Paloma Picasso on Her Father's Love for Strong Women and Her Own Creative Journey

All about my father: "He always loved and adored women who had a strong and distinct personality like my mother Francoise Gilot or Dora Maar. He loved them because they were able to stand up to him. Pablo Picasso a perfect man? He was already a genius artist," says Paloma Picasso, at the helm of the Picasso Administration, in an interview with the French weekly 'Point de vue' among the salons of the Musée National Picasso - Paris which hosts the richest collection of works by the artist from Malaga including not only his masterpieces on canvas, but also sculptures, works on paper, and ceramics. Paloma Picasso recalls her childhood, a girl born out of wedlock, who at that time in France could not be recognized because there was a specific law. "It was my mother's battle," she says, "We were the most known illegitimate children in the country. My father even wanted to adopt us, me and my brother Claude. I had to wait 12 years to be able to carry the name Picasso. We lived together for many years in Vallauris. He was not a master, my father, he was not an educator, he was not interested in school, in our studies, but I too had started to draw and paint. One day I asked for his opinion on my work. 'I think nothing,' he replied. 'You must decide if something can work.' For him, art was only supposed to create emotions." Paloma Picasso has for years chosen to invest her creativity in the creation of design objects, clothing, porcelain, perfumes, makeup, home textiles. Important is her collaboration with the jewelry Tiffany for which she signed the "Olive Leaf" collection. And she concludes: "I do not deny having been a fortunate woman thanks to my parents, but also to the encounters I have had, they have transmitted to me a particular philosophy of life. I must always be professional, punctual, and in a good mood. Existence sometimes reserves terrible surprises, let's take it from the right side. I still claim to be an optimistic woman."