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Artworks
Francis Picabia France, 1879-1953
Stanhopea Martiana, c. 1932Oil on canvas45.7 by 38.1 cm (18 by 15 in.)Signed 'Francis Picabia' (lower right) and titled 'STANHOPEA MARTIANA' (upper right)66031© 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, ParisFurther images
Painted circa 1932. Francis Picabia’s Stanhopea Martiana is part of his groundbreaking and celebrated series of Transparencies, begun in 1927. Inspired by advances in both photographic and cinematic techniques, such...Painted circa 1932. Francis Picabia’s Stanhopea Martiana is part of his groundbreaking and celebrated series of Transparencies, begun in 1927. Inspired by advances in both photographic and cinematic techniques, such as cropping and superimposition, this series is defined by the layering of figurative and decorative elements. In the present work, Picabia painted an emotionally-charged human face layered with a very specific variety of orchid native to Mexico to which the title refers. The viewer is left to negotiate which pictorial fragments sit on top or below and the manner in which these two images relate conceptually. Picabia’s novel layering of images in painting finds its echoes in the works of post-war and contemporary European artists such as Sigmar Polke and Albert Oehlen.
Provenance
Private Collection (sale: Hôtel Drouot (Ader Picard Tajan) Paris, November 26, 1984, lot 135)
Nahmad Collection, Switzerland (acquired at the above sale; sale: Sotheby's New York, May 15, 2018, lot 336)
Private Collection
Exhibitions
(Probably) New York, Valentine Gallery, Recent Paintings by Francis Picabia, 1934, no. 18
Paris, Benjamin Sebban Fine Art, Picabia, Picabia, Picabia, 2017
Literature
W.A. Camfield, B. Calté, C. Clements and A. Pierre; Francis Picabia. Catalogue Raisonné: Volume III. 1927-1939, New Haven and London, 2019, no. 1247 illustrated in color p. 287
