Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia
Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia (often spelled Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia; née Buffet; 21 November 1881 – 7 December 1985)[1] was a French art critic and writer affiliated with Dadaism. She was an organiser of the French resistance and the first wife of artist Francis Picabia.
Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia
7 December 1985 (aged 104)
Essayist
art critic
resistance member
In the Resistance[edit]
From 1941, during the Second World War, she was a member of the French Resistance in Paris, alongside Samuel Beckett, Mary Reynolds, Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, and others.[7] She was second in command in her region and her studio was a safe house for soldiers escaping via the Belgian-French line.[8] Her daughter Jeanine was also in the resistance and the two of them avoided arrest. Others were arrested as their organisation was infiltrated and the Gestapo arrested another daughter, Marie, who was not a member of the resistance. Marie's husband was away and her children were without their mother so Gabrielle spent time with them in Lyon whilst still working for the resistance.[9]
Later, she was involved with Maurice Montet as he organised another line in the "south zone". Her significant contribution was later belittled possibly because others could not believe that a middle aged woman had been so involved.[8] In fact, after Montet was arrested as a result of the double agent Jacques Desoubrie she left her place in Dieulefit and went further south climbing over the Pyrennes and travelling to Barcelona and Madrid. She went as far as Gibraltar where she was given a place to stay. She consulted with Donald Darling,[8] a British diplomat and MI9 member known as "Sunday". He had a flat in Main Street, Gibraltar[10] and he organised for her to be evacuated by air to Britain.[8]
Post-war[edit]
In 1967 Marcel Janco and Greta Deses made a film titled "Dada" which included interviews with Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Hans Richter and Gabrièle Buffet-Picabia.[11] The film competed in the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.[12]
In 1968 the Hanover Gallery in London had an exhibition of her and her husband's work.[13]
Death and legacy[edit]
She died in 1985 at the age of 104.
In August 2017, Gabriëlle, written by Anne and Claire Berest, was published by Stock.[2] The authors are great-granddaughters of Buffet-Picabia, and their biography underscores Buffet-Picabia's decisive influence within avant-garde circles. According to an interview with the Berests (Bibliothèque Médicis, 2017), a second volume of Buffet-Picabia's life may follow.