Pablo Picasso

PABLO PICASSO (Malaga, 1881 - Mougins, France, 1973).
Dish "Profil de Jacqueline", design 1956.
Silver, copy 13/20.
Signed and justified.
Executed in 1967 by Atelier Hugo (François and Pierre). With hallmarks.
Work published in "Picasso. A Complete Collection of Twenty-Four Silver Plates", ref.1412.
Bibliography consulted: "Picasso. A Complete Collection of Twenty-Four Silver Plates".
Enclosed certificate of François and Pierre Hugo Atelier.
Weight: 2000 g.
Measurements: 42 cm (diameter).

The silverware made by Pablo Picasso with the Hugo Atelier occupies a prominent place in his late production, by transferring his plastic language to goldsmithing with an unusual intensity and refinement. More than decorative objects, they constitute a singular testimony of the dialogue between two great creators who elevated silverware to the rank of major art.

In 1946, during a visit to Vallauris (France), Picasso discovered ceramics when he met Suzanne and Georges Ramié, owners of the Atelier Madoura. Fascinated by this medium, he began to work with clay with a sculptor's mentality, using molds and developing the so-called "Pâtes Blanches", unglazed relief pieces. These creations reflect his interest in integrating different artistic disciplines and in vindicating arts such as ceramics or silverware as fully noble and functional forms. These "Pâtes Blanches" will become the starting point of his collaboration with the goldsmith François Hugo, great-grandson of the writer Victor Hugo. Self-taught and linked to surrealist artistic circles in Paris, François Hugo had known figures such as Cocteau, Duchamp and Max Ernst, as well as Picasso himself. In 1955, the two began a collaboration to transfer Picasso's ceramic forms to the field of goldsmithing. From then on, they selected several "Pâtes Blanches" to adapt them to embossed silver plates, made by hammering on bronze molds. The joint work between Picasso and Hugo was very close and based on a great artistic affinity, which allowed them to reach a high level of technical perfection.

However, at first these pieces were not marketed, as Picasso preferred to keep them in his private environment. The economic limitations of the workshop and the initial lack of interest in commercialization delayed their diffusion until 1967, when an exhibition at the Galerie Le Point Cardinal in Paris presented these jewels and objects as authentic works of art for the first time. This event marked an important change, recognizing artistic jewelry as a sculptural form and opening it up to collecting.

Between 1956 and 1967, Picasso designed 24 silver plate models, made in limited editions by François Hugo and later by his son Pierre Hugo. Although Picasso produced numerous ceramics in series, these silver pieces constitute a much more exclusive set, today completely sold out and highly valued. A significant example of the relevance and prestige of these creations is the "Taureau" plate from the tender collection, whose motif coincides with the zodiac sign of Queen Elizabeth II, which was presented by François Hugo to Her Majesty in 1978 at Buckingham Palace.

Creator of Cubism together with Braque, Picasso was a turning point in the history of art. He began his studies in 1895, at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, and only two years later he had his first individual exhibition, at the café "Els Quatre Gats". After several short stays in Paris, Picasso settled definitively in the French capital in 1904. The definitive international recognition will come in 1939, as a result of the retrospective that the MOMA in New York dedicates to him. During the following decades, anthological exhibitions will be dedicated to him all over the world, in Rome, Milan, Paris, Cologne and New York, among many other cities. He is represented in the most important museums around the world, such as the Metropolitan, the MOMA and the Guggenheim in New York, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the National Gallery in London or the Reina Sofia in Madrid.