René Char
The poet is shown wearing the Native American headdress given to Picasso by Gary Cooper. On the verso, mounted on strong paper since the Polaroid support could not be inscribed directly, Picasso wrote and signed a note in blue ink, recording the place and date.
Cooper had given Picasso several Western props, including a Stetson, a Colt revolver and this headdress. Picasso repeatedly turned them into instruments of private theatre, posing with them for photographers and using them in playful scenes with friends.
This image was taken at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, Picasso’s last home in Mougins, during a September 1965 visit by René Char and Yvonne Zervos. At the same time, Char and Picasso were both involved in the campaign against the installation of nuclear missiles on the Albion plateau.
A few months later, Picasso would provide the drawing for Char’s poster La Provence point oméga
Here, however, the tone is intimate and playful. Picasso crowns Char with Gary Cooper’s headdress; in related images from the same day, Picasso himself appears wearing a fireman’s helmet. Friendship, masquerade, Provence and political resistance meet in a private scene of remarkable freedom.
A unique and unpublished Polaroid print of René Char, photographed, dated and signed by Pablo Picasso.