Rofa, Francis Picabia Transparencies Series

Rofa is an exceptional work epitomising one of the most sought-after series produced between 1928 and 1932 by polyvalent artist Francis Picabia, known as the Transparences. Dating from 1932-1933, Rofa is most likely one of his last works from that series, and as such, it is characterised by a simplification of form despite its lively surface and composition. Recently rediscovered, Rofa had been in the same private hands since its execution, initially belonging to one of Picabia’s close friends and then inherited by the present owners - it has never been published nor shown to the public.
Sarah Wilson claimed in her study published in conjunction with the Francis Picabia: Transparences 1924-1932 exhibition held at Kent Fine Art Gallery in New York in 1989, that "the Transparences remain the most beautiful, the most intriguing of the phases of Picabia's work". Without doubt Rofa confirms that statement, although parodying beauty rather than representing it was probably more Picabia’s intention in his Transparences. "Intriguing" the viewer by his bizarre image associations was also clearly his aim, as only he could understand their meaning according to his mistress Olga. The same goes for his enigmatic titles, such as Rofa, which the artist invented by mixing syllables of different words, the poetic resonance of which made sense only to him. Picabia’s Transparences are characterised by an amalgamation of superimposed images deriving from eclectic art historical references, that range from classical Antique sculpture and Greek or Roman mythology to Renaissance and Baroque painting, from Medieval Catalan mural paintings to more popular and scientific images, such as specific fauna or flora.
References to Sandro Botticelli, Piero della Francesca or identified Antique sculptures are parodically re-interpreted in many of his Transparences yet the particularity of Rofa lies in the wide array of mythological, Oriental, ornithological and art historical sources used by Picabia to create a very unique visual and poetic lexicon formulated in a harmonious composition. Unlike many artists during the interwar years, Picabia’s neo-classical references are not a return to order but are rather a means to satisfy his own creative process and to push aesthetic boundaries by mingling these incongruous images. Researchers have argued that the origins of Picabia’s Transparences and its terminology go back to his fascination with photography and innovative cinematographic techniques, which he had experimented in his film Entr’acte in 1924, an interpretation supported by art collector Gertrude Stein in the early 1930s.
As opposed to the complex layers of his slightly earlier Transparences, the images of which are often difficult to read, Rofa stands out not only by the simplification of the composition but also by its dynamism tempered by a certain lyricism. The striking female nude figure at the centre, unconventionally throwing her body backwards whilst hiding her face with her right arm and pushing or perhaps hanging on to a cloud with her left hand, conveys a dramatic dynamism to the painting. The movement is enhanced by other elements superimposed by Picabia in this Transparence such as the threatening clouds, the agitated sea in the background or the wave rolling in under the woman’s body. The nude’s position defies classicism just as the composition’s structure of multiple layers challenges traditional perspective, resulting in what fellow artist Marcel Duchamp described as "a third dimension without resorting to perspective" in reference to Picabia’s Transparences (M. Duchamp, quoted in M. L. Borràs, Picabia, London, 1985, p. 337).
Several diagonals, shaped by the body, birds, branch, and boat’s sail, compartmentalize the various images in Rofa. Framed by the woman’s V-shaped arms are two male faces in the upper left corner of the painting. Their caricatural features are emphasised by their frowning eyebrows, their crooked noses, their pointed chins and their mocking sneers, recalling figures present in Japanese prints as well as presenting similarities with some of Albrecht Dürer’s characters, such as the doctors in Christ Among the Doctors (1506) of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. A sailboat, escaping from the tempestuous sea as if about to come out of the picture frame, features in the painting’s upper right corner. Nonetheless, the scene’s overall turbulence is counter-balanced by the presence of two disproportionately large elegant birds - possibly turtledoves - for which Picabia delicately scratched in the paint to trace their feathers. Birds, nature and human body are merged into one, adding to the painting’s lyricism. To some extent, Picabia seems to distort a biblical reference in Rofa, that of Suzanne and the Elders, through the depiction of the two cartoon-like lustful men spying on the naked woman. Renaissance and Baroque painters, from Lotto to Rubens, repeatedly interpreted this subject, yet Picabia’s Suzanne appears to give her body away at the same time as resisting against being blackmailed. As in most of his Transparences, Picabia uses a darkening varnish in Rofa that purposely echoes the patina of Old Master Paintings, yet he leaves his subtle hues of greens, blues and burnt umber and his signature Transparences black outlines pierce through the varnish, producing a lively, fascinating, unique and almost Surrealist vision.

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