Picasso and artist’s jewellery
Picasso and artist’s jewellery it’s painting, sculpture, engraving, ceramics, decoration or even poetry … There are few artistic practices that Pablo Picasso didn’t experiment with. In the spring of 2021, the Museu Picasso of Barcelona will focus on one of his lesser-known productions in an exhibition dedicated to artistic jewellery.
From shell necklaces made for Dora Maar to the beaches of Juan-les-Pins in 1937, to authentic goldsmith work from the nineteen sixties, to ceramic pieces modelled in Madoura’s workshop, jewellery was for Picasso the umpteenth field of work, a new range of possibilities for him. Dora Maar was one of his earliest muses in this subject, and the solar necklace made shortly after his encounter is the precursor to the summer shell necklaces.
For Pablo Picasso, jewellery was the most personal ways of expressing himself. These objects, usually intended for the people closest to him, were coveted as treasures that he refused to reproduce in large quantities or even exhibit. It would be necessary to wait until the late 1960s to see a series for sale. For the artist, these objects were for sure something much more than just ornaments. The jewel has always been endowed with extraordinary expressive potential, sometimes a talisman, for others, a charm. The jewel is impregnated with this magic of intimacy.
