5
Pablo Picasso
Visage larvé (Hidden Face)
- Estimate
- $30,000 - 40,000
$40,000
Lot Details
Repoussé silver plate, contained in the original wooden presentation box with blue velvet lining and accompanying certificate of authenticity from Pierre Hugo.
1956-1957
diameter 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm)
Impressed 'Picasso' and numbered 10/20 (there were also 2 artist's proofs and 2 author's proofs), with the French assay marks for silver and the silversmiths' mark and registration numbers '1424' and '2404' impressed on the underside, executed by Atelier François and Pierre Hugo, Paris, 1967.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
The idea to execute a set of plates in silver came about one day in May 1956. Having just received a new group of plates from the Madoura studio, Picasso remarked to his friend, the art historian and collector, Douglas Cooper, how impressive the group would look in silver, like the sumptuous, French and Italian metal dishes of the 16th and 17th Century (D. Cooper, Picasso: 19 plats en argent par François and Pierre Hugo, exh. cat., London, 1977). Picasso did not know anyone who could undertake the project so Cooper proposed that he enlist the silversmiths François and Pierre Hugo to cast ceramic examples of 24 plates of various sizes and imagery. In 1967, Picasso authorized the Hugos to produce 19 of these plates in small numbered editions of 20.
Provenance
Literature
Pablo Picasso
Spanish | B. 1881 D. 1973One of the most dominant and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was a master of endless reinvention. While significantly contributing to the movements of Surrealism, Neoclassicism and Expressionism, he is best known for pioneering the groundbreaking movement of Cubism alongside fellow artist Georges Braque in the 1910s. In his practice, he drew on African and Iberian visual culture as well as the developments in the fast-changing world around him.Throughout his long and prolific career, the Spanish-born artist consistently pushed the boundaries of art to new extremes. Picasso's oeuvre is famously characterized by a radical diversity of styles, ranging from his early forays in Cubism to his Classical Period and his later more gestural expressionist work, and a diverse array of media including printmaking, drawing, ceramics and sculpture as well as theater sets and costumes designs.
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