emblem of the Amalga- wave diagrams, but here the presence of "bullet holes" simplifies their identifica-
mated Society of Engineers designed by John Sharpies in 1851 (Frances D. Kling- tion.
ished, thereby abandoning the concerned parties in a statelight.

of As Picabia stated in an inscription along the bottom of
the large circle, this painting is an object "qui ne fait pas
suspended frustration while Voila elle appears to be in good
working order. l'61oge du temps pass6," but merits "reverence" for it has
In January, 1916 the Modern Gallery in New York pre-
taken the cherished values of academic art and placed them at
sented an exhibition of Picabia's work which was dominated the service of a new order characterized by anti-rationality,
by his new machinist style in all its variety. The simple ma- tension and "precise ambiguity."
chines such as Voila Haviland were augmented by larger, A third painting included in the Modern Gallery exhibition,
more complex and private extensions of the composite-imagi- Les disques or Cette chose est fait pour perpetuer mon souve-
native machines, and by yet another mode of painting more nir (Fig. 16), lies somewhere between Voila la femme as a
closely related to optical art than to machinist art.37 fanciful, symbolic machine, and the optical, aesthetic and
Voilh la femme (Fig. 14), one of the composite-imaginative philosophical concerns of Reverence. The spectator's attention
machines in the exhibition, is a fanciful invention which con- is captured by this bold composition of precise black, brown,
tinues the general theme of Voila elle and introduces Pica- reddish and silver forms against a background of metallic
bia's use of color with associative and symbolic properties. gold paint. Indeed, at close range, the spectator tends to be
"Woman" is presented as an upright apparatus resembling transfixed, whipped along pipelike forms, and tossed from
a mechanical drawing of some sort of pump or compressor. one circle to another until the dizzying clutch of these discs
She is attractively tinted in red, green, blue, brown and black, is broken by the discovery of words painted on the cardboard.
and set afloat in a brown fog which enhances her formidable A command, printed above the uppermost pipe, directs the
presence as an icon-machine or machine goddess. Although spectator to "Lis-c'est clair comme le jour," while a critical
her nature and function are not explicit, sexual analogies are comment along the bottommost pipe reads, "Ils tournent-
suggested by the center shaft, the two receptacles, and a color vous avez des oreilles et vous n'entendrez pas." This statement
scheme which reserves the hot reds for what is literally por- and the black color of the four large circles suggest that the
trayed at the bottom center of the machine as a "door" to discs represent gramophone records, but the privacy of Pica-
iwoman.// bia's intention in this statement rebuffs attempts to interpret.
The large painting entitled Reverence (Fig. 15) is probably It is possible, of course, that Cette chose . . . was intended
not derived from a machine but from a chart dealing with merely to mock and mystify; it can also stand alone as a
optics or the psychology of perception.38 Characteristic of striking pattern of bold colors and precise forms related to
Picabia, the optical properties of this seemingly precise and machine aesthetics and optical phenomena. However, the
ordered composition actually ridicule the sacred dogmas of analyses of previous works suggests that an intelligible con-
academic art-balance, stability and clarity of form, space, tent lurks in these inscriptions and machine forms, that this
light, solid and void. Picabia's pursuit of this goal via "pure" machine does "work." Picabia rarely set out to mock ma-
forms (the square and the circle), and glittering, non-earthly chines; our tendency to view his mechanisms as anti-mechani-
colors (gold and silver) simultaneously devaluates these "pure" cal rests on the neglect of two factors: the visual sources of
forms and colors and elevates his mockery of them into a his machine paintings, and the nature of his mechanical
new law or system. Although the size, shape and arrangement symbolism.
of the forms in Reverence create a symmetrical composition, When the visual properties of Picabia's machines are com-
any mental recognition of balance and stability is undermined pared with the real machines and machine diagrams on which
by the off-center alignment of the diagonal shaft, the dis- they were based, it must be conceded that the operation of his
placement of the smaller circles along this shaft, and the in- inventions is essentially no less convincing than that of real
terior lines of the two trapezoids. The two trapezoids match machines." Even when confronted with a relatively common
each other exactly in size and position, but the different orien- machine, one may be unable to determine either its purpose
tation and modeling of their interior lines alter one's percep- or manner of operation (Fig. 17). This mystery may not be
tion of their size and create ambiguous illusions of space and resolved when exterior plates are removed to expose the
37 At least ten of Picabia's recent machinist paintings were exhibited at the Modern his terms will be used here.
Gallery (New York, January 5-25, 1916) operated by Marius de Zayas and Picabia 38 Contemporary reviews (Christian Science Monitor, "Picabia's Puzzles," Boston,
as a complement to 291. January 29, 1916) establish that Rtverence was first exhibited at the Modern Gal-
In this article the paintings associated with "optical" art are not accurately lery (Picabia Exhibition, New York, January 1916, Cat. No. 3), by this title.
described by that term since responses to them are more of a psychological- Subsequently it acquired the title Dedde d'Amdrique and it has recently been con-
philosophical order than of a retinal one. Nevertheless, certain paintings with fused (Sanouillet, Picabia, 95) with another painting entitled Rivdrence, probably
pronounced "optical" qualities stand out in Picabia's machine oeuvre. They are the watercolor of 1913 formerly at the Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris.
most akin to a variety of more recent perceptual paintings which William C. 39 As Henry Adams remarked when comparing the Virgin with hugh dynamos ob-
Seitz, for want of another name, provisionally designates "optical paintings" served at the Paris World's Fair of 1900 (The Education of Henry Adams, Boston
(The Responsive Eye, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1965, 18f.), and and New York, 1918, chap. xxv), there is something miraculous about machines
I 2
1. Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors,

2. Picabia, Even,
I See 1915-23.
Again Phila- My De
in Memory
Museum
delphia Museum of Art (photographed by A. J. Wyatt, of Modern
staff Art, Hillman Periodi
photographer)
TIHRouGH ( tO,
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3. Picabia, Udnie, 1913.

5.Paris, Musee
Picabia, FilleNational
nee san
de Documentation Photographique
of Art, The des Musee
Alfred Sti
4. Picabia, Mechanical 6. Picabia, Seen

Expression VoilaThroug
Havila
sion, 1913. July-August,
Birmingham, 1915)
Michigan, collection o
7. Advertisement for
Dealer's Magazine, Apr
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15
14
16
PICABIA
14. Voila la femme, 1915. Paris, collection Robert Lebel 15. Reverence, 1915. The Baltimore Museum of Art, Sadie A. May
16. Les disques (Cette chose est fait pour perpetuer mon souveni
Arts Club of Chicago, permanent collection
13i'~3"P~
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collection
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19. Picabia, Portrait

collection of Mrs. Ha
23 24
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22. Picabia, Parade amoureuse, 1917. Chicago, collection ofRay,
Mr.Danger-Dancer,
Morton G. ca. 1917-20. Collection unknown (photo: cour-
Neumann tesy Mr. Carl Belz)
23. Picabia, Etude pour novia, ca. 1916-17. New York, collection of Mr. Robert 25. Picabia, Machine tournez vite, ca. 1916-17. Milan, Galleria Schwarz
Motherwell
26. Schamberg, Machine, 1916. Yale University Art Gallery, collection Societe
Anonyme
O o
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REViLt t~i
27
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29 3
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27. Picabia, Reveil matin, 1919. Birmingham, Michigan, collection

29. Crotti, of Mrs.
Les forces micaniques de l'amour en m
Harry Lewis Winston Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti (author's photo)
28. Ernst, The Roaring of Ferocious Soldiers, 1919. Milan, Galleria Schwarz Un et une menaces, 1916. Le
30. Duchamp-Crotti,
Crotti
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36
PICABIA
34. Novia, ca. 1919-22. New York, private collection 36. Optophone, ca. 1922. Th6nex-Geneve, collection of M. Andre N
35. Astrolabe, ca. 1922. Collection unknown (photo: Barcelona, Galerie Dal-
mau, Exposition Francis Picabia, November-December, 1922)
FRANCIS PICABIA 317
motor (Fig. 18), and cross-sectional diagrams of sion,the

theyengine
are modest. The general categories and content of
are likely to make its function even less comprehensible.
the paintings The
remain much the same.
designing engineers themselves, in order to clarify Picabia
the and his wife settled in Barcelona from about Au-
opera-
tion of their machines, constructed models and gust,
reduced com-
1916 until March, 1917 when they returned to New York
for another
plex electrical, chemical and mechanical actions to simple visit of six months. Their life in Barcelona was
symbols in renderings which rely heavily onmade number and by a band of French friends including
more pleasant
color codes, labels and directional arrows. Yet Albert the ability ofGleizes, Arthur Cravan, Maximilian Gau-
and Juliette
an automobile electric system (Fig. 12) to function tier, Marieis not
Laurencin and her husband, Otto Von Waitgen.
likely to be questioned, whereas De Zayas! De Zayas! or Voila
But Picabia was bored and he began to publish a provocative
la femme are susceptible to immediate classification as fanci-
little journal entitled 391 inspired by and named after Stieg-
ful, satirical contraptions.40 litz' 291.42 Picabia's first published poems appeared in the
These observations are not intended to convince the reader Barcelona and New York issues of 391 along with reproduc-
that Picabia's mechanical contrivances are conceived and func- tions of recent machinist paintings and articles which reaffirm
tion as mere conventional machines. To be sure, Picabia's his preoccupation with the theory of correspondance.
machines do not function in an ordinary manner for he was The most articulate expression of this aesthetic occurs in an
primarily interested in man and commented on man, not on article by Maximilian Gautier, who surely speaks for Picabia:
machines. With rare exceptions his machines are symbols
which represent not only man, but man's personality, deeds,
Le monde des idles et des formes lui apparalt comme un
cosmos sympathique, tout en correspondances, rapports et
concepts and gods, just as Western art from the ancient
Greeks onward personified gods, human virtues and vices, ressemblances. It aperqoit ce qu'il peut y avoir de commun et
de liant entre une fleur et un moteur a explosions, entre une
war, peace and victory. Accordingly, Picabia's machines are
not properly measured against "real" machines, but when ligne et une idle, une couleur et un souvenir, un amour et un
phenomine chimique, un personnage biblique et une doctrine
considered for what they are--symbolic representations of
d'art, un piano et un peigne, la mer et un tramway. Ce qu'on
man and human situations-then his machines do "function,"
peut prendre chez lui pour une affectation de comique, n'est
for whatever comment Picabia has couched in Voilt la femme
is directed at women, not at science, technology, machines, or que t'effet d'une ingenuite pure, d'un ferme et sincere desir
d'exprimer tout l'humain par les moyens les plus directs. Il n'a
the value assigned human beings in the capitalistic societies
of Europe and the United States in 1915. pour obiectif que de se confier, projecter dans la matibre les
realitis de son etre interieur.43
An interlude of about eight months occurred in Picabia's
career from late 1915 to mid-1916 as a result of an illness and Picabia's Portrait de Marie Laurencin (Fig. 19) is representa-
a voyage to the Caribbean.41 During those months Picabia tive of this concept of human-mechanical correspondence. It
began to compose poetry, and thereafter painting was only also shows the stylistic modifications of his post-1915 machin-
one aspect of his career. Indeed his literary activities between ist paintings. Indifferent composition and technique, puzzling
1917 and 1924 vied with his painting; he became a prolific inscriptions, and an implausible machine tempt the spectator
poet and writer of articles, he edited several Dada journals, to regard this painting as a dadaist insult to art and technol-
collaborated on others, and produced scenarios for ballet and ogy; but Picabia was not primarily concerned with either art
the cinema. As the central figure of Dada in Paris, he was also or technology. He has constructed a symbolic portrait of
embroiled in the promotion, defense and explanation of that Marie Laurencin and the conditions of her life in Barcelona.
movement. During the most active period of Dada in Paris The inscriptions identify the subject of the portrait and refer
(1920-1921) Picabia's output of paintings diminished and to Barcelona, to Marie's dog Coco, and to a "boche" or her
assemblages became as important as his machinist style. How- German husband whose nationality did cast a "shadow" over
ever, the machinist paintings continued and although some their life during the war. The machine forms, though not very
stylistic modifications evident in them after 1915 merit discus-
expressive in themselves, were selected deliberately. Gabrielle
that produce astounding noise, motion and end products or effects without a
visible source of power. October, 1963). Picabia is not mentioned in New York after September, 1915
40 Fanciful machines need not be non-functional or imply an anti-machine attitude. (Alfred Stieglitz-Marius de Zayas correspondence, ASA, YCAL). A Panamanian
To the contrary, Rube Goldberg's droll inventions (contemporary with Picabia's) postcard from Picabia to De Zayas (ASA, YCAL) marked simply "November 22"
function and reveal a delight in machinery; and Jean Tinguely's machines-more must date from 1915 since Picabia's address during November of the adjacent
improbable than Picabia's--operate in a manner liberated from function which en- years can be documented.
ables us to become fascinated with them as art.
42 The title of 391 (Barcelona, New York, Ziirich, and Paris, Nos. 1-19, January 25,
41 Picabia's activities from late 1915 through 1916 are not well documented. Gabrielle 1917-November, 1924) is explained in a letter from Francis Picabia to Alfred
Buffet-Picabia has recalled that in order for Picabia to recover from an illness and Stieglitz on January 22, 1917 (ASA, YCAL).
to attend to his army mission they left New York for Panama in late 1915 or 43 Max Goth (Maximilian Gautier), "D'un certain esprit . . .," 391, No. 2, Barcelona,
early 1916 and proceeded to Barcelona about July, 1916 (letter to the author, February 10, 1917, in Francis Picabia, 391, 24.
Buffet-Picabia recalls in fact that Picabia associated the fresh-

cerned with each other's presence. Though powdered with
ness and gaiety of Marie Laurencin with the effect of a ven- metallic silver paint, the female machine is a drab creature,
tilator-the major form in the portrait.44 In terms of style, an
functioning only as an indiscriminate, emotionless receptacle.
asymmetrical balance prevails in this composition in contrast
She has her "sac de voyage" and is poised like a mechanical
to the bilateral symmetry that characterized the 1915 paint-
cricket, ready to snap her connections in a moment and spring
ings. This feature is sometimes accompanied in the post-1915
to the next unconnected male. Her indifferent partner is more
paintings by a grand indifference for technical refinement or
handsomely arrayed in black and gold metallic paint, but he
by the cultivation of a deliberately sketchy, painterly style
lacks mobility and exercises only one function. Even that func-
-although many of the later machinist paintings, especiallytion seems to be not of his own volition, but-reminiscent of
Duchamp's Big Glass-a function directed from above as
those from 1918 to 1922, are carefully executed and partici-
pate in a Picabian way in the rising interest in machine aes-
indicated at the upper left by a dotted line to the center con-
thetics. tact on the male machine.
While Picabia's use of a highly personal idiom of symbolic The content of Parade amoureuse is less evident, but ini-
machine forms seems beyond dispute, the efficacy of his sym- tially one is less concerned about the "meaning" of this
bolism is debatable. Frequently symbols have little or no brightly painted, disarmingly droll construction set against
visual relation to the object or idea they represent, although a textured ground with thin lines that suggest a curious in-
this poses no problem once the symbol has become standard- terior space. Temptation to speculate about the noise and
ized and familiar to its audience. With a few exceptions, how- movement of this gangling machine in operation is irresistible,
ever, Picabia's symbolic forms were never fixed. Even after and the possibilities seem hilarious until the title of the paint-
prolonged examination employing visual and literary, internaling and sexual imagery in its forms infiltrate our conscious-
and external evidence, the Portrait de Marie Laurencin fails to
ness. Once the presence of content beyond that of a delightful
convey an intelligible statement or emotion to anyone except anti-machine is admitted, the ambiguous forms and improb-
Picabia and a few initiated spectators."45 able operation of Parade amoureuse assume different values,
This criticism is not valid for all of Picabia's machinist and one is impelled to identify the gender and function of
paintings. Two important composite-imaginary machines ofvarious parts. Ready answers are thwarted, but the title sug-
1916-1917, Prostitution universelle (Fig. 21) and Parade
gests that Picabia has made a show of sexual love, placed it
amoureuse (Fig. 22), reflect modifications in style similar toon "parade" by lining up the forms for display and providing
the Portrait de Marie Laurencin, but their content is open to them with color, noise and action. But this is only "show" for
a universal audience and is expressed largely by the forms
the apparatus simply cannot function effectively. Should it be
themselves. activated as a love machine, the frenzied flailings of its con-
The content of Prostitution universelle is harsh and it is necting linkage would appear as a not-so-comical expression
stated with brutal clarity in a bleak composition dominated of the machine's inability to accomplish its function, to trans-
by two machine forms whose appearance and accompanying mit or release its power.
inscriptions identify them as an upright male and a supine Although such symbolic machines dominated Picabia's ma-
female. As verified by a related drawing (Fig. 20), these machinist oeuvre, he also developed a decidedly different manner
chines are engaged in the act of love, but Picabia has madeof machine-the "painterly" machine that may harbor sym-
this act an impersonal, mechanical function, stripped of all bolic forms but appeals as a painting per se, unburdened by
that is intimate and sacred. The machines are connected solely symbolism and literary or biographical data.
by two wires, and they seem almost unaware of and uncon- Etude pour novia (Fig. 23), an important and recurring
44 Mme. Albert Glelzes, who was portrayed as a machine about the same time, re- Novia on the cover of 391, No. 1, Barcelona, January 25, 1917.
ports that Picabia attached great importance to those portraits and considered 47 Joseph Stella, Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler and John Covert should also be
them "tris ressemblants" (unpublished memoirs quoted from an authorized type- mentioned. Stella had sketched Pittsburgh's industrial scenes in 1908 and painted
script by courtesy of Mr. Daniel Robbins). in a Futurist-inspired idiom since 1912, but he did not seize bridges, ships and
45 Picabia sometimes repeated themes utilizing similar forms in the same context, airplanes as subjects until after his close association with Duchamp beginning in
for example Novia in Figs. 23 and 34. However, an inventory of his machines 1915. The Precisionist styles of Sheeler and Demuth which began to emerge in
yields not a catalogue of set symbols but a vast array of forms and compositions 1916 and 1917 respectively are indebted to several sources including CUzanne,
which can rarely be "explained" by reference to other paintings. Gleizes and their own previous work. Picabia and Duchamp must also be cited
46 Many of the painterly machines appear to be contemporary in date-particularly in this respect, both from the standpoint of machine aesthetics and, to a lesser
those that are executed with the blue and black water color and ink used in Etude extent, their irreverent, debunking attitudes. See Forbes Watson, "Charles De-
pour novia. None presently known are dated, but Etude pour novia suggests a muth," The Arts, 3, No. 1, New York, January, 1923, 78. For John Covert see
date of ca. 1916-17 since this theme is documented by a similar machine entitled George Heard Hamilton, "John Covert: Early American Modern," College Art
FRANCIS PICABIA 319
subject in Picabia's work, illustrates the painterly machine.bu

Novia is a beguiling, beautiful machine, a sweetheart-notsty
because of traits which would endear her to Leger, such as a sy
mass production personality, streamlined construction, preci- cep
sion and efficiency, but because she is the antithesis of that, sim
sensitivity.
an irresistibly soft, helpless, impossible female machine.4,
Although Picabia produced a number of painterly Themachines,
specific individual influences of Picabia and Duchamp
most of his machinist paintings after 1915 inclineamong theseinAmerican
style painters are not easily distinguished,
toward the precision and simplicity of machine aesthetics.
but Duchamp was more influential partly because he learned
English and code
The theme of Machine tournez vite (Fig. 25) is sexual-a established a closer relationship with them. He
in the lower left corner labels the smaller wheel "Femme" and in New York, whereas Picabia was con-
also remained longer
the larger gear "Homme." Nevertheless, a spectator is first
stantly moving. In the fall of 1917 he left America perma-
nently, against
attracted by the design in bold blue and gold forms returning to France via Spain. A recurrent illness
a contrasting black background, and in the final prompted
analysis himthese
to move again in early 1918 to seek rest and
visual properties may override Picabia's symbolic theintentions.
care of a neurologist in Switzerland. Owing to that illness
This dual appeal of machine aesthetics and and provocative,
to an incredibly involved personal life, most of 1918 was
intellectualized content in the work of Picabia and Duchamp
a turmoil and Picabia painted relatively little.5? However, he
accounts for their considerable influence on diverse American
wrote a great deal and it was a volume of poems which came
artists who frequented the Arensbergs' New York salon from to the attention of Tristan Tzara that led to Picabia's contact
1915 to 1920, notably Man Ray and Morton Schamberg.47 with the Ziirich dadaists-first by correspondence and then in
In both style and content there is an aura of Duchamp and person during January, 1919.51 His collaboration with the
Picabia about Man Ray's Danger-Dancer (Fig. 24).48 But it is Ziirich dadaists was celebrated by a unique example, Reveil
also a convincing personal work, for despite the fact that matin (Fig. 27), of another variant within his machinist style.
contact with the two Frenchmen was decisive for his career, Picabia, with the assistance and delighted audience of Arp and
Man Ray was not a mere follower. He alone among the Ameri- Tzara, dipped the parts of a dismantled alarm clock in ink,
cans fully shared their dadaist spirit. Indeed there were signs pressed them on a paper, and then finished the composition by
of a dada temperament and of a modest inclination toward adding a framework of lines enlivened by small circles and
machine aesthetics in his work before Duchamp and Picabia the customary inscriptions.52
reached New York in 1915-and by 1916 Man Ray was a Although the Ziirich dada artists were stimulated by Pi-
full-fledged member in the New York dadaist group, a mem- cabia's work, they were not reshaped by it. Arp, Sophie
ber whose genius with materials and techniques was surpassed Tiiuber, Janco, Richter and Eggling all continued to explore
by none of his colleagues. the organic and geometrical abstractions which characterized
At the same time, Duchamp and Picabia were catalysts for their work before Picabia's arrival. Nevertheless, the union
the vastly different machinist style of Morton Schamberg. of Picabia and the Ziirich dadaists was a critical event. It
Schamberg's mitre box and plumbing pipe construction en- sparked a mutual excitement immediately apparent in their
titled God indicates he was not impervious to the dadaist publications and activities; it led to the opening of the incom-
mockery of Duchamp and Picabia, but his real sensitivity
parable dada cell in Paris; and it established machinist paint-
49
resid
ings as an important feature of dada art. Several German and
point
French dadaists developed machinist styles-in Cologne, for
Journal, 12, 1952, 37-42. panion for over a decade. The complicated marital relations which ensued for
48 Man Ray was more likely to paint with the aid of a machine (his air gun) than almost two years aggravated his neurasthenic condition and disrupted several lives.
he was to paint machines; Danger-Dancer is one of the few paintings where 51 Tzara wrote to Picabia seeking his collaboration on August 21, 1918, and they
he depicted machines or machine parts. It suggests a relationship to Picabia's met in Ziirich in late January, 1919 (Tzara-Picabia correspondence in Sanouillet,
Machine tournez vite (Fig. 25) and Reveil matin (Fig. 27) without being dependent Dada A Paris, 466, 478). They must have heard of each other before this time
upon them. The date of Danger-Dancer is not documented but could be as early since Tzara and De Zayas met in the fall of 1916 and exchanged copies of Dada
as 1917 since it (or a duplicate) was incorporated in the assemblage, L'impossibilitW, and 291 (Tzara-De Zayas correspondence, Sanouillet, ibid., 569, 572). Tzara was
exhibited in 1921 (Librarie Six, Exposition Man Ray, Paris, December 3-31) as a also mentioned in 391, No. 5, New York, June, 1917.
work of 1917-20.
52 Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, "Some Memories of Pre-Dada: Picabia and Duchamp"
49 Schamberg was assisted in the creation of God (ca. 1918, Philadelphia Museum of (1949), in Robert Motherwell, ed., The Dada Painters and Poets, New York, 1951,
Art) by Else Von Freytag Loringhoven. 266.
50 In November, 1917 Picabia met Germaine Everling who became his devoted com-
an exception among Picabia's painter colleagues. The subject

example, Max Ernst and Baargeld were influenced by Picabia's
work, and in Paris, dada painting was identified with matter,
the droll mechanical forms, indifferent technique, and
paintings of Picabia and his colleagues Georges Ribemont-
awkward lettering of his Jeune femme (Fig. 31) demonstrate a
Dessaignes, Jean Crotti, and Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti. dependence on Picabia not present among the other dada
During a trip to Munich in 1919, Max Ernst saw dada painters. An engagingly irreverent, roguish sense of humor
publications from Ziirich which prompted the developmentenlivens
of many of his machinist paintings, but dada polemics,
not painting, enlisted the zeal of Ribemont-Dessaignes, who
a machinist style that dominated his work for a short time
became Picabia's most enthusiastic and versatile colleague.
and remained an important aspect of his career until the mid-
1920's."3 His earliest machinist drawings such as the RoaringWhile Picabia held a central role in Paris Dada, the output
of Ferocious Soldiers (Fig. 28) are clearly indebted to Picabia
of his machines was appreciably reduced to make way for a
in terms of composition and in the use of inscriptions numberand of intriguing assemblages, experiments with ink blots,
actual machine diagrams, but almost from the start Ernst and an endless succession of dada publications, festivals, and
attained a personal expression. His inscriptions describe a
exhibitions. In some of his writings and in a few of the ink
blots and assemblages at that time, Picabia participated in the
different temperament, his technique is more delicate and pre-
cise, and within a year he was producing such machine-like stream of nihilism and anti-art prominent within the complex
beings as Deux figures ambigues (1919) prophetic not onlyphenomenon
of of Dada."6 In one respect, Picabia's activity in
his distinctive later machines but of the animated growths this realm of Dada appears to be only a change of degree in
and enigmatic spaces of his surrealist paintings. the attitude he had held for several years, but in fact such
In the company of Duchamp and Picabia during 1915-1916 nihilism was incompatible with his convictions about art.
in New York, Jean Crotti developed a machinist style which Painting was for him such a natural and necessary means of
initially owed a good deal to his two friends. Virginiteexpression
en that to deny it would be almost equivalent to re-
diplacement (1916) is indebted visually and thematically to nouncing the ability to speak or write. Moreover, there were
Duchamp's Bride, and Les forces micaniques de l'amoursigns en that Dada was becoming organized, serious and ambi-
mouvement (Fig. 29) was once mistaken for a work bytious. Pi- In May, 1921 Picabia publicly announced and explained
cabia."4 Nevertheless, Crotti realized a sensitive, personal his separation from Dada.57
style which contributed significantly to the small but vitalThe machinist paintings Picabia produced during the hey-
day of Dada in Paris generally continued the practice of
group of dada artists in Paris who agitated the public at each
Salon des Independants and Salon d'Automne from 1919 human-mechanical
to correspondence and the trend towards
1922. He was supported in that activity by his wife, Suzanne machine aesthetics noted in several paintings of 1915-1917.
Duchamp-Crotti, who in 1915-1916 also began to construct Both of these characteristics are evident in L'enfant car-
machinist assemblages which were perhaps less sensitive but burateur (Fig. 32). Picabia's perception of beauty in machines
often more provocative than Crotti's paintings. One of is the
undisputable before this striking composition of gold, black
and silver forms harmonized in pattern and in color with the
best of her assemblages, Un et une menacds (Fig. 30) shares
the spirit of Duchamp and Picabia, yet is marked by anunpainted
in- plywood support. Nonetheless, an artful arrange-
ment of precise forms, hard planes, and metallic colors hardly
ventiveness, delicacy, and humor which make it a first-rate
work in its own right. comprises the total significance of the painting. Symbolism is
Duchamp and Picabia abhorred the idea of becoming the rampant, and though its precise nature is elusive the machine
founder of a school or movement in art. With few exceptions
parts themselves suggest sexual analogies which are fortified
the influence of their work was a liberating force, not a by
de-the inscriptions and the subject matter.58
manding, confining one."5 Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes wasThe only noteworthy modification in Picabia's machinist
53 Editor's notes in Max Ernst's "An Informal Life of M. E." reprinted in The Mu- York, spring, 1922, 45.
seum of Modern Art, Max Ernst, New York, 1961, 11. The identity of the dada 56 Picabia's "Manifeste Cannibale Dada" published in Dadaphone, No. 7, Paris,
publications is not known, but it is probable that they included one or more March, 1920, is one of his most deliberately insulting statements. It is matched
copies of Dada containing machinist drawings by Picabia (No. 3, Ziirich, Decem- by his ink splotch entitled La Sainte-Vierge (391, No. 12, Paris, March, 1920),
ber, 1918, and Nos. 4-5, Ziirich, May 15, 1919). and an assemblage consisting of a toy monkey mounted on a support inscribed
with an infantile scrawl: "Portrait de C6zanne," "Portrait de Renoir," "Portrait
54 Andr6 Warnod, "Le Salon des Ind6pendants," L'avdnir, Paris, January 28, 1920, 2.
55 Like the American artists previously discussed, the Crottis worked out their own de Rembrandt."
direction. During the dada days of Paris the baiting forms, materials and content 57 Francis Picabia, "M. Picabia se s6pare des Dadas," Comoedia, Paris, May 11,
of their work gave way to abstract geometrical compositions suggestive of solar 1921, and May 17, 1921.
systems visually indebted to the precise forms of their machinist paintings but 58 Picabia's Child Carburetor is based on an automobile carburetor (Fig. 33), that is,
quite different in aim. In 1921 they proclaimed the new development "Tabu," a the part of a gasoline motor which achieves a proper mixture of volatile gas and
form of art they considered a non-materialistic and even religious expression made air to assure maximum firing of the cylinders. Accordingly, the role of the
possible by the purgative work of Dada. Jean Crotti, "Tabu," Little Review, New carburetor is a vital one--in a conventional internal combustion engine or in a
FRANCIS PICABIA 321
style during the dada years was, ironically, a modest response

cal diagrams and optical patterns which could be exec
to the climate of machine aesthetics propagatedrelatively
by such inde-
realistic terms, in a painterly manner, or w
pendent but kindred groups as L'Esprit Nouveau, De Stijl,on
emphasis the
machine aesthetics and perceptual effects
Bauhaus and the Russian Suprematists and Constructivists.
Since Picabia's concept of mechanical symbolism h
Frequently from about 1918 to 1922 Picabia ignored
recast earlier
by previous authors, its naivete has escaped cr
themes, Novia for example (Fig. 34), into more austerely geo-
but the confounding content and uneven technical qu
metrical forms with hard planes and flat colors that participatepaintings has evoked criticism for being
his machinist
in the purist-classicist trend of much French painting after the
excessively literary, deliberately provocative or myst
war. This is particularly prevalent in his work of 1922,
and a year
indifferent to craftsmanship and beauty. Althoug
also distinguished by new subjects and sourcestime(electrical
or another all of this criticism is justified, it rep
symbols, wave graphs, and geometrical or astronomical dia-prejudiced evaluation of his machinist oeu
partial and
grams) perhaps suggested to Picabia by his French, German
just evaluation involves the totality of his work and co
and Russian colleagues. Nevertheless, Picabia ation
was not ab-
of Picabia the man who sought a life unfettered
sorbed by the milieu. Indeed, in terms of content his of
sort machines
restrictions or responsibilities which thwarted
challenged and parodied the grand designs of L'Esprit Nouveau
placable demand for freedom of thought and action.
and related phenomena elsewhere in Europe. further than most men to live by his personal ideals,
Astrolabe (Fig. 35) is named for an instrumentexpressed
once used to in his paintings and in scores of poems
them
observe celestial bodies, and the configuration of forms andand articles published in journals and new
statements,
lines does suggest a solar system--but a most unruly
from 1917 one
onward."1
which may harbor a Picabian view of the universe. Optophone
(Fig. 36) asserts more emphatically the continuityVoyez-vous,
of Picabia's t'ennui est le pire des maladies et mon
disespoir serait justement d'&tre pris au serieux, de de
temperament to the very end of his machinist style. A female
grand homme, un maftre . ..62
nude is superimposed on a diagram of a static magnetic field
Ce qui
in which optical properties are more important than me donne des certitudes, c'est que je sais q
machine
impossible d'arreter le mouvement . ..
aesthetics. Neither optics nor machine aesthetics, however,
override Picabia's proclivity to perceive human Il faut
(and etre nomade, traverser les ide'es comme on t
usually
les pays et les villes . . .63
sexual) analogies everywhere. Here the nude, so placed that
II faut
her point of sex falls over the center of the magnetic traverser la vie, rouge ou bleu, tout nu, av
field,
becomes in electrical parlance either a "charged musique
body" ordethe
pecher subtil, prdt I t'extreme pour la fte
"conductor" of the charge. Picabia's art was an inseparable aspect of his life.
A large one-man exhibition of these late machinist paintings
called upon to express his thoughts and emotions
in November, 1922 marks a turning point in Picabia's career."
distinction between those which were grand or trivial
In 1923 he abandoned his machinist style as rapidly as he had
or complex, urgent or enduring. To function as a form
developed it in 1915.6o Considering his devotion to change
pression as personal and natural as speech, his art cou
and the frequent jumps in his career, this sudden
bedesertion
burdenedofby commercial need, by desire for fame o
a style is less surprising than the fact that itambition
had endured
to produce something important or beautifu
eight years. During that period he never faltered in hisand
taneity de- flexibility were necessarily vital (though
votion to human-mechanical correspondence, but in terms
clusive) of
elements in Picabia's art as they were in his lif
style his oeuvre was varied. Simple machines and machine he tossed off many drawings and pain
Consequently
parts coexisted with composite-imaginary machines,
clumsymechani-
in technique and trivial in content-mementos
Picabia invention where motors are usually female beings activated byof
portraits "love
his collaborators on the ballet Reldche and the film
gasoline." In addition to the title and signature, inscriptions on L'enfant carbura-
(Comoedia, Paris, November 21, 1924, 4).
teur read: "Detruire le Future," "Sphere de la Migraine," "Flux 61 Aet Reflux bibliography
complete des of Picabia's writings from 1917 to his depar
R4solutions," "Dissolution de Prolongation," "Methode Crocodile,"
Paris and "Value
in 1925 exceeds the scope of this article. A list of the basic wor
en Jaquette."
include nine volumes of poetry or major poems; two dadaist reviews
59 Galerie Dalmau, Exposition Francis Picabia, Barcelona, November 18-December
Cannibale); major8, contributions to most of the dada publications, to Li
1922. Although machine aesthetics were paramount in some of Picabia's machinist
and to the Little Reviezo; a series of articles for Comoedia, L'Vre nou
paintings from 1915 onward, the particularly austere, arid style of Astrolabe and
Paris-journal; the ballet Reldche and the film Entr'acte, produced in colla
Optophone seems to have begun in 1922. Presently none of these with paintings canSatie.
Rene Clair and Erik
be identified in exhibitions prior to the Galerie Dalmau show, 62and in the
Francis preface
Picabia, "L'oeil cacodylate," Comoedia, Paris, November 23, 1921.
to that exhibition Andr6 Breton stated that all of the watercolors on display
63 Picabia, hadse sipare des Dadas."
"M. Picabia
been painted only a few months earlier.
64 Francis Picabia, "L'ideal dor6 par l'or," 391, No. 5, New York, June, 1917, in
60 A few machine drawings occur later in Picabia's career, notably the
Picabia, machine
391, 42.
personal life as short-lived as the thought or event that in-air balloon: "je voudrais fonder un ecole 'paternelle' pour
spired them. However, this criticism cannot be charged against
d6courager les jeunes gens de ce que nos bons snobs appellent
Parade amoureuse, L'enfant carburateur, or dozens of other
I'Art
les
canvases which express his attitude toward life in images that avec un
temples A majuscule.
d'Art, L'Artest
comme Dieu estpartout,
partout,sauf
excepte. .... dans
dans les
eglises .. ."6 Nevertheless, Picabia advocated and demon-
are technically proficient and visually effective. Picabia did
intend for some of his paintings to insult and mystify, but strated
his a freedom in his life and art which can be matched by
machinist oeuvre is no more dominated by such works thanfew it artists between 1913 and 1925. As an artist and as a
is by overly literary paintings or by such beguiling objects personality
as his example exerted a positive, liberating influence
the Motherwell Novia. Finally, it is evident that Picabia's then, which during recent years artists, authors and collectors
machinist paintings were no more anti-art than they were have experienced anew.
anti-machine. To be sure he delighted in deflating art's hot University of St. Thomas
65 Picabia, "L'oeil cacodylate."

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The Machinist Style of Francis Picabia

Author(s): William A. Camfield

Picabia clearly stated the aim of his machinist in the paintings

means of comprehending the potentiality-the very entheart

ished, thereby abandoning the concerned parties in a statelight.

1. Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors,

' J~B ?iR4 NickdFnswihph

3. Picabia, Udnie, 1913.

4. Picabia, Mechanical 6. Picabia, Seen

TU VOUDRAISI HIE'N TE LIE-DA.NS

ELLE N'A PAS A LA PEUR DU PLAISIR

JO U l- ,SAN*C X DCHIRER 150 TRE SOIAL

13. Picabia, Voila elle, 1915 (r.) a

eel ii 1 I~ ~S" c'

~i~: i': -; .: ;.; ?;tiiii:i-: ~E-_:~ ? LLzr:

a " ~I *d~S1IDI~LL . - ;-r ? ::; ? I~~

19. Picabia, Portrait

27. Picabia, Reveil matin, 1919. Birmingham, Michigan, collection

31. 32. Pica

'S ')<.,.% " _ " .. ..

motor (Fig. 18), and cross-sectional diagrams of sion,the

Buffet-Picabia recalls in fact that Picabia associated the fresh-

subject in Picabia's work, illustrates the painterly machine.bu

an exception among Picabia's painter colleagues. The subject

style during the dada years was, ironically, a modest response

65 Picabia, "L'oeil cacodylate."

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