The Harry Ransom Center will display a plate painted by Pablo Picasso in an upcoming exhibition.
The plate was donated to the Ransom Center by photojournalist David Douglas Duncan in honor of Stanley Marcus, said Mary Alice Harper, a photography archivist at the Ransom Center.
Picasso was a very generous man. He gave David Duncan one of the books he had been working in as a gift the first day they met. Later in the friendship on the spur of the moment, he picked up one of his dinner plates and painted [Lump], Duncans dog, for him, said Harper.
The exhibition, Culture Unbound: Collecting in the Twenty-First Century, runs from Feb. 1 to July 31, according to the Ransom Center website.
The ceramic that Picasso normally painted on was specially made for him and painted on with a purpose. The beauty of this plate was that Picasso was instantly inspired to draw Lump and did so on the first thing he could find, said Harper.
