Editing Francis Picabia (section)

===Proto-Dada===
In 1913, the Association of American Painters and Sculptors held the first major show of [[modernist art]] in New York City, which would become known as the [[Armory Show]]. The wealthy Picabia was the only member of the Cubist group to personally attend the Armory Show, as the others could not afford to do so, and he also contributed four paintings.<ref name=JSTOR></ref> The American press was largely hostile to the show, describing it as bizarre or deviant, but Picabia was widely interviewed and discussed as the only representative of the movement available. He immediately became a major name in New York's artistic circles.<ref name=JSTOR></ref> 

Avant-garde art dealer [[Alfred Stieglitz]] also gave Picabia a [[Solo show (art exhibition)|solo show]], ''Exhibition of New York studies by Francis Picabia'', at his [[291 (Art Gallery)|gallery 291]] (formerly ''Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession''), 17 March – 5 April 1913.<ref name=JSTOR></ref> There, Picabia displayed work that he had created in the past few months in New York. Influenced by [[abstract art]] from the Armory Show such as that of [[Wassily Kandinsky]], he was now creating abstract works of his own. When he returned to Paris in April 1913, he formally broke with the Cubists.<ref name=JSTOR></ref>

From 1913 to 1915 Picabia traveled to New York City several times. During that same era, France became embroiled in [[French entry into World War I|war]]. In 1915, Picabia again traveled to the United States en route to Cuba to buy molasses for a friend of his—the director of a sugar refinery. He landed in New{{nbsp}}York in June 1915. Though the stopover was ostensibly meant to be a simple port of call, he decided to remain there for a while to continue working on his art.<ref name=JSTOR></ref> He did not return to France until the war's conclusion.<ref name=JSTOR></ref>

[[File:Francis Picabia, 1915, New York..jpg|thumb|250px|(Left) ''Le saint des saints c'est de moi qu'il s'agit dans ce portrait'', 1{{nbsp}}July 1915; (center) ''Portrait d'une jeune fille américaine dans l'état de nudité'', 5{{nbsp}}July 1915: (right) ''J'ai vu et c'est de toi qu'il s'agit, De Zayas! De Zayas! Je suis venu sur les rivages du Pont-Euxin'', New{{nbsp}}York, 1915]]

The following years can be characterized as Picabia's [[dada|proto-Dada]] or "machinist" period, consisting mainly of his ''portraits mécaniques''.<ref name=Camfield>Camfield, William A. “The Machinist Style of Francis Picabia.” The Art Bulletin, vol. 48, no. 3/4, 1966, pp. 309–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3048388. Accessed 7 August 2023.</ref> Picabia was first impressed by mechanical advances on his initial, 1913 visit to New York, and on returning to Europe, he was impressed by futurist painters such as [[Natalia Goncharova]] and [[Mikhail Larionov]]. Picabia was particularly influenced by the "machine style" of [[Marcel Duchamp]], in which the artist used materials such as metal and glass as well as mechanical drawing implements.<ref name=Camfield></ref> In 1915, Picabia began to create and exhibit his own drawings and prints of mysterious machines and apparatuses to reflect the coming of the [[Machine Age]]. He continued in this style for almost a decade, exhibiting a large solo show of his machinist work in 1922. In 1923, he abruptly discontinued his work in the style, as he had with several previous styles.<ref name=Camfield></ref> 

In this period, the magazine ''[[291 (magazine)|291]]'' devoted an entire issue to him, he met [[Man Ray]], Gabrielle and Duchamp joined him, drugs and alcohol became a problem and his health declined. He suffered from [[Edema|dropsy]] and [[tachycardia]].<ref>Paris Match No 2791</ref>