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Lot Essay
With a certificate of authenticity from Pierre Hugo.
The repoussé technique of moulding and hammering the metal against a bronze die was favoured by the master goldsmith as "without question, the noblest process to use on a beautiful object". The series of ptes blanches platters conceived by Picasso in 1956 lent themselves to the boldness and precision of this translation into precious metal. These silver and gold plates are not posthumous copies of the ceramics nor were they produced from drawings. The original earthenware platters were created using similar techniques to engraving; incisions, when pressed onto the clay, transformed themselves into sculptural relief. Picasso took this further with his imaginative practices of pressing found materials such as chair caning (lot 55), cloth or corrugated cardboard (lot 56) into the matrix. Picasso examined each finished piece as it was brought to him with a sharply critical eye. Hugo was understandably nervous about showing his first efforts to Picasso between Christmas and New Year of 1956. He need not have been worried, the artist was enchanted and the meeting turned into a dinner late into the evening, a working collaboration that lasted 10 years and a friendship that lasted until the end of the Picasso's life.
The repoussé technique of moulding and hammering the metal against a bronze die was favoured by the master goldsmith as "without question, the noblest process to use on a beautiful object". The series of ptes blanches platters conceived by Picasso in 1956 lent themselves to the boldness and precision of this translation into precious metal. These silver and gold plates are not posthumous copies of the ceramics nor were they produced from drawings. The original earthenware platters were created using similar techniques to engraving; incisions, when pressed onto the clay, transformed themselves into sculptural relief. Picasso took this further with his imaginative practices of pressing found materials such as chair caning (lot 55), cloth or corrugated cardboard (lot 56) into the matrix. Picasso examined each finished piece as it was brought to him with a sharply critical eye. Hugo was understandably nervous about showing his first efforts to Picasso between Christmas and New Year of 1956. He need not have been worried, the artist was enchanted and the meeting turned into a dinner late into the evening, a working collaboration that lasted 10 years and a friendship that lasted until the end of the Picasso's life.