Rethinking the Image

Image source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiDoOMXNdg8 (Accessed: 23 November 2025). © Citroën

At the very end of the 20th century, the heirs of Pablo Picasso found themselves locked in a fierce dispute over Citroën’s plans to lend the great artist’s name to its new family car^[1]. The French automotive giant saw parallels between the mythical genius of Picasso and its own visionary founder, André Citroën, but Picasso’s granddaughter, Marina, threatened to sue her uncle Claude for allowing Citroën the rights to her grandfather’s famous signature^[1][2].

Claude’s lawyer, however, maintained that he was “perfectly entitled” to profit from his father’s moniker^[1], and so, later that year, the vehicle came to market as the Citroën Xsara Picasso^[3]. What followed was a series of press and television advertisements which capitalised on the instant recognisability of the artist’s visual language.

In this Europe-wide advertising campaign from 2000^[4][5], a paint robot decorates a partially assembled Xsara Picasso with free-flowing lines and calligraphic scribbles. Initially, it appears that its artistic efforts amount to little more than graffiti, but its impersonation of Picasso’s mature style is quickly made apparent by the use of playful patterns and the haphazard placing of eyes, mouths and nostrils.

The brevity of these shots (there are nine separate shots in as many seconds) serves to emphasise the hurried, clandestine nature of the robot’s actions. An alarm sounds, signalling an inevitable climax; the anthropomorphic robot hastily retracts itself from the car’s bodywork and scans the production line until its laser registers the authoritative presence of a factory inspector. This unusual ‘eyeline match’^[6] leaves no doubt over the robot’s mischievous intent.

The doodles are swiftly airbrushed away before they can be noticed, with the robot scanning the inspector’s movement as he leaves the scene. Once he is safely out of sight, the robot scrawls the Picasso signature on the car’s front wing in a final act of defiance, echoing a notable real-life detail of the Xsara Picasso model^[2].

As the finished vehicle emerges neatly from the production line, the distant sound of Sympathique, a song by the multilingual American group, Pink Martini, becomes a non-diegetic soundtrack^[7][8]. Whether echoing across the factory floor or accompanying the advertisement’s end tag, its apathetic refrain (Je ne veux pas travailler, Je ne veux pas déjeuner) seems to fit well with the roguish personality of the robot protagonist.

For some, Citroën’s commercial appropriation of the Picasso ‘brand’ will always be contentious, but here, the robot’s irreverent, uninhibited scribbles demonstrate a definite understanding of what it represents. After all, it was the great modernist himself who famously said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”.

[1] Henley, J. (1999) Picasso Heirs Feud Over Use of the Artist’s Name for ‘Banal’ Citroen Car. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jan/30/jonhenley (Accessed: 23 November 2025).

[2] Martin, M. (2025) Hooptie Citroën Picasso Parked Near Pablo Picasso’s Old Neighborhood. Available at: https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/a65566991/citroen-picasso-near-pablo-picasso-neighborhood/ (Accessed: 23 November 2025).

[3] Autoevolution (no date) Citroen Xsara Picasso. Available at: https://www.autoevolution.com/citroen/xsara-picasso/ (Accessed: 23 November 2025).

[4] Eric Coignoux (2010) CITROEN PICASSO “ROBOT” / ERIC COIGNOUX. 31 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiDoOMXNdg8 (Accessed: 23 November 2025).

[5] Ipsos (2003) Picasso obsède Citroën. Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/fr-fr/picasso-obsede-citroen (Accessed: 23 November 2025).

[6] The ‘eyeline match’ is an editing technique whereby the character’s gaze is juxtaposed with the object or person they are observing. In this example, it is the robot that is the subject, its laser substituting for a pair of eyes.

[7] Pink Martini (no date) Biography. Available at: https://pinkmartini.com/about/ (Accessed: 23 November 2025).

[8] MusiqueDePub.TV (no date) Xsara Picasso – PINK MARTINI. Available at: https://www.musiquedepub.tv/fiche/citroen-pink-martini-01-2000 (Accessed: 23 November 2025).