Picasso, Picabia, Ernst

This essay collection presents new research on Picasso, Picabia, and Ernst, artists who redefined 20th-century art through experimentation and international exchange. Based on a Tate Britain symposium, it explores the materials, techniques, and radical reworking of their paintings in the Tate collection. Featuring contributions from art historians, conservators, and scientists, the book sheds light on their use of unconventional materials and the ongoing challenges of preserving these boundary-pushing works.

Picasso, Picabia and Ernst were what might be described as true Europeans, settled in Paris but with origins in other European countries, bringing their own culture and experience to the melting pot of the avant-garde which was Paris in the early 20th century. Part of an exciting atmosphere of artistic and technological discovery and experimentation, these artists were among the first to embrace new materials and techniques in order to push the boundaries of what could be achieved using both traditional artists’ paints and less conventional materials – in certain cases deliberately debunking the fine art establishment and its prescriptive expectations. They also pushed against the conservative, patriotic establishment which emerged from the First World War, and were all major contributors to changing the course of art history in the 20th century. Each had a truly international outlook, taking their work to other parts of Europe and across the Atlantic to the USA. There they made close friends with American avant-garde artists and promoters of modern art, introducing their achievements to the American public and also taking inspiration from the modern marvel that was New York, which chimed so well with their desire for the new and innovative. This title forms the postprints of an international symposium with the same title at Tate Britain, the conclusion of a two-year study into the history, context, materials and techniques of paintings by Picasso, Picabia and Ernst in the Tate collection. The paintings selected for the study had almost all been radically reworked by the artist: both documentary and technical research has been carried out to give new insight into the earlier versions of these works, which are documented only in black and white photographs and published reviews. In addition, papers by a number of international art historians, conservators and conservation scientists are included which present new technical, art technological and art historical research into the three artists, and discuss issues around appearance and preservation that continue to arise from their use of nontraditional materials and methods.

Preface by Annette King

Foreword by Michael Raeburn

Acknowledgements

Some notes on enamel paints and modernism Maria Kokkori

Macro-XRF scanning of Picasso's Menage de pauvres: a case study Thierry Ford, Geert Van der Snickt and Koen Janssens

A technical examination of Picasso's Child with a Dove 1901 Aviva Burnstock, Barnaby Wright and Klaas Jan van den Berg

A note on Andre Breton and Three Dancers and the Devil Marilyn McCully

The Three Dancers 1925 by Picasso Annette King, Joyce H. Townsend and Bronwyn Ormsby

Picasso: art and life, 1932 Nancy Ireson

A technical study of reverse foxing in Van Gelder Zonen papers, and its incidence in Picasso's La Suite des Saltimbanques Josefine Werthmann

Francis Picabia: early abstract paintings 1912-14 55 Michael Duffy

'Like a child making sandcastles by the sea ...': creation and destruction in Tate paintings by Francis Picabia Annette King, Joyce H. Townsend and Bronwyn Ormsby

The consequences today of Francis Picabia's use of zinc white and lead white Joyce H. Townsend, Annette King, Bronwyn Ormsby and Lora V. Angelova

Francis Picabia's Promenade des Anglais (Midi): a landscape painted with pasta and feathers Cynthia Schwarz and Frauke V. Josenhans

The Hand 1935-36 by Francis Picabia: crackle lacquer technique as a strategy for dissent Nathalie Baschlin and Stefan Zumbuhl

Francis Picabia's Portrait of a Couple 1942-1943: sources, techniques, context Talia Kwartler

The technical investigation and treatment of a group of five late works by Francis Picabia 1947-51: reuse of supports and resulting complex condition issues Gwendolyn P. Boeve-Jones, Magdalena Brela and Beatriz Lorente

Max Ernst's painting processes in the early 1920s Joyce H. Townsend and Annette King

Adding and removing: two Surrealist paintings by Max Ernst from the Menil Collection, Houston Ellen Hanspach-Bernal and Aniko Bezur,

Preface by Annette King

 Foreword by Michael Raeburn

Acknowledgements

Some notes on enamel paints and modernism
Maria Kokkori

Macro-XRF scanning of Picasso’s Ménage de pauvres: a case study
Thierry Ford, Geert Van der Snickt and Koen Janssens

A technical examination of Picasso’s Child with a Dove 1901
Aviva Burnstock, Barnaby Wright and Klaas Jan van den Berg

A note on André Breton and Three Dancers and the Devil
Marilyn McCully

 The Three Dancers 1925 by Picasso
Annette King, Joyce H. Townsend and Bronwyn Ormsby

Picasso: art and life, 1932
Nancy Ireson

A technical study of reverse foxing in Van Gelder Zonen papers, and its incidence in Picasso’s La Suite des Saltimbanques
Josefine Werthmann

Francis Picabia: early abstract paintings 1912-14 55
Michael Duffy

‘Like a child making sandcastles by the sea …’: creation and destruction in Tate paintings by Francis Picabia
Annette King, Joyce H. Townsend and Bronwyn Ormsby

The consequences today of Francis Picabia’s use of zinc white and lead white
Joyce H. Townsend, Annette King, Bronwyn Ormsby and Lora V. Angelova

Francis Picabia’s Promenade des Anglais (Midi): a landscape painted with pasta and feathers
Cynthia Schwarz and Frauke V. Josenhans

 The Hand 1935-36 by Francis Picabia: crackle lacquer technique as a strategy for dissent
Nathalie Bäschlin and Stefan Zumbühl

Francis Picabia’s Portrait of a Couple 1942–1943: sources, techniques, context
Talia Kwartler

The technical investigation and treatment of a group of five late works by Francis Picabia 1947-51: reuse of supports and resulting complex condition issues
Gwendolyn P. Boevé-Jones, Magdalena Brela and Beatriz Lorente

Max Ernst’s painting processes in the early 1920s
Joyce H. Townsend and Annette King

Adding and removing: two Surrealist paintings by Max Ernst from the Menil Collection, Houston
Ellen Hanspach-Bernal and Anikó Bezur

• Edited by Joyce H. Townsend
• Edited by Annette King
• Edited by Adèle Wright