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Born in Paris of Spanish parents, Picabia was an accomplished natural artist before he began to study art academically. He studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under F. Cormon until 1901.
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Picabia began by painting Impressionist pictures, though he was never a true disciple of that style. He came under the influence of Cubism in 1909 and joined in the meetings of the Section d’Or in 1912, held at the house of Jacques Villon in Puteaux. Apollinaire, Gleizes, La Fresnay, and Léger, were some of the better known members of this group. During this period, Picabia had also become part of the movement Orphism which also derived from Cubism.
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While visiting New York in 1915, he met Marcel Duchamp and together with Man Ray and a few others, they began exhibiting at 219 Gallery. This group’s work became later known as Dada-Art, a movement, which originated in Switzerland, but soon expanded to Berlin, Cologne, Paris and New York. The Dadaists originally intended to make the public aware of the nonsenseness of the outbreak of the World War I and expressed this in a style called anti-art.
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In Barcelona in 1916, Picabia founded a review called 391, in which he continued to promote the ideas of anti-art. In the succeeding years he served as a liaison between the Swiss, French, and German Dadaists, but broke with them in 1921 to join the Surrealists. Picabia then turned from Surrealism for a while to paint in a very representational style, but he resumed abstract painting in 1945. He had an exhibition of purely abstract work in 1949 at the Galerie Drouin.
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Picabia was one of the ultimate champions of revolutionary art. He was “restless, aggressive, contradictory, and amusing; an individual, who was opposed to all established rules and traditions.” His compositions possess an ingenious intelligence and a remarkable sensitivity. Picabia is represented in many museums of modern art throughout the world.
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