I Am a Beautiful Monster

<b>The first definitive edition in English of writings by poet painter pickpocket-plagiarist and consummate anti-artist Francis Picabia one of Dada's leading figures.</b><p>Poet painter self-described funny guy idiot failure pickpocket and anti-artist par excellence Francis Picabia was a defining figure in the Dada movement; indeed André Breton called Picabia one of the only true Dadas. Yet very little of Picabia's poetry and prose has been translated into English and his literary experiments have never been the subject of close critical study.<i> I Am a Beautiful Monster</i> is the first definitive edition in English of Picabia's writings gathering a sizable array of Picabia's poetry and prose and most importantly providing a critical context for it with an extensive introduction and detailed notes by the translator.</p><p>Picabia's poetry and prose is belligerent abstract polemical radical and sometimes simply baffling. For too long Picabia's writings have been presented as raw events rule-breaking manifestations of inspirational <i>carpe diem</i>. This book reveals them to be something entirely different: maddening in their resistance to meaning full of outrageous posturing and hiding a frail confused and fitful personality behind egoistic bravura.</p><p><i>I Am a Beautiful Monster</i> provides the texts of of Picabia's significant publications all presented complete many of them accompanied by their original illustrations.</p>