Francis Picabia - Sotileza -1928

Francis Picabia -  Sotileza [Subtlety]

• Gouache on paper
• Size 75.70 x 55.70 cm

• Scottish National Gallery

• This is one of Picabia's 'Transparency' paintings, in which several different images are layered on top of one another. There are three interpenetrating but distinct layers: the Spanish lady in a lace mantilla depicted in a deliberately kitsch style; an outline drawing of a matador in full costume; and a simplified representation of a Madonna, crowned in the Catalan Romanesque style. The obvious connecting link between all three figures is their Spanishness. Picabia's father was Spanish. The layering of images may be intended to provide the visual equivalent to memory and the stream of consciousness. The combination of apparently opposing styles and themes is typical of Picabia's work.