50th anniversary of Picasso's death

Photo: Getty Images.

Half a century after his death, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) still fascinates the public and still sells art at million-dollar prices, despite the controversies surrounding his relationship with women.

"The devastating power of Picasso's work, his permanent invention, the way in which he crossed all the great currents of modernity, experimentation for more than 80 years, his desire to attract and provoke... all this is unparalleled", summarizes Bernard Blistène, Honorary President of the Pompidou Center in Paris, France.

Picasso died on April 8, 1973, in Mougins, on the French Riviera, at the age of 91.

At his death, the first catalog of works, completed in 1978, contained no less than 33 volumes and more than 16,000 images.

But the real number of works, from paintings to sculpture, through engravings or ceramics, could be much higher. Picasso continues to be an artist who sells a lot, and expensive.

In 2021 it was number 1 in the art market, with almost 3,500 lots sold for $671 million, while last year it dropped to "only" $494 million, according to the latest annual market report from the French firm Artprice. .

Museums around the world, and particularly in France and Spain, have scheduled some 50 exhibitions on the artist born in Malaga, Spain.

The 'Picasso Museum', in Barcelona, ​​registered almost 120,000 visitors for its most recent exhibition, on the relationship between Picasso and the gallery owner Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and the current great retrospective on the artist at the Parisian museum, organized under the artistic direction of the British designer Paul Smith, is also having great success.

The years go by, but the public does not get tired, admits the director of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, ​​Emmanuel Guigon.

"If you 'miss the shot' with a Picasso exhibition, you know you can organize another one the next day, with a new look and new perspectives," he told AFP.

"Something that doesn't happen with many other artists," he admits.