The saint des saints
Driving in France in 1912 was, first and foremost, a feat of
endurance and a risky performance when negotiating the un-surfaced Jura
mountain roads. To make matters worse, Picabia and his two companions
arrived in the little village of Etival at night and during a torrential
rainstorm.
Picabia made the journey in October in order to collect his wife, the
musician Gabrièle Buffet, while hoping also to spend some time with her
in her family home. He did not undertake the journey alone; both
Guillaume Apollinaire and Marcel Duchamp came with him as the companions
of this wild ride. What followed is still the subject of research and
speculation but certain things and events are already established. We
know, for instance that the poem Zone, the first poem in Apollinaire's
published collection Alcools, was performed here; Duchamp's notes of
1912 marked the birth of his self-mythology into both male and female
personae; 'the Bride/MARiée and Bachelor/CELibataire joining in the
formation of his name, MARCEL, which he then redefined into the
mysteriously punning homophone marchand du sel, or salt seller. And what
about Picabia? If we follow the metaphor of auto-sport to expand on
his role as the pilot and propagandist of the avant-garde, the horn
blower (and here the Saint des Saints created his self-portrait as an
motorcar horn) it becomes only too clear that Picabia would not be
satisfied with the metaphor of speed alone. In 1912 he would be
irresistibly drawn to speed and speeding machinery, as can be attested
in his passion for fast automobiles and airplanes, as well as for the
freedom of movement released through dance and his friendship with
Isadora Duncan. New scientific theories fascinated him also; and we see
evidence of the fourth dimension and relativity in his paintings of the
period. Transcending physical and sensual experiences, Picabia thought
of painting as a cerebral activity, as shown in his numerous essays on
art. Masterpieces of 1912-1913, La Source and Dance à la Source, Udnie
and Edtaonisl are crucial landmarks to (re)-think and (re)-write the
history of abstract painting in France.
