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拍品专文
Aged 90, Picasso was, at the time he executed the present composition, still working with an indefatigable zeal. Residing with his wife, Jacqueline Picasso in their large home in the south of France, known as Notre-Dame-de-Vie, the artist was living in more or less seclusion, rarely travelling and entertaining only intimate groups of close friends when he so desired. Having said this, Picasso’s last years were amongst his most productive, resulting in bold, stylistically vigorous works as he sought to fight the marching of the clock: 'I have less and less time,’ he would say ‘and I have more and more to say’ (J. Richardson, Late Picasso: Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Prints 1953-1972, exh. cat., London, 1988, p. 85).
It was drawing which served as a vehicle for the artist’s meandering thoughts, desires and his vivid imagination at this time; as he stated, 'I spend hour after hour while I draw, observing my creatures and thinking about the mad things they’re up to; basically it’s my way of writing fiction' (ibid., p. 29).
Executed in August 1972, Tête is one of a group of images of men that Picasso created during this period, often taking on different guises: many of these appeared to be evolutions of the theme of the painter and his model, upon which Picasso had recently focussed, but also included a number of related images of men either smoking, or showing a bearded figure, bald or, like in the present work, with hair.
'Picasso’s confrontation with the human face, which makes him into the great portrait-painter of the twentieth century, brings him back to a confrontation with himself, the painter, young or old.' (M-L. Bernadac, ‘Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model’ in Late Picasso, exh. cat., London, 1988).
There is an element of self-portraiture to them, a notion that is reinforced in the present work by the distinctive hair line, so reminiscent of the artist's own. It recalls the depiction of Picasso's hair in the series of early self-portraits executed in 1906, one of which, currently in the collection of the Musée Picasso in Paris, still remained in Picasso’s studio in Mougins during the 1970s.
Picasso's pictures are often palimpsests, filled with layers of meaning and implications. In this series of portraits, executed towards the end of his life, the artist appears to be looking both forwards and backwards, reflecting on his youth while also contemplating his present, and future, self.
It was drawing which served as a vehicle for the artist’s meandering thoughts, desires and his vivid imagination at this time; as he stated, 'I spend hour after hour while I draw, observing my creatures and thinking about the mad things they’re up to; basically it’s my way of writing fiction' (ibid., p. 29).
Executed in August 1972, Tête is one of a group of images of men that Picasso created during this period, often taking on different guises: many of these appeared to be evolutions of the theme of the painter and his model, upon which Picasso had recently focussed, but also included a number of related images of men either smoking, or showing a bearded figure, bald or, like in the present work, with hair.
'Picasso’s confrontation with the human face, which makes him into the great portrait-painter of the twentieth century, brings him back to a confrontation with himself, the painter, young or old.' (M-L. Bernadac, ‘Picasso 1953-1972: Painting as Model’ in Late Picasso, exh. cat., London, 1988).
There is an element of self-portraiture to them, a notion that is reinforced in the present work by the distinctive hair line, so reminiscent of the artist's own. It recalls the depiction of Picasso's hair in the series of early self-portraits executed in 1906, one of which, currently in the collection of the Musée Picasso in Paris, still remained in Picasso’s studio in Mougins during the 1970s.
Picasso's pictures are often palimpsests, filled with layers of meaning and implications. In this series of portraits, executed towards the end of his life, the artist appears to be looking both forwards and backwards, reflecting on his youth while also contemplating his present, and future, self.