Delaware's very own Picasso visits Pilot School to talk about art

Anything goes when it comes to art, Sydney Picasso told students at the Pilot School in Talleyville Friday. 

"I think you just need to dare, dare to take a pencil, dare to draw," she told the kids. "Anything can be art today in the contemporary world." 

Picasso, a prolific author and acclaimed artist, is the daughter-in-law of famed Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. Originally from Delaware, she moved to France after college and now lives in Paris. 

"I started teaching myself French at age 10, for no reason really," Picasso said. 

At the time, the language wasn't taught at many public schools, so her parents enrolled her at Tatnall, which then was an all-girls school run by Frances Dorr Swift Tatnall at her home in downtown Wilmington. She also took private lessons and went on to excel at the language in college. 

"So my parents had the silly idea to send me to France," Picasso said, "which at the time was a difficult thing to do.

"And I never came back, except to see you all," Picasso told the kids. 

Sydney, who became an archeologist, married Claude Picasso in 1979, about six years after Pablo Picasso died. At the time, the Picasso family was in the midst of settling his estate and cataloging his art, Sydney said. 

Sydney has since written a book about Picasso's sketchbook collection, and on Friday talked about the value of drawing. She also talked about prehistoric art and cave drawings. 

Pablo Picasso is quoted as saying, or allegedly saying: “We have invented nothing new," after seeing the cave paintings at Lascaux, France. His art explores the concept of "primitivism," in which Western artists took artistic elements from non-Western cultures — cultures that they saw as ”primitive” — and used them in their art.

Sydney said Pablo Picasso started drawing when he was just 2 or 3 years old and that his first word was "lápiz," the Spanish word for pencil. 

Students also learned Picasso was born in Spain but spent most of his adult life in France, where he became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and co-founded the Cubism movement and well as collage.

"Collage is really having one idea and putting another idea on top of it," Sydney said. 

Ethan Halaby, 9, said he liked learning more about Picasso. As Sydney spoke, he and other students arranged cardboard cutouts into abstract faces and pinned them to a felt board. 

"He had a very interesting life, I can tell you that," Halaby said. "I didn't know he lived in France. I thought he lived in Spain." 

Halaby said he loves drawing and that his art teacher, Ruth Sklut, lets him experiment. 

"I usually like sketching," he said, adding that it would be cool to be an artist because "it's like being paid for having great amounts of fun." 

Sydney said her hope is that the students at the Pilot School would keep their artistic embers alive and continue to create and explore art for years to come. Inspiration comes from unexpected places, she said. Picasso once made a statue of a bull's head from the seat and handlebars of a bicycle.

Pablo Picasso also had a famous saying, which was projected on the wall as Sydney spoke: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." 

Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.

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