About the artworkDuring his lifetime, Francis Picabia constantly changed his artistic expression. He once wrote that the brain should be like a mirror in which we could see ourselves for a moment and then turn our backs on it two minutes later. In the last years of his life, Picabia returned to abstraction. His late dot paintings sometimes bear names referring to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose nihilism and sense of life’s futility could be compared to Picabia’s. The title of the work refers to aphorism 202 in Nietzsche’s most personal book, The Gay Science: ”A Spendthrift. He has not yet the poverty of the rich man who has counted all his treasure, – he squanders his spirit with the irrationalness of the spendthrift Nature.” Signatures, inscriptions and marks Nio etiketter och en svårtydd handskriven lapp. Etiketter från "André Chenue & Fils Transports Internationeaux, Paris"; "Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1988"; "Trasports Internationales, S.A. Madrid"; "Westkunst Cologne; Westkunst"; "Kunsthaus Zürich 1984"; "The Museum of Modern Art Seibu Takanawa 1984"; "Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou 1976"; "Transports Internationeaux". Selected exhibition history Francis Picabia (1984) Kunsthaus Zürich Supersurrealismen (den 29 september 2012 - den 27 januari 2013) Moderna Museet Malmö Samlingsutställning 2004 - 2011 - I vår tid (2004 - 2011) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Moderna Museet c/o Bildmuseet - Dada och surrealism (2003) Bildmuseet, Umeå Implosion. Ett postmodernt perspektiv / A Postmodern Perspective (1987-1988) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Moderna Museets samling i ny presentation (1998-2000) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Ny presentation av samlingen (2000-2002) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Sömnlösa nätter. Från 1980-talet i Moderna Museets samling (den 24 februari 2023 - den 14 januari 2024) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Samlingsutställning 2020 - Apropå Baldessari (2020) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Den underjordiska himlen. Surrealism i Moderna Museets samling (den 26 oktober 2024 - den 17 januari 2027) Moderna Museet, Stockholm The Moderna Museet exhibition catalogues Francis Picabia : Moderna Museet, Stockholm : 7 april - 20 maj 1984Implosion : ett postmodernt perspektiv : [Moderna Museet, Stockholm : 24/10 1987 - 10/1 1988]Moderna Museet besöker Bildmuseet i Umeå : 28 maj 1994 - 5 mars 1995 Bibliography Francis Picabia, Galerie Michael Werner, Köln 1980, ill. s 69. Schuldt och Heinz, Francis Picabia, Köln 1984, ill. s 158. Francis Picabia, Madrid 1985, ill. s 221. Borrás, Maria Lluïsa, Picabia, Barcelona 1985, ill. (färg) s 491. MMV Bulletinen nr. 1 1987, s 5. Picabia 1879-1953, Frankfurt am Main, Edinburgh 1988, ill. (färg) s 134. Francis Picabia, Belém 1997, ill. nr. 117.

Works by the artist