Mar 23, 2017
In an era of fake news and alternative facts, what is the role of literature that blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction? Novelist Lynne Tillman has figured out one possible role. She’s been writing art criticism for more than three decades, including criticism starring a fictional character named Madame Realism—a name that is itself a retort to the way women artists were marginalized and made invisible within the Surrealist movement. Tillman’s Madam Realism stories encompass not only art itself but also the reactions that art inspires in the viewers around her character, as well as how the museum itself curates a viewing experience. In this episode, Tillman and writer Adam Colman visit the MoMA to discuss, in Tillman’s associative way, an exhibit on French avant-garde artist Francis Picabia. Their conversation takes them from the birth of the avant-garde to the squareness of Paris to institutional critique until they are finally kicked out of the museum by security.
In this episode you’ll also hear Organist fan fiction from Moira Cassidy (as read by Garrett Stewart).
Feature photo: Francis Picabia. Optophone [I]. 1922. Ink, watercolor, and pencil on board, 28 3/8 × 23 5/8″ (72 × 60 cm). Kravis Collection. © 2016 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: The Museum of Modern Art, John Wronn.
Francis
Picabia (French, 1879–1953). Très rare tableau sur la terre (Very
Rare Picture on the Earth). 1915. Oil, metallic paint, pencil, and
ink on board, with gold and silver leaf on wood, in a wood frame
possibly constructed by the artist, 49 5/8 x 38 9/16 x 2 3/16″ (126
x 98 x 5.5 cm), with frame. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 1976. © 2016 Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Francis
Picabia. Tableau Rastadada (Rastadada Painting). 1920.
Cut‑and‑pasted printed paper on paper with ink, 7 1/2 × 6 3/4″ (19
× 17.1 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Abby
Aldrich Rockefeller by exchange. © 2016 Artist Rights Society
(ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: The Museum of Modern Art,
Peter Butler
Francis Picabia (French, 1879–1953). La
Nuit espagnole (The Spanish Night). 1922. Enamel paint on canvas,
63 x 51 3/16″ (160 x 130 cm). Museum Ludwig, Cologne. Ludwig
Collection. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP,
Paris. Photo: © Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln
Francis
Picabia. Espagnole (Espagnole à la cigarette) (Spanish Woman
[Spanish Woman with Cigarette]). 1922. Watercolor, gouache, and
pencil on paper, 28 3/8 × 20 1/16″ (72 × 51 cm). Private
collection. © 2016 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP,
Paris. Photo courtesy Mercatorfonds
Francis Picabia (French, 1879–1953).
Les Amoureux (Après la pluie) (The Lovers [After the Rain]). 1925.
Enamel paint and oil on canvas, 45 11/16 x 45 1/4″ (116 x 115 cm).
Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. © 2016 Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: © Musée d’Art
Moderne/Roger-Viollet
Francis
Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change
Direction
Francis
Picabia. Untitled (Espagnole et agneau de l’apocalypse [Spanish
Woman and Lamb of the Apocalypse]). 1927/1928. Watercolor, gouache,
ink, and pencil on paper, 25 9/16 × 19 11/16″ (65 × 50 cm). Private
collection. © 2016 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP,
Paris. Photo: Stephan Wyckoff
Francis
Picabia. Le Clown Fratellini (Fratellini Clown). 1937–38. Oil on
canvas, 36 1/4 × 28 3/4″ (92 × 73 cm). Private collection. © 2016
Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP,
Paris
Francis
Picabia. Aello. 1930. Oil on canvas, 66 9/16 × 66 9/16″ (169 × 169
cm). Private collection. © 2016 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New
York/ADAGP,
Paris
Francis
Picabia. L’Adoration du veau (The Adoration of the Calf). 1941–42.
Oil on board, 41 3/4 × 30″ (106 × 76.2 cm). Centre Pompidou, Musée
national d’art moderne – Centre de création industrielle, Paris.
Purchase with assistance from the Fonds du Patromonie, the Clarence
Westbury Foundation, and the Societé des Amis du Musée national
d’art moderne, 2007. © 2016 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New
York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Philippe
Migeat/Dist. RMN–Grand Palais/Art Resource, New
York.
Francis Picabia.
La Révolution espagnole (The Spanish Revolution). 1937. Oil on
canvas, 63 3/4 × 51 3/16″ (162 × 130 cm). Private collection.
Courtesy Dominique Lévy Gallery and Michael Werner Gallery. © 2016
Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo courtesy
Archives Comité Picabia