As the daughter of one of the twentieth century's most influential artists, Paloma Picasso (born 1949) hesitated to enter the world of design. She did not want to be compared to her father, nor did she relish the unavoidable notoriety his name would provide. Once she began to show the jewelry she created for Zolotas of Greece in 1971, however, critics were genuinely impressed.
The success of the pieces Picasso produced for Tiffany & Company encouraged Picasso to design and market items ranging from fashion accessories to china. These items, including eyewear, cosmetics, and leather goods, may be identified by their bold shapes and brilliant colors, and are sold and appreciated throughout the world. Picasso's face is just as easily recognized. Posing in glossy magazine advertisements with her perfume, Paloma Picasso, the designer is, according to Hispanic, "her own best model." While Pablo Picasso transformed aesthetic standards in the fine arts, his trend-setting daughter has independently introduced fresh perspectives in fashion design.
In 1980, John Loring, senior vice-president of Tiffany & Company, asked Picasso to create jewelry for the company. "When Tiffany's asked me about doing jewelry, I was thrilled, " Picasso told the New York Times. She had always wanted to design for an American store. "I went into all the great jewelry shops of Paris. They are so grand, the salespeople seem to look down on you. As a customer you feel threatened. Tiffany is a great place because all kinds of people come in, just like Woolworth's." The company was equally enthusiastic about Picasso, whose pieces are priced from just over $100 to $500, 000. Loring spoke of her in Hispanic, "Paloma has taken the gaudiness out of jewelry but kept the glitter, " and Henry B. Platt, Tiffany's president, proudly exclaimed in Newsweek that "for the first time, people can hold a Picasso in their hands and try it on."
Born April 19, 1949, Paloma Picasso has always been surrounded by art and artists. Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter who was instrumental in the development of cubism, and Françoise Gilot, the French painter, named their daughter after the "paloma, " or dove, that Picasso had created for the posters announcing an International Peace Conference in Paris, France.
As a teenager developing her own tastes and styles, Paloma Picasso was reluctant to pursue artistic goals. "In the beginning, I tried not to think that I would have to do anything artistic, " she related in Hispanic. "From the time I was fourteen, I stopped drawing completely. … I thought, 'I don't want to become a painter like my father, ' but I didn't know what else I wanted to become." Picasso's urge to create soon surpassed her hesitation; she began to study jewelry design and fabrication while still in her teens.
Brilliant gems framed in blocks of gold, large stones or metal pendants on simple cords, and gold or silver "hugs and kisses" ("X's" and "O's") are characteristic of Picasso's work. Unusual combinations of pearls, vibrant semi-precious stones, and metals are also prominent. Although her creations portend a new aesthetic for jewelry, Picasso, commented Newsweek, "rejects fine-art pretensions." The designer told the magazine, "This [jewelry] is something people can wear, rather than hanging it on the wall or putting it on the table. I like things to be used." In the New York Times, Picasso remarked that while "jewelry should be jewelry, something that you wear, " it "is more permanent, less superficial than fashion." Picasso continues to design fabulous jewelry for Tiffany & Company. Her tenth anniversary collection, which was presented in 1990, was described in Mirabella magazine as "having the raw power of just-cut stones and just-mined minerals. Her gems are deep pools of color hung on thick veins of gold." |
