Completed in 1920 and first exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in early 1921, Le Lierre unique eunuque (The Unique Eunuch Ivy) abandons the elegant and rigorously straight-edged precision of earlier mechanomorphs. Here, machinic parts have been melted into amorphous, free-form, cell-like shapes, messily applied in the gritty shimmer of metallic silver paint and outlined in slick black enamel. The machine may be invoked in materials and in subject, but it no longer extends to the method of execution. In addition to emblazoning the title across the center and conspicuously signing his name, Picabia ran the words “MACHINE Co.” down the left side of the canvas. This layout, in which inscriptions address themselves in two different directions, recalls Picabia’s typographical layouts for journals from the same period, such as the sixth issue of Dada.

As was often the case with his mechanomorphs, Picabia borrowed the painting’s title from another source. This time, it was from one of his own books of poetry, Unique eunuque (Unique Eunuch), published in Paris in April 1920. Often considered a summation of Picabia’s early poetry, the book combined words according to their phonetic rhythm, rather than their meaning, calling into question the relationship between language and communication. This painting’s title adopts the sing-song rhythm of the phrase “unique eunuch.” The addition of the “ivy” has been variously understood as a symbol of enduring love and, because some ivy plants are hermaphroditic, as an extension of the play on masculinity and regeneration that characterized much of Picabia’s work at the time.

Indeed, the idea of a “unique eunuch” rhymes with Picabia’s contemporary preoccupation with the figure of a “girl [or daughter] born without a mother,” a phrase that appeared in artworks beginning in 1914 and became the title of a book of poetry in 1918. Although the “Machine Co.” had closed up shop in many ways, related themes of readymade imagery and reproduction would continue to sustain Picabia’s work for years.

For Hanspeter Marty, Milena Furrer, and Karolina Soppa’s essay on Le Lierre unique eunuque, see mo.ma/picabia_conservation.