Who is Francis Picabia?” is how all write-ups of Picabia’s work have to start—because Picabia wanted it that way, because art critics fancy themselves lead investigators in The Human Mystery, and because both Picabia and critics have preferred raising questions to answering them. Almost 150 years after the Frenchman’s birth and seventy after his death, there remains a perception not only that Picabia hasn’t been figured out, but also that his inscrutability obscures some inner coherence that can—must—be brought to light, for the good of art and of us all.
