In New York: Francis Picabia ‘Our Heads Are Round So Our Thoughts Can Change Direction’

The Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art encompasses the full range of the French artists’s audacious, provocative, and profoundly influential career.

Among the great modern artists, Picabia remains one of the most elusive; he vigorously avoided any one singular style or medium, and his work encompassed painting, performance, poetry, publishing, and film. And, though best known as one of the leaders of the Dada movement, his career ranged widely—and wildly—from Impressionism to radical abstraction, from Dadaist provocation to pseudo-classicism, and from photo-based realism to art informel.

Francis Picabia was a notorious reveller and party-organizer, producing grand galas with a spectacle of costumes, menus and scenery. His so called Monster painting of the 1920s include carnival-themed caricatures of the Côte d’Azur leisure class. Picabia’s career as a whole continues to challenge familiar narratives of modernism, and remains relevant to contemporary art of the now.

Francis Picabia. Optophone [I]. 1922. Ink, watercolor, and pencil on board, 28 3/8 × 23 5/8″ (72 × 60 cm). Kravis Collection. © 2016 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: The Museum of Modern Art, John Wronn

Francis Picabia (French, 1879–1953). La Nuit espagnole (The Spanish Night). 1922. Enamel paint on canvas, 63 x 51 3/16″ (160 x 130 cm). Museum Ludwig, Cologne. Ludwig Collection. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: © Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln

Francis Picabia. Lâcheté de la barbarie subtile (Carte à jouer) (Cowardice of Subtle Barbarism [Playing Card]). 1949. Oil on board, 29 15/16 × 20 1/2″ (76 × 52 cm). Private collection. Courtesy Galerie Michael Werner, Märkisch Wilmersdorf, Cologne and New York. . © 2016 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo courtesy Galerie Michael Werner

PopRally presents Arty Gras

On Sunday 26 February, immerse yourself in a Mardi Gras–themed evening celebrating the exhibition – unleash your inner party monster and celebrate Mardi Gras the way it was meant to be celebrated, with music, dance, drinks, and art.

Arty Gras features a special viewing of the Picabia retrospective, a live performance by High and Mighty Brass Band, drinks, and Picabia-inspired Mardi Gras masks designed by artist Damien Davis. Picabia- or Mardi Gras–themed costumes are encouraged!

Need to know:

• Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction runs until 19 March at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
  • Look for the Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor

• PopRally presents Arty Gras
  • Sunday 26 February, 2017
  • Doors open 7:00 p.m. Admission includes drinks, music, after-hours access to Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction (7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m), and a Damien Davis mask to take home.
  • Buy tickets here.

Seen at top: Francis Picabia. Tableau Rastadada (Rastadada Painting). 1920. Cut‑and‑pasted printed paper on paper with ink, 7 1/2 × 6 3/4″ (19 × 17.1 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller by exchange. © 2016 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: The Museum of Modern Art, Peter Butler