PABLO PICASSO: THE ARTIST AS A COLLECTOR

Abstract

In the article, the researcher discussed in detail Picasso’s activity as a collector. Even during Picasso’s lifetime, it was known that he not only possessed the most significant collection of his own works but also collected works by other artists from a young age. In the 1950s and 1960s, the collection of other masters assembled by Picasso began to be photographed specially and it became partly known to historians of modern art. In later years, Picasso thought about what would happen to this part of his collection, and came to the conclusion that these works should become the property of France, of some state museum. After the death of the master, the collection became a part of the Picasso Museum in Paris. The museum store and exhibit the works of the artist himself and works by other authors from his collection. The fundamental catalog of the Picasso Museum in Paris, published in 1985, enshrined this principle. Its first volume ends with a section presenting paintings and graphic works by other masters as well as a collection of primitive art and Iberian statuettes. Later, Picasso’s collecting activities began to be covered in special studies and exhibition projects. There are more than thirty masters in his collection. Among them are such famous painters and graphic artists as Georges Braque, Victor Brauner, Edouard Vuillard, Salvador Dali, Edgar Degas, André Derain, Alberto Giacometti, Giorgio de Chirico, Kes Van Dongen, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Amedeo Modigliani, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat, Max Ernst. Not all of their items are of high museum quality but many could certainly decorate the most demanding museum. The stories of their acquisition were almost always different. Picasso was not a conscious, «programmatic» collector who wants to give his collection a certain orientation and representativeness and is guided by some principle of selection. Most often, the emergence of new exhibits occurred spontaneously, almost by chance, but sometimes there was a pattern in this accident. Often, the works of other masters somehow echoed the vector of his creative searches (Paul Cezanne and Georges Braque). They could be acquired as a result of an exchange with other masters (Henri Matisse) or given to the master as a sign of respect (Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, Victor Brauner). The uniqueness and innovation of Picasso, vividly manifested in his work, also affected his hypostasis as a collector of the art of his predecessors and contemporaries. Here, the Spanish master also went his own way, without looking back at the approaches and traditions that have developed in collecting.