Le baiser

The
coloured frame of the work was designed by the artist, with some projecting
segments along the crown: these were the years when Picabia was assisted by
Pierre Legrain. After what was possibly his most famous period, with cold works
on the obsessive theme of machines (the Dada paintings of the “mechanical
period” which started in 1915), Picabia started painting recurrent figures of
lovers, which were barely suggested with thick lines. This was the result of
rapid even though not spontaneous painting: this was the period of the
“monsters”, which also includes Le Baiser, of uncertain date. An authentic
burst of emotion sweeps across the scene, with a singular freshness of style.
At the time, Picabia had left Paris for the Côte d’Azur,
but not before deciding to shift away from André Breton and Surrealism.