2
collages, papiers collés (pictures incorporating glued- down pieces of paper) and cardboard and sheet-metal constructions (fig. 1). Using a reductive but flexible “sign language” invented in partnership with Braque, he moved effortlessly between work in two and three dimensions, bridging the conventional gap between painting and sculpture by exploring different forms of relief (from very low to very high), rather than working in the round. The construction technique permitted the invention of a radically new type of lightweight, planar sculpture – often enlivened by colour – in which empty space has equal status with solid form. Woman and the other free- standing, screen-like sculptures of the early 1960s are derived from Picasso’s Cubist constructions and use a similar, abstracted language. But in comparison the space evoked is more architectural in character, some (like Woman and Head of a Woman. Profile) involving angled façades pierced by apertures and a shady, semi- enclosed area at the back designed to contrast with the dominant, light-receiving front view. Picasso continued to use Cubist constructive techniques after the First World War, initially as a spin-off from designing sets for the Ballets Russes (Guitar and Table Before a Window), and then during his collaboration in 1928–32 with the Catalan metalworker Julio González. The fruitful reciprocity of their relationship is reflected in three works by González himself (fig. 2), which, while looking back to Picasso’s Cubism, herald his late cut and folded sculptures. During the 1940s and early 1950s, Picasso occasionally used scrap metal in his assemblage sculptures (sculptures composed of miscellaneous materials), incorporating a ring and nails in Glass, for example. But he made no further planar iron sculptures until his encounter with Tobias Jellinek and Sylvette David in 1954. Sylvette was the subject not only of numerous paintings and drawings but also of cardboard maquettes which Jellinek copied in sheet-metal, leaving Picasso to complete the sculpture by painting it in black and white (fig. 3). This collaboration provided the model for Picasso’s longer association with Prejger and his workforce in the early 1960s. Françoise Gilot (Head of a Woman), who lived with Picasso between 1946 and 1953, has described how they watched spellbound while Matisse created his brilliantly coloured papiers découpés (compositions made with cut- out paper). The two artists were united in their admiration of the spontaneity and simplification of child art and after Matisse’s death a bereaved Picasso paid homage to his old friend and rival by adapting themes and methods particularly associated with him. Matisse’s late cut-outs (fig. 4), where space and form have absolute equality and abstraction and figuration are held in balance, left their mark on Picasso’s late sculptures, especially those, like Woman, where the apertures are organic in shape and form a bold decorative composition. Woman (cover), the centrepiece of this exhibition, is a sheet-iron sculpture copied exactly from a paper maquette cut out by Picasso in January 1961. It belongs to an extended family of similar works with which he brought to a climax and closed his profoundly innovative and influential career as a sculptor. Picasso was not responsible for making the sheet-iron versions himself. They were produced by artisans in a small factory in Vallauris owned by his friend Lionel Prejger, who acted as go-between. Often, more than one version was made from the same prototype, with variations introduced by, for instance, leaving the iron unpainted so that it rusted, or painting it white all over, or modifying the angle of the limbs. Sometimes Picasso treated the metal like canvas and decorated it more elaborately, as with the two relatively life-like portraits of his wife Jacqueline in the exhibition (Head of a Woman (Jacqueline)). In making the maquettes Picasso used a simplified form of the technique of the silhouette artist. He was drawing on some seventy years of personal experience, for his own first paper silhouettes date back to his childhood. Relishing this playful activity and exploiting his exceptional dexterity, Picasso continued to cut out figures, animals, toy theatres, masks and so forth to entertain his family and friends for the rest of his life (Mask and Large Head of a Clown). The technique came into its own as a ground-breaking artistic process during the Cubist period (1912–14), when Picasso made his first Fig. 2 Julio González Sharp Head [Sharp Mask] / Tête aiguë [Masque aigu] 1930 (cast by Valsuani, 1960) Bronze, 35 x 16.5 x 11 cm Gift of Roberta González, 1964. Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle Fig. 3 Pablo Picasso Sylvette, Vallauris, 1954 Cut and folded sheet-metal, painted on both sides 69.9 x 47 x 0.076 cm Private collection. Courtesy Fondation H. Looser, Zurich Fig. 1 Pablo Picasso Head / Tête, Céret, Spring 1913 Pasted paper, charcoal and pencil on cardboard, 43.5 x 33 cm Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Purchased with help from the National Heritage Lottery Fund and The Art Fund, 1995
