PICASSO HUGO, A collection of 25 silver platters, E-catalogue

picasso / hugo a collection of 25 silver platters

picasso hugo a collection of 25 silver platters

picasso

hugo

a collection of 25 silver platters

A complete set of twenty-four limited edition silver platters & a twentyfifth platter from the personal collection of the artist. Conceived in ceramic by Picasso in 1956 and executed in repoussé silver by François and Pierre Hugo in a numbered edition of 20, plus 2 exemplaire d’artiste and 2 exemplaire d’auteur, plus 6 Hors de Commerce. Photo: © Maxim Souyri / © Succession Picasso 2020

2

3

TABLE OF CONTENT Essays Two master-craftsmen, Hugo, at the service of Picasso Preface by Douglas Cooper for the exhibition:“Picasso – 19 silver platters”, Paris 1977 Visage aux mains Silver, Minerve premier titre, (950/1000) Ø 42 cms (approx.), Example made for Picasso Dr Clare Finn (2020)

5

17

Joueur de flûte et cavaliers

26

Un poisson

28

Profil de Jacqueline

30

Tête de taureau

32

Visage larvé

34

Visage en forme d’horloge

36

Visage géométrique aux traits

38

Material Matters; Picasso explores the resonance of silver Dr Clare Finn (2020)

41

Horloge à la langue

46

Exhibition History

68

Jacqueline au chevalet

48

Literature

69

Tête au masque

50

Visage sur carton ondulé

52

Centaure

54

Platters Le dormeur

10

Le visage aux taches

56

Visage aux feuilles

12

Visage dans un carré

58

Faune cavalier

14

Tête en forme d’horloge

60

Visage aux mains (667; 1407)

16

Vallauris, avec Faune (3 têtes)

62

Visage aux mains

20

Joie de vivre

64

Visage tourmenté

22

Visage géométrique

66

Visage de faune

24

PICASSO & FRANÇOIS HUGO

(left top)

Cannes, 1960

© Ateliers Hugo, Aix-en-Provence, France / © Succession Picasso 2020

FRANÇOIS HUGO

(left bottom)

in his workshop, 1960

© Ateliers Hugo, Aix-en-Provence, France

4

5

Two master-craftsmen, Hugo, at the service of Picasso Preface by Douglas Cooper for the exhibition: “Picasso – 19 silver platters”, Paris 1977.

No doubt, many people will be surprised to discover that until now – four years after the great artist’s death – they have been unaware that, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Picasso commissioned François Victor-Hugo, one of the most accomplished goldsmiths working in France today, to execute a series of platters, dishes and medallions in gold and silver after original models and designs by himself. Their surprise is understandable, because the superbly chased, richly ornamented, magnificent objects which resulted from this collaboration have remained, since their creation, virtually unknown to all but a small circle of connoisseurs and friends.

These platters are not posthumous “inventions” decorated with motifs culled from a variety of authentic works by Picasso: each one was individually selected, designed, seen, approved and cherished by Picasso himself during his lifetime. However, when Picasso ordered the first platters from François Hugo, he apparently intended to keep them for himself, and had not thought of allowing more to be made for sale to the public. Thus, at the start, their existence was wrapped in secrecy, Picasso repeatedly refused to loan any of them to an exhibition and, although he was full of admiration for the results achieved and delighted in contemplating these platters, he concealed them from view when visitors were around as though they constituted some private treasure.

True, Picasso might on occasion fetch out one or two from a dark corner of his studio, or from underneath the sofa, to elicit the admiration of a close friend or of some visitor whom he particularly wanted to impress. But he wasted no time before hiding them again, thus suggesting that some special satisfaction was attached to feeling that he alone was their proud possessor.

Consequently, very few people enjoyed the privilege of seeing these platters during their years of seclusion in Picasso’s studio.

Moreover, even after Picasso had at last (in 1967) authorized François Hugo to make a small, numbered edition of each for sale, only those friends who happened to visit his workshop while he was executing any of them might be fortunate enough to see a few specimens before they were dispatched to their respective

purchasers. Thus, this remarkable ensemble of gold and silver objects, executed by François Hugo after designs by Picasso, has attracted almost no publicity, while hitherto none of the platters or medallions have been publicly exhibited. The major interest of the present exhibition, therefore, is twofold : it is the first occasion on which such a considerable number of these objects has been shown; also it is the first occasion on which all nineteen of the superb silver platters have been exhibited as a group.

It is unnecessary for me to extol the merits of these memorable objets d’art. The manual dexterity, superb craftsmanship and artistic sensibility which François Hugo - from whom his son Pierre has recently taken over a large share of the hard work involved in their execution - was able to place at the service of Picasso are fully in evidence. Such objects do not call for further explanation.

They are their own justification and have no significant connotation outside of themselves. The subjects which served Picasso as a basis for his ornamental designs are recognizable, though as usual the artist enlivened them with touches of fantasy and invention. What calls for comment, however, is the range of effects which Picasso could obtain within a given form by employing different stylistic idioms or formal conceptions, by changing the ornamental rhythm or by introducing unexpected tactile patterns.

These, however, are essentially stylistic and technical considerations, which each person must discover and come to appreciate for himself. No less impressive to the eye of the connoisseur is the faithfulness with which Picasso’s original designs and intentions have been translated into metal, as well as the boldness and precision of the craftsmanly execution. The forms of these objects are more or less traditional, though their decoration is unusual.

Their underlying purpose seems, at first, to be utilitarian, yet they have an ornamental rather than a practical value, and need to be displayed. Material richness, vigour, but at the same time a certain delicacy are of their essence. Nevertheless, the authentic spirit of Picasso declares itself in the humorous touches and in the element of mystery which are subtly integrated into his ornamental treatment of the imagery.

(from left to right)

ATELIERS HUGO Aix-en-Provence, France, 1960 FRANÇOIS HUGO working on a Picasso platter “OUTILS DE CHIC” and working tools ATELIERS HUGO Aix-en-Provence, France, 1960 FRANÇOIS & MONIQUE HUGO in the Atelier, Aix-en-Provence, France

© Ateliers Hugo, Aix-en-Provence, France

6

7

And now the time has come for me to confess that I have a personal affection for these platters, dishes and medallions because, twenty years ago, I was responsible for bringing Picasso and François Hugo together to get the series started. One day, at the end of May 1956, I was with Picasso in his studio at “La Californie”, above Cannes, looking at a new group of platters, executed in unglazed white biscuit, which had just been delivered to him from the Madoura pottery at Vallauris. For some ten years already, Picasso had been producing a succession of decorated ceramics at Vallauris, and in these he had explored traditional techniques of painting, glazing and modelling, while also experimenting with some original ideas of his own.

During the early months of 1956, however, he had begun to work on a larger scale, decorating big round platters in a bolder style which involved recourse to engraving (one might almost say sculptural) techniques. That is to say, Picasso took a large shaped plaster matrix and first of all incised into its surface an outline drawing. After that, using another tool, he would gouge out a set of more deeply hollowed forms. Then perhaps he would add on the surface a few roughly modelled forms. Once he felt that he had finished working on this matrix, Picasso sent it back to the pottery, where a small number of impressions would be made from it. In other words, this matrix served as an intermediary reproductive element, exactly as a copper plater does for an engraver. At the pottery, a specially prepared sheet of potter’s clay was laid over the engraved and modelled surface of Picasso’s matrix and then pressed down sufficiently hard to ensure that a complete imprint of the artist’s design was taken, faithful down to the least details and without any loss of sharpness in the lines (often rather fine) or edges of the forms.

At this stage, Picasso found that he could also introduce another enlivening effect into his design (as for example in Un Poisson or Visage au Carton Ondulé) by pressing bits of corrugated cardboard, woven cloth, wickerwork or wire mesh into the damp clay before it received the imprint of the matrix. Of course, when the imprint was taken, all the values of Picasso’s design on the matrix were reversed, so that the modelled forms became sunken elements (as in Visage aux Feuilles or Visage larvé), while the gouged out parts appeared in high relief (as in Horloge à la Langue or Faune Cavalier). The final stage in the making of one of these biscuit platters consisted of drying the clay in the sun before

8

9

firing it in the oven. By this means, Madoura could usually obtain a sequence of about one hundred imprints from each matrix.

It was a new group of such platters, just delivered from the pottery, that Picasso and I were looking at in “La Californie” on that day at the end of May 1956. The objects themselves gradually directed our thoughts and conversation towards those opulently chased gold and silver platters and dishes of the 16th and 17th centuries, made in France, or Augsburg or Venice, many of which were designed by famous artists. I remember saying it was a pity that faïence was so brittle. And then a few moments later Picasso interjected that he himself had thought how splendid his own platters would look if they were carried out in silver, but that he did not know of anyone who could undertake the work.

“What about François Hugo ?” I asked. The two men had not seen each other for a long while, so I told Picasso about Hugo’s great experience as a Goldsmith, spoke of some of his outstanding achievements and pointed out that he had recently executed, for various churches, a number of silver objects with designs executed in the repoussé technique.

At once, Picasso’s interest was aroused and he asked me to find out from Hugo whether he would be interested in working with him on such a project, what technical method he thought should be employed – Picasso was opposed to having his platters cast – and what the cost of making one trial platter would be.

I wrote to François Hugo on 4th June 1956 asking him all these questions. On 7th June he replied, full of enthusiasm for an enterprise which, in spirit, seemed “to hark back to the Renaissance”, and giving his opinion that the repoussé technique was “without question the noblest process to use on a beautiful object.” Of course, Hugo added, this was rather a slow process, because the metal would have to be re-heated many times while it was being hammered over the silversmith’s new wax matrix. But Hugo felt sure that he could obtain an excellent result from Picasso’s models.

The two artists met to discuss the project on 25th September 1956, and their mutual agreement was sealed by Picasso giving Hugo the platter called Le Dormeur as the model for his first experiment in silver. By early December, François Hugo had completed one example of this platter and was ready to show it to Picasso for his

approval. The artist then expressed his delight in and admiration for the result by immediately commissioning Hugo to make four others like it. Hugo delivered these to Picasso at “La Californie” at the end of January 1957. Thus that small personal “treasure” which Picasso began to amass in the 1960’s originated with five examples in silver of Le Dormeur. But it was to increase rapidly in number during the following ten years, because the artist kept for himself two or three examples of each piece that François Hugo executed. And this was, so to speak, the unpublicized guarantee of Picasso’s wholehearted approval.

Such is the story, hitherto unrecorded, of how the creative collaboration between Picasso and François Hugo began. It was to continue for ten years, because the successful outcome of their first venture whetted Picasso’s appetite for more. As a result, during the ensuing twelve months Picasso was to provide eighteen more platters in biscuit for François Hugo to carry out in silver. However, the last four of these – Tête au Masque and Visage aux Taches among them – which Hugo received in March 1958, could not be executed until some years later because, by this time, Picasso’s interest had shifted to designing another kind of object. This was a large, flat dish supported on a round, columnar base. Picasso had made drawings for four of these, each with a different shape and design, and on 2nd April 1958 handed them to Hugo, whose responsibility it then became to interpret the artist’s intentions in practical terms. Two years later, in October 1960, Picasso followed these designs with a drawing for yet another type of object to be executed in silver : a four-sided vase, decorated with figures in repoussé on three of its panels and the date on the fourth.

François Hugo was therefore fully occupied during the first half of ‘the 1960’s trying to fulfil the many commissions which he had received from Picasso. But the vase did not work out to the satisfaction of either of the two men, and they then decided together that the three drawings of figures which would have been chased on its side panels – a Bacchante, a pipe-player and a dancing figure with cymbals – should be executed instead in gold as freestanding figurines. A few months after this, Picasso, who was still fascinated by the products which came out of François Hugo’s workshop, gave him some additional small drawings for objects to be made in gold, including two figures of Centaurs brandishing spears, and some irregularly shaped medallions decorated with drawings of human heads. Next, Picasso suggested that the de-

signs he had made for the flat surfaces of the big dishes should be carried out in miniature and in gold, thereby adding four more pieces to the group of medallions which he had just initiated.

There seemed no end to the list of commissions in hand.

The collection of objects which Picasso entrusted to François Hugo for execution in silver and gold, between 1956 and 1967, were considerably varied in conception and style and therefore presented many a challenge to his powers of invention, versatility and cunning as a craftsman. Picasso was fully aware of this aspect of their collaboration, examined each finished piece as it was brought to him with a sharply critical eye and ultimately demonstrated the high esteem in which he held François Hugo, both as a silversmith and as an interpreter of his own designs, by granting him the right – in September 1967 – to execute and sign with their joint names a limited number of impressions, which could be sold, of each of those pieces which he had seen and approved. On the same occasion, he also signed all the drawing he had made for objects to be executed in the Hugo workshop.

François Hugo had been attempting for some time to persuade Picasso to lend some of the silver platters in his possession for an exhibition, but his requests had always fallen on deaf ears. After this, he was free to take decisions on his own. So in November 1967, Hugo included four silver dishes and four gold figurines after Picasso’s designs in an exhibition at the gallery “Le Point Cardinal”, consisting exclusively of pieces made in his workshop, among which were pieces of jewellery designed by himself, a group of small objects in gold and silver designed by Arp, as well as a set of chessmen and some objects in gold and silver designed by Max Ernst.

That was ten years ago, and there has been no subsequent showing of these fascinating objects designed by Picasso. But today François Hugo, now in his eightieth year, is no longer able to work so actively as in the past. However, he continues to exercise a personal authority and control over what has developed into a family workshop, with his wife Monique and his son Pierre by supervising, counselling, criticizing and assisting his collaborators’ efforts to maintain the level of inventive craftsmanship and fault-less execution on which his own abiding reputation as a silversmith has for long been securely founded.

Le dormeur repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso 8/20

10

11

Visage aux feuilles repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso exemplaire d’auteur 1/2

12

13

Faune cavalier repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso exemplaire d’artiste 1/2

14

15

Visage aux mains Silver, Minerve premier titre, (950/1000) Ø 42 cms (approx.), Example made for Picasso. Dr Clare Finn (2020)

This platter is called Visage aux mains but Picasso rarely gave titles to his works, nor did he give clues to exactly what he was depicting. The titles his pieces are known by now are those given to them by friends and dealers. François Hugo called it Tête aux mains et aux épis in his studio book where he recorded all his projects designs, his Livre de reference. Using the word ‘Tête’ (head) rather than ‘Visage’ (face) draws our attention to Picasso’s use of the platter’s shallow bowl form to evoke not just a face, but an entire head, and thus forms part of his exploration of the sculptural qualities of two-dimensional media, in this case sheet silver. This head, however, has no ears (épis) aside from what seems to be spikes of wheat that traverse the wavy lines around the platter’s rim. Thus, it’s interpretation is always subjective.

Visage aux mains smiles gently through a series of raised lines forming a woven pattern, to left and right, gnarled or beringed hands have fingers extending outwards. A series of embossed dots, or bosses, encircle the junction of the platter’s bowl where it meets the rim, more bosses adorn a small section of the outer rim, like an ancient coin struck unevenly in its die. Some of these details are missing from the limited editions the Atelier Hugo would make, but for Picasso a user of signs, what or who might they signify?

Despite living almost his entire adult life in France, Picasso was a fiercely proud Spaniard, a characteristic that increased the older he got. He loved all things Spanish. But Spain was a country he had sworn not to return to while Franco was in power.

Visage aux mains (667; 1407) repoussé silver Ex. personal collection of the artist; Ex. Marina Picasso, by descent

Picasso is known to draw on his surroundings for his subject matter and have a sharp eye for detail. It seems hard to believe he would have been unaware that the Gypsys; the Gitans, Roms and the Manouches of the Carmague, who gathered every year in their thousands for their annual pilgrimage in Saintes-Maries-dela-Mer in the delta. They had ties to Spain. It is the Gitans who call themselves “Catalans”, or “Andalusians”, according to their principal place of settlement. They gave Spain the best Flamenco, famous dancers and generations of great toreros. The Roms are tinkers, coppersmiths or gilders, their women wear necklaces of gold coins that make up the tribe’s treasure. The Manouches are basket makers and circus folk.

Provence is known for its wheat fields, famously depicted by Van Gogh, but perhaps the épis are not wheat but the Pampus grass that grows abundantly in the Camargue, where the Rhône meanders to the sea. Might this platter depict a Camargue gypsy? The embossed weave pattern may be a Manouche basket, the small bosses encircling the bowl a Rom necklace. And the beringed hands? We do not know when Picasso became aware of Gypsy music. Perhaps his friend the photographer, Lucien Clergue, who he had met in 1953, drew his attention to it. Clergue for a while managed one of the very best gypsy guitarists, Manitas de Plata, and later arranged for de Plata to play for Picasso. The gypsy rose to fame playing at the Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer pilgrimage each year, but only began playing publicly in about 1963, ten years after another Romani, Django Reinhardt, had died. Manitas de Plata’s name is Spanish for “Little Hands of Silver”.

right) (from left to right)

Detail of back of Visage aux Mains (667; 1407), showing the stamping

EMPREINTE ORIGINALE DE PICASSO, found only on the platters made for Picasso, this was replaced by a stamp of Picasso’s signature for the limited edition platters.

Detail of back of Visage aux Mains, showing the stamping 667 FRANÇOIS

HUGO ORFEVRE 1407. The 667 relates to Francois Hugo’s Livre d’atelier which records the order in which he executed commissions. 1407 relates to the reference number given in the Livre

de référence and this reference number can be found on the back of all the silver platters, those made just for Picasso, and those of the limited edition.

18

Picasso found that he could also introduce another enlivening effect into his design … by pressing bits of corrugated cardboard, woven cloth, wickerwork or wire mesh into the damp clay before it received the imprint of the matrix. (Douglas Cooper 1977)

Visage aux mains repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso 8/20

20

21

Visage tourmenté repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso 18/20

22

23

Visage de faune repoussé silver Ø 25 cm stamped verso H. C. 5/6

24

25

Joueur de flûte et cavaliers repoussé silver Ø 36,5 cm stamped verso H. C. 3/6

26

27

Un poisson repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso H. C. 3/6

28

29

Profil de Jacqueline repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso H. C. 3/6

30

31

Tête de Taureau repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso H. C. 1/6

32

33

Visagé larve repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso exemplaire d’auteur 2/2

34

35

Visage en forme d’horloge repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso H. C. 3/6

36

37

Visage géométrique aux traits repoussé silver Ø 40 cm stamped verso 18/20

38

39

Material Matters ; Picasso explores the resonance of silver 1 Dr Clare Finn (2020)

When Françoise Gilot, who was Picasso’s companion of eight years and mother of his children, Claude and Paloma, left him in 1953 Picasso’s life became particularly restless. He travelled frequently over the Côte d’Azur, to Nîmes, Saint-Tropez, and further afield to Perpignan and Collioure. While he did not stop working this peripatetic lifestyle inhibited the settled routine that was vital for his work and made collaboration almost impossible. In the late spring and early summer of 1954 he did collaborate with Tobias Jellinek, but generally he made very little sculpture during this period and his ceramic work also slackened.

Then in June 1955, Picasso moved to the Belle Époque villa, La Californie, on high ground to the east of Cannes, with a new maîtresse de title, Jacqueline Roque, who later in 1961 would become his second wife. This move meant that from then on a settled routine was once again possible.

The elaborate villa was large enough to accommodate all the tools and equipment Picasso needed to again widen his artistic activities. He not only painted, worked with ceramics, sculpted, but undertook printmaking, for which a printing press was installed specially in the villa’s basement. Collaboration was also possible again and by using other people’s skills Picasso broadened his artistic activities even further. During the time he lived at La Californie, he undertook a considerable number of experimental collaborations using new or different materials, media and techniques.

When working in metal Picasso was heavily dependent on the skills of others. But rather than seek out the best and most technically proficient to undertake his work, which he was certainly in a position to do, he had a predilection for using whoever came to hand. He was a great opportunist in his choice of collaborators.

1

This essay is based on the most documented accounts of any of Picasso’s collabo-

Be that as it may the suggestion of François Hugo as a collaborator was an inspired one as Picasso already knew him and his family for many years.

François Victor-Hugo was born in Rovezzano, in Italy, in 1899, and was the youngest son of a prominent French family. He was the great-grandson of the leading literary figure of the French Romantic Movement, national hero and symbol of French republicanism, Victor Hugo. However, while being well known the Hugo family were not rich. François’ father, Georges, had lost a large part of his grandfather’s fortune and François was certainly expected to earn a living. Affable, hospitable and well-connected, he was interested in the deftness of artisanal talent and throughout his life earned a living through the use of a wide variety of manual skills. Yet for quite some time he avoided settling on just one career but took advantage of the opportunities chance and friendship brought his way.

Early on he was taught wood engraving. During the First World War, he worked on aeroplane engines for Hispano-Suiza, attaining his mechanic’s certificate. Immediately after the First World War he spent time in Scotland apparently studying sheep rearing, wool processing and whisky drinking. On returning to France, he worked for Coco Chanel, on the machinery that produced the knitted fabric for her gowns. He moved to Italy where he became a stone sculptor. Worked on several films with the film writer Jean Aurenche, the director Marcel Carné and Paul Grimaud.

Hugo had received no formal training in metalwork, the skills for which he eventually became renowned were self-taught. It was in 1923 that he set up his first metalworking workshop at his mother’s house in Orléans. By 1939 his Livre de référence indicates he had moved back to Paris and had a workshop in the Quai de la Tournelle, and undertook his first commission: a steel tabernacle door. He mainly made fashionable jewellery and metal objets, in none precious metals designing them all himself.

rations. For full referenced details see Clare Finn, The Decorative Metalwork of Pablo Picasso; his collaboration with François Hugo, unpublished PhD Thesis, Royal College of Art, London, 2004, available through https://ethos.bl.uk

At some point in the 1920s, at the time Picasso was collaborating with Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe, through his half-brother Jean Hugo

who was involved in the theatre world, François met Picasso. But they seem to have known each other only slightly. At that time the difference in their ages would have been a factor: Hugo was still a teenager and Picasso was well into his thirties. Meeting again in 1956 Picasso was 75 and Hugo was 57; the age difference was no longer a factor.

back from being fired in Vallauris. These were large, white plates with designs moulded in high relief. Cooper described them depicting “centaurs, fauns, fish, ornaments.” They were some of Picasso’s empreinte originale ceramics and were among the first ceramics he did at La Californie on re-commencing his work in clay after leaving Vallauris.

In the early 1950s François married his third wife, Monique Wilhen, and by July 1955 they had left Paris to live at La Grange Allard at Allinges, in the Haute Savoie near Thonon-les-Bains. There he had commissions from churches in the vicinity to make church plate and other objects. Thus, before he worked for Picasso, despite calling himself a goldsmith, orfèvre, he had actually used precious metals only occasionally. Strictly speaking he was a metalsmith making dinanderie (fine metalwork in copper or other non-precious metals). Many of the techniques he employed when making plates and dishes for Picasso were not even those of a gold or silversmith, they were techniques of the tin- or metalsmith, as that was the greater part of his work up to that time. The word argent only begins to appear in his Atelier books in 1947, after he registered with the Police as a fabricants et marchands d’or et d’argent. Thus it was that Picasso, inadvertently, made him into what he had always wanted to be.

That May, discussing these ceramics, Picasso apparently expressed an interest in having them reproduced in silver but said he knew no one who could carry out the work. At this point John Richardson suggested François Hugo might be able to help. All three, Picasso, Richardson and Cooper were still well-acquainted with other members of the Hugo family, both Jean Hugo and his sister Marguerite. Jean was now living at Fourques near Arles, with his second wife Lauretta, and Picasso certainly saw them.

But at that time neither Picasso, Cooper or Richardson knew François himself well.

Yet François was a man in love with his craft, fascinated by manual skills, he loved outils de chic; hand-made tools for specific problems. He tackled tasks with ingenuity but his work lacked the careful craftmanship of traditional silverware. His works are not carefully planished or perfectly symmetrically raised. The pieces he made for Picasso appear hewn and wrought from their thick silver sheets. Such work made in opposition to craft traditions would certainly have appealed to Picasso.

All of this - his congenial character, the way he worked, his background in the modern trade of mechanics, would have appealed to Picasso, who disliked the rigid attitudes of many traditional craftsmen.

Picasso’s collaboration with François had its genesis in a conversation between Picasso and two friends; the collector and dealer, Douglas Cooper and Cooper’s long term partner, later Picasso’s biographer, John Richardson. Visiting La Californie in May 1956, Picasso showed them several ceramic plates he had just received

42

43

Despite the suggestion Picasso did not meet up with Hugo immediately. That meeting would not happen for some months. In the interim he left Cooper to make the first overtures. When they did meet in September 1956 despite Hugo’s suggestions on how best the silver plates could be made Picasso had his own ideas. He wanted the method to follow the way in which his ceramic empreinte originale plates were made.

To make those ceramics Picasso himself made negative forms in plaster, incising, gouging, adding roughly modelled forms or pressing corrugated cardboard, woven cloth, wickerwork or mesh into the surfaces of the damp plaster. These negative forms were allowed to dry and were then sent to the Madoura pottery in Vallauris. There, specially prepared sheets of white potter’s clay were laid over the engraved and modelled surfaces of Picasso’s negative moulds and pressed down into the moulds. The resulting clay imprints were then dried in the sun before being fired. A small number of impressions were made from each matrix specifically for Picasso. Like the editioned silver plates, the commercial editions of the empreinte originale plates would come later.

Picasso was clear he wanted the method adapted to make his silver platters, linking them with the ceramics in more than just design. Sheets of silver were to be hammered into dies. It was a method that Hugo referred to as repoussé, but strictly speaking is

a form of hand stamping. Yet how best this was to be achieved he seems to have left to Hugo.

That September Hugo left La Californie with a commission to make two test plates of Le dormeur. He had negative dies cast in bronze

by Monsieur Baud at Annemasse, a local caster. Even though he was unsatisfied with the casting he would make five Le dormeur platters on them for Picasso. Then for the next commission, two Visage aux feuilles, he changed both foundry and material. Those dies would be cast iron. The foundry was Éts. Durenne. But he was unhappy with those castings too. The castings’ rough surfaces marked the silver as he hammered it across them, which Picasso did not like and caused Hugo much additional work. This, however, probably had more to do with Hugo’s lack of knowledge of casting than either foundries’ proficiency.

The way Hugo tackled the dies for the next commission Picasso gave him in May 1957, was particularly non-traditional. He was to make two each of three new plate designs Faune cavalier, Visage aux mains and Visage tourmenté. Aiming for strong, accurate, but reasonably lightweight dies, he drew on his time at Hispano-Suiza. There he would have become aware of early developments Hispano-Suiza carried out over time on the V-8 aircraft engine, which proved so decisive for the Allies. Among these improvements was a method of making highly accurate removable metal liners for the engine’s block casings. So using the Paris based company Éts. du Métallisation, Hugo adapted the principle to making the dies. This method, with its associations not with a traditional past as casting had, but with a more recent past incorporating notions of industrialisation and modernity would have fascinated Picasso, who owned a Hispano-Suiza car. It may even have been that car that sparked the idea.

By mid-May Hugo asked Éts. du Métallisation to make 3mm thick, hollow, steel, negative forms from the empreinte originale ceramics. They would be made in acier Schoopé, by a process similar to electro-plating. To give them the necessary weight to withstand having the silver sheets hammered over them Hugo planned to fill their hollow forms with the epoxy resin.

Yet, despite Hugo’s ingenuity it was not a success; he found they burst when in use. This was a great worry as he had assured Picasso he would deliver his new platters to him “at the absolute

latest” by the end of June. Well into July he still had no serviceable dies with which to complete the work. At that time Hugo had no other work; he was working solely for Picasso.

Following these various trials and tribulations, to make the Visage aux mains die by mid-July Hugo settled on a return to the traditional method of using cast bronze, as for the first Le dormeur platters, not cast iron as he had for the Visage aux feuilles. However, he did not return to Éts. Durenne or Monsieur Baud in Annemasse but began asking other local artisans for recommendation. To Hugo’s great relief, the bell foundry at Annecy le Vieux suggested Messieurs Foissy and Achard at Bonneville, 50 to 60 kilometres from Allinges where Hugo was living, who ran the Fonderie du Faucigny. He described them as “full of good-will and ready to carry out my casting in record time.” Still he seems to have waited to receive the remaining two empreintes métallisées for Visage aux mains and Visage tourmenté from Éts. du Métallisation, before having their new dies cast, perhaps using them as casting plasters to make the casting waxes.

In addition to the travails in making Faune cavalier Hugo’s instructions to Sesson reveal further problems in making Visage aux mains and Visage tourmenté. He warned the polisher to take extra care with their noses as he had attached those separately: their relief was too high for Hugo to form them integrally with the main bodies of the platters. The instruction Hugo gave for the final polishing of all the platters was that they be given a low-key finish. Their backgrounds were to be semi-matt, sateen, with the relief designs more highly polished. Picasso’s ideas for the pieces would not have included random reflections that Brancusi had used to such effect. Picasso had a different aesthetic in mind. Nor did he want hammer marks to remain visible and impressions of the cloth Hugo used to cushion the silver against the rigid die can be detected on the Visage aux mains platter.

Finally, during the first week of September, he delivered the platters to Picasso. Many of the technical problems and delays were the result of Hugo’s relative inexperience in making this type of piece. But it was precisely his unorthodox approach that was key to Picasso’s interest and Hugo did carry out the commissions with great diligence. So, despite all the delays, Picasso remained hugely enthusiastic about their collaboration. Pierre Hugo, François’ son, has said that now Picasso apparently asked

his father to come and live closer to make collaboration easier.

More recently Pierre has said the family’s move south was not at Picasso’s request but at that of his mother, Monique. Tired of the cold and constant rain in the Haut Savoie, she said she would leave Hugo if they did not move somewhere warmer. However, a year would pass before Hugo moved south to live near Aix. That September, Picasso asked François to make more platters, two each of Visage de faune, Un poisson, Joueur de flute et cavaliers, Profil de Jacqueline and Tête de taureau. Hugo delivered the smallest two silver platters, the Visage de faune, to Picasso in November 1957, and the other eight platters in December. Thereupon Picasso again asked him to make a further ten silver platters, Visage larvé, Visage en forme d’horloge, Visage géométrique aux traits, Horloge à la langue and Jacqueline au chevalet. These Hugo completed by the middle of March 1958, delivering them to Picasso at the end of the month. Hugo’s Livre d’atelier shows they were the last silver platters to be delivered to Picasso. Both Picasso and Jacqueline expressed their enthusiastic appreciation by telegram to Hugo and his wife, Monique, “Terrific Thank you Kisses to you both = Pablo Jacqueline”.

But there are signs Picasso’s interest in the work was changing, his ideas were moving on. At the beginning of April 1958, marking small sketches Hugo made of 17 designs of Picasso’s empreinte originale ceramics with a green crayon crosses, Picasso selected eight plates for Hugo to make in silver. But before making them Picasso had drawn four new designs for footed dishes that were to be made before Hugo tackled any other platters. These designs would become four Compotiers.

Through a range of circumstances, Hugo buying a house with the advance Picasso had paid him for the dishes and plates, moving his family south and other matters, he was not able to make them for a year. Finally he delivered them to Picasso in March 1959, and one last one in August 1960. But the delay in the delivery was due to a plan Hugo devised during Christmas 1959, that could not be put into action until sometime in 1960: the ‘marriage’ of their two dachshunds, Lump and Bouton. Still following the ‘marriage’ Hugo had to wait six weeks for Picasso to give him any more work. On 18th October 1960, Picasso gave Hugo a drawing of a vase to be made in silver. Hugo also made an example of the vase in iron and brass, some plaques and spoke of other ideas

44

45

and techniques. But Picasso asked Hugo to do no more work for him, with the possible exception of a gold brooch of a centaur, which was for Jacqueline. Picasso had simply lost interest.

The designs Picasso had made in ceramic covered many of the themes he often tackled; the bullfight - Faune cavalier and Tête de taureau; his friends and lovers – Jacqueline aux chevalet and Profil de Jacqueline; his associates – Visage géométrique aux traits, which is actually a caricature of the French Communist Party Secretary, Jacques Duclos, Arcadia; the Mediterranean – Joueur de flute et cavaliers; the reality and mythology of his immediate surroundings – Visage de faune and Visage aux feuilles, Un poisson, Tête de masque and Visage aux mains. Sabartés, Picasso’s friend and long time secretary, has described Picasso as being far more interested in the process of experimentation than in a finished piece. Once the problems involved in the creation of a work were resolved, it no longer held Picasso’s attention. Though Picasso left the details and the practical organisation to Hugo, he loved technical discussions, and seeing what ideas he could glean, encouraging Hugo to talk about a subject he really loved. But by then, as far as Picasso was concerned, all the problems in making the platters were resolved. He, Picasso, only had to choose which ceramic plates he wanted made in silver and Hugo made it.

To a certain extent Picasso’s choices appear arbitrary, but it was not so. He had already got Hugo to make a range of different designs for him so he could see which worked best. Those that use the platters shallow bowl forms and wide rims are the most successful, like the depictions of faces or heads, such as Visage aux mains, or conjuring an entire bullfighting arena with its audience on the rim, as in Faune cavalier. Those that ignore those subtle sculptural qualities, like Tête de taureau are less so. The challenge for Picasso, and thus his interest, was gone.

So it was with the eight platters he had asked Hugo to make for him when he asked for the dishes to be made. Picasso simply changed his mind. None were made in silver at that time. These platters; Tête au masque, Visage dans un carré, Tête en forme horloge, Vallauris avec faune (3 tête), Visage en carton ondulé, Centaure, Le visage aux taches, and Visage aux palmes. Some; Tête au masque, Visage au carton ondulé, Centaure, and Visage aux taches, were made in silver later for the commercial limited edition Pierre and François Hugo began making in the mid -1970s after Picasso died, so clearly not for Picasso. The first entry for these

editions in his Livre d’atelier, is design no. 1406 for Faune Cavalier, dated 2 February 1974. By then François had sold the original dies he used to make Picasso’s platters for the cost of the bronze.

For the commercial limited editions new dies were cast, many in duraluminium. Beginning in 2001, Pierre Hugo issued limited editions of the platters Visage dans un carré, Tête en forme horloge and Vallauris avec faune (3 tête), in silver. He believes no dies were cast for them before 2001. Visage aux palmes, which was among those platters Picasso chose to have made in silver but then changed his mind, has never been made in silver. But Pierre has made silver platter of two ceramics Picasso did not choose to have made in silver; Joie de vivre and Visage géométrique.

Picasso and François’ collaboration ended in 1961 around the time Picasso moved to Mougins. For Hugo, despite a series of events the end cannot be attributed to one in particular. For Picasso, from 1961 onwards he undertook no new collaborations, other than with his printmakers, the brothers Aldo and Piero Crommelynck. The final years of his life were characterised by isolation rather than collaboration. The distance Picasso imposed on many people, both friends and acquaintances, was also an acceptance of the isolation of old age.

In choosing his collaborators, though ability and initiative were necessary, to deal with the practical running of the work, Picasso seems governed more by chance, novelty and his collaborators’ personalities. He treated them not merely as technicians but friends. However, as the years passed the aspect of friendship appears to have given diminishing returns. Yet he did have an intimate friendship with Hugo.

Thus Hugo’s collaboration with Picasso lasted just under five years, from September 1956 to January 1961. There appears to have been a four year hiatus in which Hugo made no ‘Picasso’ pieces but with Douglas Cooper’s help began pursuing other artists to work with; Max Ernst and Jean Cocteau. Drawings Picasso subsequently gave Hugo were not given as projects for work.

Nevertheless Hugo did make gold pieces from them, but not for Picasso. For Picasso the collaboration had been a personal project and he kept all the plates he asked Hugo to make for him right up to his death. Today most of them are still owned by Picasso’ family. Some he even displayed at La Californie where they can be seen in Edward Quinn’s photographs. This prominent display

of Le dormeur and Visage en forme d’horloge, albeit in an off-hand manner propped behind the sofa, was in that part of the villa where Picasso received visitors, not the more private area he used as a studio. They appear as though they have been placed on a contemporary Credenza, like Renaissance objets de vertu, quietly underlining their owner’s position in the world. Parmelin remarked they looked like haloes behind the guests’ heads.

Despite this private display, to the chagrin of both François and Douglas Cooper, Picasso refused to either have the work publicised or exhibited publicly. This was entirely consistent with his practice of keeping private his work in progress. He treated the silver pieces in the same way that he treated the larger part of his current oeuvre. Then from 1965 Hugo began to give Jacqueline brooches or medallions and make editions from the drawings Picasso had given him. These editions were sold discretely through Jean Hughes, proprietor of the gallery Le Point Cardinal in Paris where for the first time in 1967 some of the fruits of the collaboration were displayed in an exhibition entitled Atelier François Hugo.

Horloge à la langue repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso 6/20

46

47

Jacqueline au chevalet repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso H. C. 1/6

48

49

Tête au masque repoussé silver Ø 30,5 cm stamped verso 20/20

50

51

Visage sur carton ondulé repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso H. C. 1/6

52

53

Centaure repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso 20/20

54

55

Le visage aux taches repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso exemplaire d’artiste 1/2

56

57

Visage dans un carré repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso H. C. 1/6

58

59

Tête en forme d’horloge repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso exemplaire d’auteur 1/2

60

61

Vallauris, avec faune (3 têtes) repoussé silver Ø 42 cm stamped verso H. C. 1/6

62

63

Joie de vivre repoussé silver Ø 41,7 cm stamped verso H. C. 1/6

64

65

Visage géométrique repoussé silver Ø 35,5 cm stamped verso exemplaire d’artiste 2/2

66

67

EXHIBITION HISTORY OF THE SILVER PLATTERS other examples exhibited

PICASSO: 19 PLATS D’ARGENT PAR FRANÇOIS ET PIERRE HUGO

UN GÉNIE SANS PIÉDESTAL; PICASSO ET LES ARTS TRADITIONS POPULAIRES

Lever Gallery, London

Galerie Matignon, Paris

Gallimard & Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean, (Mucem) Marseilles

7 November – 31 December 1977

26 April - 29 August 2016

10 June – 8 July, 1977

PICASSO PEINTRE D’OBJETS, OBJETS DE PEINTRE Musée d’Art moderne, Céret 12 June - 19 September 2004

La Piscine Museum (La Piscine Musée d’art et d’industrie André Diligent de Roubaix) 9 October 2004 - 9 January 2005

PICASSO EN OR ET EN ARGENT « LE PARCOURS DE LA SAGESSE » Domaine du Château de Seneffe Musée de l’orfèvrerie de la Communauté Française 8 October 2005 - 5 February 2006

68

69

LITERATURE ON THE SILVER PLATTERS Douglas Cooper, Picasso: 19 plats d’argent par François et Pierre Hugo Lever Gallery, London, Galerie Matignon, Paris,

Bruno Gaudichon, Joséphine Matamoros, Un génie sans piédestal; Picasso et les arts traditions populaires

L’Imprimerie Union, Paris, 1977 (other examples

Gallimard & Museum of Civilizations of Europe and

illustrated in black & white)

the Mediterranean, Gallimard, 2016, France. (other examples illustrated in colour)

Pierre Hugo & Claire Siaud, Bijoux d’artistes: Hommage à François Hugo

COMPARATIVE CERAMICS

Aix-en-Provence, Les Cyprés Editeur, 2001, pp. 147-193 (other examples illustrated in colour)

Dr. Clare Finn, The Decorative Metalwork of Pablo Picasso; his collaboration with François Hugo

Alain Ramié, Picasso: Catalogue of the Edited Ceramic Works, 1947 - 1971 Madoura, Vallauris, France, 1988, pp. 145, 158, 164 - 168, 170 - 174, 176, 177, 178 - 179, 181, 184, 186 - 187, nos. 283, 309, 321 - 323,

unpublished PhD Thesis, Royal College of Art,

325 - 327, 329 - 330, 332, 334, 336, 338, 340,

London, 2004

343, 344, 346 - 347, 349, 353, 358, 361, 363 (white ceramic versions illustrated in colour)

Dr. Clare Finn, Dominique Forest, Colette Giraudon, Brigitte Léal, Picasso peintre d’objets, Objets de peintre Musée d’Art moderne, Céret, France; La Piscine

Georges Bloch, Pablo Picasso: Catalogue de l’oeuvre gravé céramique, 1949-1971

Museum (La Piscine - Musée d’art et d’industrie

Bern, 1972, vol. III, pp. 59, 62, 69, 76 - 78,

André Diligent de Roubaix), Gallimard, 2004, France

80 - 84, 86 - 88, 90 - 91, 93 - 94, 96 - 97, 102,

(other examples illustrated in colour)

104, 107 - 108, nos. 63, 68, 82, 90 - 92, 94 - 98, 100 - 102, 104 - 105, 107 - 108, 110 - 111, 116, 118,

Philippe Busquin, Marjolaine Hanssens, Colette Giraudon, Dr. Clare Finn, Picasso en or et en argent « Le parcours de la sagesse » Domaine du Château de Seneffe Musée de l’orfèvrerie de la Communauté Française, Bierlot Imprimerie, 2005, France (other examples illustrated in colour)

121 - 122 (white ceramic versions illustrated)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Dr. Clare Finn ACR, FIIC Ateliers Hugo, Aix en Provence, France Edward Quinn Archive, Switzerland Platter photography Maxim Souyri The Masterpiece Art Team Mark Maurice, Annette Vignere, Alex Cousens, Arianna Botta, Rosie Campion Project Coordinator Alex Cousens Design / Art Direction Fabrice Couillerot / atomicjetman@yahoo.fr Printing David May / Empress Litho Copyrights silver platters

Photo © Maxim Souyri / © Succession Picasso 2020 front cover Un poisson (detail)

Photo © Maxim Souyri / © Succession Picasso 2020 back cover Pablo Picasso at La Californie, Cannes 1960

Photo Edward Quinn, © edwardquinn.com / © Succession Picasso 2020

Masterpiece Art Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales at 3 Norland Place, Holland Park, London W11 4QG Company registration number: 09555198 All rights reserved, no part of the publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

picasso / hugo a collection of 25 silver platters

picasso hugo a collection of 25 silver platters