fRAwn'S pi CAR! A NOTRE'DAMEDE'LA-PEINTURE [ UNE HIUT .ECHECS GRAS PagE composee par Trisian TZara * ^flF Reclame pour la y,\* L'encensoir a la grand 'messr du himli. funic If VENTE de PUbLIGtIONS dada dans la cathfjdrale seuii-rimilnirt' ; 9 > du 10 an 25 Dtccmbre 1920 \t I'archileelure spiriluelle, inagiiiliquc beauts, tf Che! rOVOLOZK I, 13, n* B«upiftt, Pjm s'atigne, sc\c en cimenl arme d'amianle on d'amadou. K„, P1CAI11A L'AMOUB dans le C<ei ' It- '': I,e (llirisl prend mi liain dans coball sous Irs vottttj 391 UNIQUE EUNUQUE ' ' t c-> '' '"'' " ,, a dor; les soul des eerfs-volniifs OAOA . nervures linger COLLECTION , I mystiques. Cette (lallu'dralc esl impregiiee du souvenir des 391 formes destinees, <>| aussi do rouleurs niat|iiifi«|ii<'s Tout ruliie, eliucole pour peruieltre aux vierqcs ifesquisser la rue Madame 1 Sur line table, sur line chaile, sur im guoridon, sup un lil. sur line plage, sur it it (oil. sur mi fauleuil, sur les cabinets, Paine iinniorlelle, fail ile lit neiulure, do la lilleraluro. de la inusique, qui resseinlilenl dune table de nuil. Fit WHS PHIAIIIA P. s. rots u:s y.trtxs i i:\nu: FRF.NCM CANCA mes iiotti\i;s 1° ,— s 03 0. WPz £ 6> '...,.. w.. ,u<w<*p.f.«*«. c sfH 3 1 J . Charchoune tt w jj JO 42 c n 'S A3 o J3 3 (0 *« a u D 1 1 | 8 .fa. 1 o V w o §£ c (3 -0 '3 2 c » g Francis Vic ah la 8 '•J Tri*t*» TZARA ffcANtiS piCAB/A BY WILLIAM A. CAMFIELD, RICE UNIVERSITY THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK V a u c 3 » CO u 3 O £ «fc* ** W c • »w PUBLISHED BY THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FO UND ATION, NE W YORK, 1970 W5 2 50 •Q © (9 3 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CARD CATALOGUE NUMBER: 75-I383O4 W P*l U(9 •a E u ALL RIGHTS RESERVED au 2 © ,0 u • <P* 3 PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS ** tP V5 W V c U *tf c fr S. c E V Participating Institutions « u w 5 • •<* •0 < INCINATTI ART MOM U M w 09 u *e E ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO, TORONTO 2 uss (A THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS 43 -) Chairman of the Board, harry f. Guggenheim Q Z President, peter o. lawson-johnston O H. H. ARNASON ELEANOR, COUNTESS CASTLE STEWART HENRY ALLEN MOE BILL D. MOYERS A. CHAUNCEY NEWLIN MRS. HENRY OBRE DANIEL CATTON RICH ALBERT E. THIELE MICHAEL F. WETTACH CARL ZIGROSSER Lenders PATRICK BAILLY-COWELL, Paris MR. and MRS. Arnold saltzman, Great Neck, New York pierre ANDRE benoit, Ales, France mrs. william sawyer, Buffalo, New York ROSAMOND BERNIER COLLECTION, New York MR. AND MRS. FRED shore, New York COLLECTION MR. AND MRS. LEONARD M. BROWN, Maurice Sternberg, Chicago Springfield, Massachusetts jacques tronche, Paris rene cavalero, Marseille PRINCE IGOR troubetzkoy, Paris MR. and MRS. Arthur A. COHEN, New York DR. max Welti, Zurich simone collinet, Paris PEDRO vallenilla echeverria, Caracas GALERIE HENRI BENEZIT, Paris ' MR. AND MRS. BAYARD EWING : GALERIE CAVALERO, Cannes Lilian H. florsheim, Chicago hilde gerst gallery, New York HENRI GOETZ AND CHRISTINE BOUMEESTER, Paris GALERIE DENISE RENE, Paris leon jerusalmi, Le Vesinet, France schwarz gallery, Milan Robert lebel, Paris GALLERY GERTRUDE STEIN, New York MRS. M. VICTOR leventritt, New York weyhe gallery, New York MRS. barnett malbin, Birmingham, Michigan (The Lydia and Harry Lewis Winston Collection) albright-knox art gallery, Buffalo, New York n. manoukian, Paris THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO alex maguy, Paris THE ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO MENIL FAMILY COLLECTION THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART m. von meyenburg, Basel, Switzerland THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, New York THE HONORABLE DAVID MONTAGU, London kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland MR. AND MRS. ROBERT MOTHERWELL, New York THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, New York andre napier, Neuilly, France moderna museet, Stockholm MR. AND MRS. MORTON G. NEUMANN, Chicago musee national d'art moderne, Paris succession picabia, Paris MUSEE DE PEINTURE ET DE SCULPTURE, Grenoble olga picabia, Paris museum of art, Carnegie institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania lucienne radisse, Paris the museum of MODERN art, New York mr. and mrs. neil reisner, Scarsdale, New York NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ART COLLECTION MADAME SUZANNE ROMAIN, Paris PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART professor guido rossi, Milan THE TATE GALLERY, London HERBERT AND NANNETTE ROTHSCHILD COLLECTION, New York YALE university art gallery, New Haven, Connecticut • «? / / Pref;ace FRANCIS PICABIAis firmly placed in the history of modern art. Students concerned with twentieth-cen- tury painting become instantly attentive at the mention of his name which is linked so closely to key issues and situations in the modern era. Much as Kandinsky, Malc- vitch, Kupka, Delaunay and Mondrian, Picabia is thought of as one who formulated the concept of abstraction in art, not primarily through theoretical discourse, but through convincing and powerfully self-revealing works. His name is also linked with the Armory Show - this startling and, in retrospect, ever more decisive event, which in 191 3 brought the images of the early twentieth- century to a continent whose technological avant-gar- dism, until then, had no visual counterpart. Later, in the same decade, Picabia and Marcel Duchamp, both based in New York, made their provocative anti-art gestures and became thereby the American faction of the inter- national Dada movement. But despite such intensive, pioneering engagement, Picabia's work, unlike that of Kandinsky, Mondrian or Duchamp, is almost unknown to the general public, and familiar as idea more than as a pictorial sequence, even to those immediately concerned with modern painting. Thus, we note a curious discrepancy between Picabia's accepted historic significance and the general lack of fa- miliarity with the main body of his contribution as a painter. This first museum survey of his work in New York is, therefore, proposed as a means by which such contradictions may be eliminated or at least reduced. To attempt this, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Mu- seum has secured the collaboration of an outstanding Picabia scholar, Dr. William A. Camfield, Associate Pro- fessor in the Fine Arts Department of Rice University Houston, who as Curator of the Exhibition has made the current selection and prepared the catalogue contents. It is obvious that only someone who, like Dr. Camfield, had spent years familiarizing himself with Picabia's seeming- ly sporadic and visually discontinuous oeuvre, could effec- tively achieve a full exposition of the artist's creative lega- cy. It is equally clear that no such effort could have suc- ceeded if the principal Picabia collectors and owners had not cooperated so wholeheartedly. The lenders' list in this catalogue gives some indication of the wide spread of Picabia's work throughout the world, and reveals at the same time the extreme generosity of many individ- uals and institutions toward Picabia, as well as toward the organizing institution. The Guggenheim Museum, therefore, takes great pleasure in acknowledging its own indebtedness, as well as that of other participating mu- seums that have benefited from the lenders' willingness to make their paintings available for our common pur- pose. We are particularly grateful to the three widows of Francis Picabia - Mme. Olga Picabia, Mme. Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia and Mme. Germaine Everling-Picabia for loans, catalogue documentation, and for much self- less aid that has taken many forms during the years when this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue were in their preparatory state. The artist's daughter, Mme. Jeannine Bailly-Cowell, should also be mentioned in this same context and is equally entitled to our gratitude. The suggestion to attempt a survey of Picabia's oeuvre first came to the Guggenheim Museum from Mr. Samu- el J. Wagstaff, Jr., now Curator of Contemporary Art at The Detroit Institute of Arts. It is, therefore, particu- larly gratifying to know that his institution as well as the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Cincinatti Art Museum are participating in the current presentation of Picabia's art in America. Finally, I should mention the effective part played throughout the preparatory stages by various departments of this museum, and particularly that of Diane Waldman, Associate Curator, her assistant Linda Shearer and Carol Fuerstein who edited the catalogue. In addition I would like to acknowledge the contri- butions of a number of other individuals on behalf of the Curator of the Exhibition. They are lenders: Mme. Simone Collinet, Arturo Schwarz and Herbert and Nan- nette Rothschild; individuals whose long-range support has been essential in making this exhibition possible: Marcel Duchamp, George Heard Hamilton, Pierre An- dre Benoit, M. Poupard-Lieussou, Francois Chapon, Conservateur, Bibliotheque Litteraire Jacques Doucet, Donald Gallup, Conservator, Yale Collection of Ameri- can Literature, Bernard Karpel, Librarian, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Michel Sanouillet; and others who have been extremely helpful: Mme. Yvonne Gresse, M. R. de Zayas, Mrs. Rose Fried, M. Romic, Mr. and Mrs. John de Menil Mrs. Pamela Rentfro and Mile. Dominique Bouissou. Dr. Camfield also wishes to express his gratitude to the American Council of Learned Socie- ties, the American Philosophical Society and the Art Department of the University of St. Thomas, Houston for their support. Thomas M. Messer, Director Picabia Aphorisms If you want to have clean ideas, change them as often as you change your shirts. A conviction is a disease. There is only one way to save your life: sacrifice your reputation. One must go through life, be it red or blue, stark naked and accompanied by the music of a subtle fisherman, prepared at all times for a celebration. We are not responsible for what we do; we are ignorant ofour acts until we accomplish thei When I have finished smoking, I am not interested in the butts.