Since 1999 prices of Picasso’s works have grown twice as fast as the broader market for 20th-century art. The most expensive Picasso was sold for $180m, reportedly by a Saudi collector to a former prime minister of Qatar. But in the midst of what one commentator calls the “Picassopalooza” around the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death, dealers and auction houses are nervous that the long bull market may be about to turn.
One indication is Picasso’s waning influence on today’s creators. “It is artists, more than anyone, who propel artists of the past into the future,” says Ben Luke, a critic. Having interviewed dozens of them, young and old, for a podcast, “A Brush With…”, he notes that few cite Picasso as an inspiration. “Marcel Duchamp, yes. Philip Guston, yes. Louise Bourgeois, often,” Mr Luke says. That Picasso no longer features on that list is a “monumental shift”.
Another thing that could dampen demand for Picassos is the artist’s abject personal behaviour. He two-timed his wives and sired children with different women at once. He seduced Marie-Thérèse Walter, who would become his mistress and his muse, when she was 17. He was 45. In 1932 he painted her dreaming, depicting her left cheek and her eye as an erect penis. In the wake of #MeToo all this is becoming harder to separate from the art.
Dealers and collectors are thus anxiously waiting to see how “Celebration Picasso”, an exhibition which opens at the Brooklyn Museum in June, will be received. It will “engage some of the compelling questions young, diverse museum audiences increasingly raise about the interconnected issue of misogyny, masculinity, creativity and ‘genius’,” says the museum. One of the exhibition’s curators pulls no punches.
“We will be watching it very carefully,” says Giovanna Bertazzoni, vice-chairman of the 20th- and 21st-century department at Christie’s, another big auction house, of the exhibition. If it is a hit, younger buyers may be put off. .
Your clients short?
WHY THE JEWS DON'T LOVE THE CONSCIENCE ? WHERE IS YOUR ANSWER ?
Quick! Come to our Mr_Dave_Haslam and Andrew O’Hagan book event about Picasso, Paris and big night’s out. stowtradeshall 4 May AdventureEverywhere Confingo
'the market for picassos' being about a couple dozen asshole malignant narcissists with too much money, stolen from people they cheated out of wages. Funny, that. So urgent. So relevant.
About bloody time! Can’t move round mine for Picassos piled up on every surface!
About time.
Soooo last century.
King of the vernacular anti-fascist artists.
Picasso's got some crazy turns 😝
it's time to reward his 'muses'
*may not
Amazing! I was just on my way to pick up two litres of milk and a dozen picassos.
Oh... So, a shitcoin? Imagine that....
Rubbish.
So amusing, The Economist tries to be original by making strange predictions
I've never seen a Picasso painting that's moved me. Some of his early work was interesting, but most of his last 40 years look grotesque and lazy.
Wow
LisaGriffin
Picasso, as an artist and a man, is falling out of favour. So can his oeuvre. The market is about to turn.
Picasso — the artist and the man — is falling out of favour; so can his oeuvre.
Why don't they make a man out of Picasso.
As the art of Picasso and the man of the same name fell out of favour, so could his oeuvre. The market demand for Picasso may be up for a dramatic turn.
I’ll show you an oeuvre
If Trump is arrested what will they do with his hair.
He was a racist homophobic who supported slavery. He needs to be cancelled and his painting redone.