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Tate Report 2004-2006

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Francis Picabia
1879–1953
Otaïti
1930
Oil on canvas
Purchased from Waddington Galleries, London with assistance from Tate Members, 2005
T11982

Francis Picabia OTAÏTI

© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2006

Francis Picabia was known for his frequent shifts in style, regularly transforming his practice to avoid repetition. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he painted works known as ‘transparencies’, a term which references a type of photographic positive. Otaïti is a striking example from this series, in which the layering of imagery can be seen as referencing a technique associated with contemporary film and photography. With its female nude with upraised arms, ram’s head, snake and plant imagery, the work appears to allude to mythological and religious motifs. But the modern figure of the nude may have been inspired in part by contemporary magazines featuring pin-ups and nudes.

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