"Queen of Hearts"

In Untitled (c. 1945–1946), Picabia defines the form of a head with a single orange contour set against a vivid blue ground. The image moves between mask and animal, reflecting his interest in reducing figures to essential, symbolic lines. Created during Picabia’s final artistic phase, the painting draws on sources ranging from cave art to Mediterranean frescoes. These late works signal his shift toward symbolic abstraction, where simplified contours and enigmatic forms echo ancient visual languages. In this period, Picabia developed a personal vocabulary of signs that feels at once modern and deeply rooted in the past.