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The Link – Matthew Manning

The only artist to whom the use of colour presents no problems is the late Pablo Picasso. My experiences with him have been particularly interesting and different from those with other communicators.

The first work from him came in July 1972, three months after he died. I had specifically asked Picasso to produce a drawing for me.

I had in my pen a nib with a width of one millimetres-the same thickness as I usually use for artists who produce fine work. Within seconds my hand was seized by what is best described as an extremely assertive force. So strong was it, that after a minute of very fast drawing the nib was snapped and rendered useless. I changed over to a thicker nib of 0.5 millimetres; this soon became bent, and it was not until I used a nib of 0.8 millimetres that the pen could take the strain of the force working on my hand. The drawing that I produced was unmistakably in Picasso's style; it was bold and strong.

I did this drawing with my customary black ink, although I had on my desk a packet of twenty-four coloured felt-tip pens. I found another clean sheet of drawing paper, and asking Picasso again to draw for me, I placed my hand over the range of colours. Out of the twenty-four colours, I was surprised to find that my hand was moved forcibly to the black pen. Rapidly a curious pattern of shapes and lines were placed on the paper, with the same assertive force as the previous drawing.

What looked like a face was drawn with this black pen.  My hand suddenly moved to the green pen; it took it, and areas were coloured in with green ink.  This procedure of colouring in particular areas and then switching to a different colour was repeated until they all made up a startling multi-coloured drawing of a face resembling some Egyptian king. After seven colours had been used, black, green, brown, purple, red, yellow, and grey, the picture was "signed".