Index, Francis Picabia Transparencies Series

Buy With Confidence

BUY WITH CONFIDENCE


£5.00
size
printed on
Framing



Dispatches within 48 hrs, Tracked, insured worldwide delivery

Details

Index belongs to Francis Picabia's celebrated series of Transparency paintings (Transparences). Renouncing Dadaism and largely disassociating himself from Surrealism, Picabia moved to the south of France in 1925 where, beginning in the late 1920s, he created this major series of highly individualistic works. So-called because of their layered diaphanous imagery, Index is an arresting example from the series. A beautiful woman's face, white lilies, and a seated male nude are superimposed, one upon the other, to create an ethereal landscape. The compositional elements simultaneously combine to create an illusional and seemingly impenetrable allegory with all the characteristics of a dream or mystic vision.

Picabia's 'transparencies' were in part derived from the artist's Cubist and Orphist periods, but he had also experimented with layered simultaneity in the film Entr'acte and in some of his 'monster' paintings of the late 1920s. It was therefore primarily within the context of the cinema that these extraordinary works were first interpreted. Gaston Ravel exclaimed excitedly about the first transparencies: "The multiple impressions we have used, and abused, in our films...are here...immobilized by his magic brush...at first glance, some confusion perhaps; but, little by little, everything comes clear, slowly...It is a miracle! it is an enchantment...an homage, involuntary perhaps, rendered to the cinema" (W. Camfield, Francis Picabia, His Art, Life and Times, New York, 1979, p. 233).

Similarly excited by Picabia's new paintings was the dealer Léonce Rosenberg who was so impressed by them that in spite of having been reviled and ridiculed by the artist during Picabia's Dada period, he offered Picabia an arrangement with his gallery and commissioned a group of paintings for his wife's room.

Picabia's transparencies were executed during a time of great personal turmoil for the artist. A turmoil that was set against the luxurious Mediterranean surroundings of the Côte d'Azur. Living in his château and playing on his yacht, Picabia played host during these years to an endless series of parties and intellectual gatherings. Alongside his marriage to Germaine, he had fallen in love with the guardian of his son Lorenzo, Olga Mohler, whom he would later marry, and at the same time was indulging in an affair with the young daughter of Benjamin Guinness.

During this golden period at the end of the 1920s Picabia's luxuriant lifestyle was accompanied by feverish activity that resulted in the mysterious many layered 'transparency' paintings. "This country which seems...to make some lazy, stimulates me to work," Picabia wrote, "I have more and more pleasure in the resumption of painting" (ibid., p. 216). Indeed all the members of the family at Picabia's château, which was permanently populated by many friends, lovers and other guests, refer to the fervor with which Picabia worked in conjunction with his hectic social life. This sense of multiplicity, along with the Mediterranean culture and landscape that encouraged painters from Picasso to de Chirico to assert an overt classicism in their work, are almost certainly the major influences behind the many-layered classicism of Picabia's 'transparency' paintings.

The meanings of such works remain deliberately obscure and ambiguous as if they were, as indeed Picabia himself has hinted, made up of a personal code of imagery that only he could recognize and interpret. In his only statement about these works in the introduction for his exhibition at Rosenberg's gallery, Picabia declares that a painting such as Index is an expression of his "inner desire" to be read by himself alone.

"'Picabia has made too many jokes with his painting!'...is...what certain people find at the bottom of their sack of acrimony...And me, I say: too many jokes have been made with Picabia's painting! I worked for months and years making use of nature, copying it. Now it is my nature that I copy, that I try to express. I was once feverish over calculated inventions, now it is my instinct that guides me...This third dimension, not made of light and shadow, these transparencies with their corner of oubliettes permit me to express for myself the resemblance of my interior desires...I want a painting where all my instincts may have a free course...Those who have said...that 'I do not enter the line of account' are right. I take no part in no addition and recount my life to myself alone" (the artist quoted in Exposition Francis Picabia, trente ans de peinture, exh. cat., Galerie l'Effort Moderne (Léonce Rosenberg), Paris, December 1930.)

Francis Picabia (22 January 1879 – 30 November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism. His highly abstract planar compositions were colourful and rich in contrasts. He was one of the early major figures of the Dada movement in the United States and in France. He was later briefly associated with Surrealism, but would soon turn his back on the art establishment.

Available as a fine art print and as a stretched canvas panel (heavy fine art canvas stretched over 1.5 inch deep edge solid wood frame).

highest quality canvas panels

deep edge canvas prints

  

All prints are made using archival art stocks and UV pigment inks to give up to 200 years life. Prints are sold unframed and unmounted.

 

Shipping

All orders for unframed fine art prints and original paintings are dispatched within 2 working days of receipt of payment.

Orders for custom framed prints are dispatched within 4 working days.

All orders are fully tracked from dispatch to delivery at your home or business.

All print and original painting orders are fully insured against loss or damage in transit. We refund or replace any damaged or lost orders.

Buy with confidence - read what our satisfied customers have to say - Reviews

Size and Printed Materials

Fine art papers are printed without any additional white border Please let us know at the time of ordering if you would like a small additional white border.

Rolled canvas options have an additional white border of approximately 2.5 inches (7cm) on all 4 sides to aid stretching.

Ready to hang canvas panels are stretched on 1.5 inch deep solid pine frames from sustainable forestry sources. The image is mirrored on all 4 sides to give an aesthetically pleasing finish.

Gift Wrap Option

Why not have us gift wrap your order and attach a personalised message to the recipient. Available for all orders. Each order is hand wrapped in high quality gift wrap with meatllic ribbon and bow. Your personalised message is printed on a card which is included with your order.

Have your hand wrapped gift delivered directly to the recipient.

Full tracking and insurance included with every order.

Please note design may vary depending upon availability

Just purchase the gift wrap option HERE

Framing Options - Instructions

We have a wide range of frames in standard sizes and we also make custom size frames.

To order a framed print:

1. select the print size you would like along with the print materials (matte paper, fine art paper).

2. Add your print choice to the basket.

3. Choose from our range of frames

4. Select the same size as the print you have added to your basket. If the frame size you want is not listed please contact us

5. Choose from the mount or no-mount option

6. Add your frame choice to the basket

7. Proceed to checkout.

Why Choose GalleryThane?

  • Printed and framed in-house
  • Free UK delivery
  • Fast international delivery
  • Tracking and insurance included in every order
  • Fast 1-3 day dispatch
  • Gift wrapping service available
  • Gallery quality materials
  • Sustainable, eco-friendly packaging
  • Great customer support

What makes our Prints and Canvas Panels so special

latest wide format pigment ink printers

Latest Giclee Printing Technology

We have invested in the latest wide format print technology to produce museum quality giclee prints utilising the highest quality pigment inks to give outstanding colour reproduction.

museum quality fine art papers

Museum Quality Archival Fine Art Papers

We print on the finest quality fine art papers with textured, smooth and lustre finishes for prints which last a lifetime.

From aceo miniatures to 40x80 inch large format, every print has our lifetime quality guaranteee.

cotton canvas stretched over solid wood frame

Solid Wood Frames, Cotton Canvas

All of the wood for our canvas panels and frames is responsibly sourced from manages forests. Our cotton canvas is completely seedless for the highest quality reproduction possible.

Have Your Gift Wrapped

gift wrapping service from GaleryThane

Choose a Custom Frame

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)