Some artworks of Pablo Picasso, the legendary 20th-century Spanish artist will be seeing the light of the day in 2022, with his granddaughter Marina and her son Florian Picasso stepping into the NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) space as they put to sale around 1,010 digital art pieces of one of his never-seen-before ceramic art, reported Indian Express.
Touted as an "unprecedented fusion of old-school fine art and digital assets", the artwork in concern, a family heirloom was described by Marina as "a work that represents a face, and is very expressive. It’s joyful, happy. It represents life … It’s one of those objects that have been part of our life, our intimate lives — my life with my children.”
While the display currently only shows a small glimpse of the underside of the work linked to the NFTs, it is most likely to be a ceramic piece resembling a large salad bowl, which, Marina recalls is a "cherished pottery piece dates to October 1958, when she was a child". Other details that were revealed about the same included a "thick yellow line, a dribbling green splotch and a brushed-on number 58 at the base".
Earlier, eleven Picasso artworks were sold for a combined $109 million in a Las Vegas auction, which coincided with the 140th birthday of the famed painter. One particular piece, namely the Picasso’s 1938 portrait of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter titled “Femme au béret rouge-orange” (“Woman in a reddish-orange hat”) sold for $40.5 million. Reportedly, it was expected to fetch anywhere between $20-$30 million.
“We’re trying to build a bridge between the NFT world and the fine art world,” noted Florian Picasso, the artist’s great-grandson, adding that the ceramic piece was a "fun, colourful one" to start off and honour Picasso's legacy in the new world.
In addition to being a part of the art evolution, Florian, who is a DJ and a music producer also mentioned that it "is within Picasso’s legacies because we are paying tribute to him and his way of working, which was always being creative.”
The auction will be held in March where Sotheby's will auction a unique NFT as well as the actual ceramic bowl. Notably, one portion of the proceeds will be directed to a charity that helps overcome a shortage of nurses, while another to an NGO that wants to help reduce carbon in the atmosphere. The NFTs will also be accompanied by some music composed by Florian Picasso in collaboration with songwriter John Legend and rapper Nas.
