Atelier Picasso

A great painter and his atelier, in which the lives of leading postwar artists intertwine. A remarkable graphic novel devoted to Pablo Picasso on the 50th anniversary of his death.

The graphic novel Atelier Picasso tells a true, timeless story. It takes place in the postwar period illuminated by the light of the Côte d’Azur. In Picasso’s atelier, the lives of great artists and an Italian tailor, Michele Sapone, intertwine.

Picasso’s tailor was born in a small village near Caserta and had always been immersed in art, without realizing it. After the War, he moved with his family to Nice and discovered a bright world, populated by art and artists. He became close friends with Picasso, Giacometti, Hartung, and many other artists. With them he shared a love of painting and life, exchanging tailor-made clothes with artworks. Michele would sew fabrics as painters paint canvases.

His daughter Aika inherited his keen interests. She grew up surrounded by artists and posed for Picasso and Giacometti. She would argue with Hartung and keep company with Campigli, Magnelli, and Severini. We see her smiling in shots taken by photographers the likes of David Duncan and Edward Quinn.

In 1973 Aika opened a gallery with her husband Antonio that became a home for the family’s artists. The first exhibition was devoted expressly to Picasso, but he died only a few days before the inauguration, on 8 March 1973. Fifty years on, Picasso continues to teach us how to reinvent life and gaze at it with new eyes.