April 8, 2023 marks 50 years since the death of artist Pablo Picasso.

Artist Pablo Picasso looks at a plate he worked on fresh out of the kiln at the pottery workshop of Madame Suzanne Ramie, in Vallauris, France, March 1948. (AP Photo)

The following text is from an AP article featured in The Muncie Star on April 9, 1973.

Pablo Picasso Dies, Creator of Cubism

MOUGINS, France (AP) -- Pablo Picasso, the greatest artist of his time and a giant in the history of painting, died Sunday. He was working to add to his prolific output until a few hours before his death. The 91-year-old artist died soon after awakening at his home in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean.

The painter’s wife, Jacqueline, called a physician Sunday morning. By the time Dr Georges Rance arrived 10 minutes later at 11.40am, Picasso was dead.

The Spanish-born painter, who provoked several revolutions in modern art, had been working regularly and vigorously in recent weeks despite a series of attacks of grippe during the winter, friends said. He recently had made arrangements for a showing in Avignon of his production in the past three years.

Death was attributed to a heart attack that followed a pulmonary edema, or a collection of fluid in the lungs. Picasso was stricken as he awakened and died in his bedroom, a member of the household said. At his side were the drawing crayons that he always took with him when he retired, so he could sketch during the night if he was unable to sleep.

Paulo Picasso, the painter’s eldest son, arrived Sunday night. Funeral arrangements were delayed until his arrival and there were no immediate announcements of plans.

Picasso and Georges Braque were credited as inventors of cubism. They were friends, but arrived at their cubist designs separately.

Later, Picasso moved into the style for which he is most famous- distorted figures where the parts have been dissembled and rearranged to match his vision. Among the most famous of Picasso’s paintings was “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” an eight foot square tableau of five nude women that announced the arrival of cubism. Another was his violent anti-war protest “Guernica,” painted after German bombers destroyed the town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Deformed, horror-ridden faces, broken bodies of humans and animals and screaming protest of violence make up the myriad parts of the giant canvas.

Paul Derigon, left, Mayor of Vallauris, south-eastern France, presents a scroll to famed Spanish painter Pablo Picasso in a ceremony at the Vallauris Town Hall on January 29, 1950, making the artist an honorary citizen of the town. (AP Photo)

Picasso himself was the greatest collector of his own work. He has kept thousands of paintings hoarded at his home and workshop in Mougins. The value of his holding cannot even be estimated.

Picasso was not only one of the most inventive painters in history, but also one of the most productive. Rough estimates put his output at 13,000-14,000 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints or engravings, 34,000 book illustrations, 300 sculptures or ceramics.

The museum in Basle [Basel], Switzerland, once bought two Picassos for $1,950,000. A Picasso was sold at auction in New York for more than $450,000 in 1968, and a self portrait brought $360,000 in London in 1970.

In December 1971, one of his works, a painting of a mother and child, was withdrawn from auction at Christie’s in London after the final bid of $735,000. Christie’s said that was the highest price ever offered for the work of a living artist. While Picasso’s paintings never touched the summits paid for Spanish, Dutch and Italian old masters, the prices of his works are expected to rise with his death. The body of his work is bound to surpass that of any other artist.

On the artist’s 90th birthday France hung a number of Picasso’s, owned by the Louvre – the first time a living artist had been honored by an exhibit in the nation’s most prestigious showplace.

Artist Pablo Picasso is shown talking with painter Edouard Pignon at the Musee des Arts Modernes in Paris, May 12, 1952 as they look at Picasso's bronze sculpture of a goat, which will be exhibited in the Salon de Mai. (AP Photo)

Though his zest for life kept him in good health, good spirits and left him a good sense of humor, he seldom left the Mougins home in the last years, except for an occasional trip to the dentist in Nice.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born the son of Jose Ruiz, an art teacher, and Maria Picasso. By the time he had become known as an artist, Picasso had dropped the name of his father and retained that of his mother.

Robert C. Wilson, News Editor of the Associated Press Paris bureau, left, interviews artist Pablo Picasso at the artist's home in Vallauris on February 16, 1953, a small village on the French Riviera. (AP Photo)

Picasso was twice married, and the father of four children. He was first wed to Olga Khokhlova, a ballet dancer, in 1918. A son, Pablo, was born of this union. His second marriage was to Jacqueline Roque in 1961, when Picasso was 79. He was never divorced and his second marriage came after the death of Olga, who had drifted apart from the painter in the late 1920s.

Between two marriages, came a series of well publicized liaisons, with Marie-Therese Walter, who bore him a daughter, Maya; with Dora Maar, and with Francoise Gilot, who was the mother of Claude and Paloma, Picasso’s other children.

Artist Pablo Picasso looks at a recent painting, "Portrait of a Woman," in his studio in Vallauris, French Riviera, April 8, 1953. (AP Photo)

Wirecopy of the news bulletin announcing Picasso’s death on April 8, 1973. (AP Corporate Archives)

Wearing a fur-lined leather jacket over a velvet suit and with a bow tie, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, strolls arm in arm with Vera Clouzot, wife of the director of the film “Wages of Fear” at the fifth International Film Festival in Cannes, France on April 15, 1953. Because of his attire, the organizers of the festival were at first reluctant to admit him but on Picasso’s own insistence they let him in. At left, French actor Yves Montand and French film director Georges-Henri Clouzot at right. (AP Photo)

Pablo Picasso watches the filming of his life story in Nice, France, on July 26, 1955. Henri Georges Clouzot, seated, is producing the picture. Picasso's daughter Maya is at left. (AP Photo)

Pablo Picasso, the 73-year-old Spanish painter snaps his fingers to guitar music at a bullfight he organized at Vallauris, on the French Riviera, August 7, 1955. Next to him, left, is Jean Cocteau, the playwright. (AP Photo)

Artist Pablo Picasso waves to the crowd after unveiling his mural, "The Fall of Icarus," in Vallauris, France, which he created for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, March 31, 1958. (AP Photo)

Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, right, choosing a lobster for his dinner, at the famous restaurant Coco-Nut Beach in Nice, France on June 21, 1964. The restaurant owner on left is unidentified. (AP Photo)

Artist Pablo Picasso poses in 1965 in front of one of his favorite paintings, "Les Trois Danseuses" (The Three Dancers), at left, which the Spanish-born artist kept for 40 years before selling it to a London gallery. (AP Photo)

Visitors queue in front of the Petit Palais in Paris, France on February 12, 1967, the last day of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso's exhibition there. (AP Photo/Eustache Cardenas)

The town of Vallauris is celebrating its most distinguished citizen’s 90th birthday on Oct. 24, 1971. Pablo Picasso came to Vallauris 25 years ago to work as a ceramist. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz)

Photo editing by Kathryn Bubien

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