To honour the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, illustrated book publisher Thames & Hudson is bringing out the most comprehensive catalogue of the Spanish artist’s paintings and drawings to ever be collated.
The life’s work of influential art critic Christian Zervos, Zervos is a legendary 33-volume reference catalogue raisonné of Picasso’s work. Collaborating directly with Picasso, Zervos catalogued over 16,000 paintings, drawings, and sketches during the last four years of the artist's life from 1895 to 1972. First published between 1932 and 1978, the full 33 volumes were released as a complete set in French in 1991, and the first English edition in 2014.
The Zervos collection – both the French and English editions – are now available in Hong Kong, retailing at $225,000. This is undoubtedly a great deal of money, but Cahiers d’Art, the French publisher who originally published the collection, notes that these volumes are very much collector’s items and vintage sets that routinely sell for around US$60,000 at auctions – and US$200,000 if in pristine condition.
Picasso was an exceptionally prolific artist, as evidenced by the sheer amount of work collated in just the Zervos volumes. Art dealer Larry Gagosian says of these books, “Some days Picasso painted four or five paintings – in one day! – and that’s all chronicled. You get a sense of how he worked on a given day or week or period, how one style morphed into another.”
If you’re a Picasso fan with the money to spare, let us know so we can visit and (very carefully) flip through the Zervos volumes for ourselves!
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