For Class 10/26 – Abbey

Questions:

• In the text, the author describes how a critic, after hearing about Picaba’s recent travels, went on to inform his readers that on the paintings portrayed “the result of a collision between an aeroplane, an automobile, and a submarine” (57). Additionally, of Picaba’s painting of the Polish dancer Napierkowska the author writes, “little would be gained by searching for direct visual references to the dancer” (58).  Thus, I am wondering, what role should biography play in our analysis of Picaba’s works? How reliable are analyses based on biography?
• What is the role of America in Picaba’s works?
• Male gaze and machines: How do we reconcile the innovation of Picaba’s work with mechanization of the female body and its potentially misogynistic undertones?

Thesis:

History set the stage for the many periods encompassed by Data. The historical context called for “games of exploration […] [and a] this climate of” (257). This thirst for innovation was perhaps epitomized in the in the reclaiming of the mechanical, a new vocabulary which “born of the tragic conditions of the epoch” (263) answered a call for revolution.