Machine Turn Quickly 1917

Francis Picabia made 'Machine Turn Quickly' with paint, maybe oil, maybe something else, sometime in the early 20th century. Look at how those blues and blacks are laid down, like a kind of blueprint gone wild. It’s like he's sketching with paint, not just depicting a machine, but feeling its energy, its chaos. The texture is smooth, almost flat, yet the composition is anything but still. Those gears, the lines, the circles – they vibrate. Notice that upper gear, how it's both there and not there, solid blue fading into those frantic lines. It reminds me of some of my own failed paintings, where I keep layering until the image starts to fall apart, but in a good way. Picabia is always changing, always restless, which makes him an interesting guy to think about. You could compare this to Marcel Duchamp's 'The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even', but where Duchamp is cool and detached, Picabia is all hot and bothered. Art doesn't have to be one thing, you know? It can be a question, not an answer.