SKIRA PARIS Atelier Picasso

Atelier Picasso is the true and timeless story of the Spanish artist’s tailor Michele Sapone, whose life was entwined with that of the great master and many other celebrated artists. Born in a small town near Caserta, Michele had a feeling for art without knowing it. He became a tailor, moved to Turin in the 1930s, then settled with his family in Nice after the war, where he discovered a fascinating world. He enjoyed a fraternal relationship with Picasso, Giacometti and Hartung, sharing their love of life and painting, and exchanging tailor-made clothes for artworks. Michele Sapone sewed fabrics the way artists paint canvases, wearing “life like a tailor-made suit”. His daughter Aika inherited her father’s interests and grew up among his artist friends. She and her husband Antonio opened a gallery that was like a second home to the painters and sculptors who were part of the family. The first solo exhibition was devoted to Picasso himself, but he died on 8 April 1973, a few days before