Dances at the Spring [II]

1910

Meets Marcel Duchamp

His meeting with Marcel Duchamp in 1910 had a decisive influence on Picabia's personality and art: he moved from Fauvism to Cubism and geometric abstraction. Other accounts have them becoming friends around 1911 in the Puteaux Group.

18 janvier 1910

Daughter born: Laure Marie Catalina Martinez-Picabia

c. 1911

The Puteaux Group: friendship with Apollinaire

Around 1911 Picabia joined the Puteaux Group, whose members he had met at Jacques Villon's studio; there he became friends with Marcel Duchamp and close friends with Guillaume Apollinaire, while the group also included Gleizes, La Fresnaye, Léger and Metzinger.

1913

The only Cubist at the Armory Show

The wealthy Picabia was the only Cubist to attend the Armory Show in New York in person, where he showed four paintings; the press was largely hostile, but he was widely interviewed and at once became a major name in New York's art circles.

17 March – 5 April 1913

Solo show at Stieglitz's gallery 291

Alfred Stieglitz gave him the solo show Exhibition of New York Studies by Francis Picabia at his gallery 291 — abstract works made over a few months in New York under the impression of Kandinsky and other abstract art at the Armory Show.

1913

Back in Paris, he breaks with the Cubists

On returning to Paris in April 1913, Picabia formally broke with the Cubists.