Pablo Picasso’s daughter, Maya Picasso, dies aged 87
Pablo Picasso’s daughter, Maya Picasso, has passed away aged 87. Her lawyer, Richard Malka, confirmed the news.
In a statement, Malka said: “Maya Ruiz-Picasso died peacefully this morning surrounded by her family.” In 1935, Maya was born in the French town of Boulogne-Billancourt following a romance her father had with the French model Marie-Therese Walter, she was Picasso’s eldest daughter.
Throughout her life, Maya dedicated herself to keeping her father’s legacy alive. She married Pierre Widmaier, and together, they had three children, Olivier, Richard, and Diana. In 2017, in Paris, the Gagosian Gallery showed the exhibition Picasso and Maya: Father and Daughter, which was curated by Diana Widmaier Picasso.
Diana told The Art Newspaper: “For my mother it was a duty. She was deeply attached to Picasso’s legacy. She became an expert of his oeuvre and gathered a great body of archives.” She added: “He even kept bits of nails and hair, as a talisman to protect her.”
In the same piece, Olivier said about his late mother: “She was very attached to the idea that her inheritance should go to a museum so I always thought I had a ‘little brother’ called the French public collection.”
He also defended his grandfather, Pablo, who has been accused of being a manipulator in the wake of the MeToo movement. Olivier said: “He was Picasso! Of course his behaviour towards women can be questioned but it has to be documented and placed in context. He was certainly not the monster that some describe.”
Discussing his mother’s legacy, Olivier said: “As an expert [on Picasso, my mother] authenticated thousands of works,” Olivier says. She stopped about 6 years ago when her eyesight began to fail because of a cataract. In 2012, Picasso’s son Claude and the other heirs formed a body named ‘Picasso Authentification’ which she did not take well, reminding them “I am not dead, you know!”
Although Maya has passed away, her children will follow in her footsteps and make sure the legacy of Picasso continues to thrive.
