Girl Born without a Mother
Picabia returned to New York in 1915 and resumed contact with artists around Alfred Stieglitz, who were working on 291, a large-format avant-garde magazine. This drawing was one of the first that Picabia contributed to the journal. With its schematic depiction of a coiled spring alongside more organic forms, it reflects the artist’s interest in mechanical imagery, or what photographer and writer Paul Haviland described in Picabia’s work as the “machinomorphic.” It also conveys his contact with Marcel Duchamp, who had arrived in New York at about the same time; together, and with Man Ray, they would lead the rebellious antiwar art movement known as Dada from Europe to New York.
Artwork Details
- Title: Girl Born without a Mother
- Artist: Francis Picabia (French, Paris 1879–1953 Paris)
- Date: ca. 1914–15
- Medium: Pen and black ink on found hotel stationery paper
- Dimensions: 10 3/8 × 8 7/16 in. (26.3 × 21.4 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
- Object Number: 49.70.18
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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