Each Friday, the Ransom Center shares photos from throughout the week that highlight a range of activities and collection holdings. We hope you enjoy these photos that reveal some of the everyday happenings at the Center.

Mary Alice Harper, head of photography and art cataloging, shares new David Douglas Duncan materials with Ransom Center Director Thomas F. Staley. Photo by Alicia Dietrich.

Undergraduate intern Rachel Platis selects photographs for a forthcoming exhibition. Photo by Pete Smith.

Visiting educators learn about the history of the King James Bible during Saturday's teacher workshop. Photo by Lisa Pulsifer.

Multimedia Coordinator Lee Tran videotapes the First Photograph for an ongoing kiosk project. Photo by Daniel Zmud.

Cover of exhibition catalog for 'Picasso at Work, Through the lens of David Douglas Duncan.'

In October 1996, world-renowned photographer and author David Douglas Duncan donated his archive to the Harry Ransom Center. The Center has preserved, organized, cataloged, exhibited and made available a variety of images and artifacts that complete the archive, including many that document his years of friendship with Pablo Picasso. Recently, Duncan donated a plate painted by Picasso of his beloved dachshund named Lump.

The new exhibition Picasso at Work. Through the lens of David Douglas Duncan, runs through September 25 at the Museo Picasso, Malaga, and will then move to the Picasso Kuntsmuseum Munster from October 15 to January 15, 2012 and finally at La Piscine Musee d’Art…

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The Ransom Center has received a plate painted by Pablo Picasso from David Douglas Duncan, a photojournalist whose archive resides at the Ransom Center.

Duncan donated the plate in honor of his friendship with Stanley Marcus, who suggested that Duncan donate his archive to the Ransom Center in 1996. The archive includes more than 36,000 prints, 87,000 negatives, and 21,000 transparencies, in addition to correspondence, manuscripts, camera equipment, artwork, and personal effects.

Picasso painted the plate, a piece of commercial dinnerware, at his home Villa La Californie in Cannes, France, on April 19, 1957. Dedicated to Duncan’s dog Lump, a dachshund, the plate is 24 centimeters in diameter and contains a portrait of Lump.

Beginning Tuesday, February 1, the plate will be on view in the Ransom Center’s exhibition Culture Unbound: Collecting in the Twenty-First Century, running through July 31.

Comparable painted plates by Picasso have sold at auction for amounts ranging from $20,000 to $90,000.

Through the encouragement of photojournalist Robert Capa, Duncan met Picasso on Feb. 8, 1956, when he visited the artist in the south of France. Upon his arrival, Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s companion at the time, led Duncan up to the bathroom where Picasso was in the bath. Duncan presented Picasso a ring he made for the occasion, and a bond was formed between the two men.

Upon Duncan’s departure, Picasso waved goodbye and said, “This is your home—come back!”

Pablo Picasso adds the dedication to the souvenir luncheon plate he has just painted for Lump, David Douglas Duncan's dachshund. La Californie, Cannes. Gelatin silver negative. April 19th, 1957. © David Douglas Duncan.

In April 1957, Duncan returned to La Californie, bringing Lump with him, and began extensively photographing Picasso, his home and his family in their daily lives. Duncan wrote about Lump’s visit stating, “[a]fter his first exploratory survey of Villa La Californie, it was ‘Adios, Rome!’ and from that moment on Lump became a permanent resident at Picasso’s home.”

While eating lunch one day, Picasso asked Duncan if Lump had ever had a plate of his own. Duncan responded no. At that point, Picasso picked up his lunch plate, and with brush and paint that were at the table, began painting a simple, yet detailed, portrait of Lump. The plate was inscribed to Lump, signed and dated by Picasso, then handed to Duncan.

Reflecting on that moment, Duncan wrote that “[t]hat ceramic souvenir was symbolic of Picasso’s lifelong spontaneous generosity.”
Duncan captured this friendship and Lump’s legacy in Picasso’s works in his book Picasso & Lump: A Dachshund’s Odyssey (2006).

Duncan authored additional books on Picasso, including The Private World of Pablo Picasso (1958), Picasso’s Picassos (1961), Goodbye Picasso (1974), The Silent Studio (1976), Viva Picasso (1980), Picasso and Jacqueline (1988) and Picasso Paints a Portrait (1996).

Souvenir luncheon plate painted by Pablo Picasso and dedicated to Lump, David Douglas Duncan's dachshund. Black glaze on commercial ceramic plate. 24 cm. in diameter. April 19th, 1957. Photo by Pete Smith.

David Douglas Duncan. ‘Aramcovid derrick at Abqaiq. Bedouin caravan to oblivion.’ Saudi Arabia, 1947.

Katherine Slusher, an art curator and writer based in Barcelona was a David Douglas Duncan Fellow at the Ransom Center in 2009. She writes about her research in the Duncan collection, which documents his travels all over the world as a photojournalist.

Slusher’s article highlights Duncan’s extensive travels to the Florida Everglades, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Afghanistan, Egypt, Persia, and Turkey as he captured iconic images for such publications as LIFE Magazine.

The Ransom Center annually awards more than 50 fellowships to support scholarly research projects that require on-site use of its collections. The Center is receiving applications for its 2011-2012 fellowships in the humanities.

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