Pablo Picasso: The Complete Linoleum Cuts, 1939-1968 (Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. a Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885-1973)

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Pablo Picasso: The Complete Linoleum Cuts, 1939-1968 (Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture. a Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885-1973) Details

This catalogue is the most comprehensive yet to appear on Picasso's linoleum cuts. There are descriptions of 194 linocuts on paper and 10 on ceramics. This is the first catalogue to give examples of preliminary versions, the published edition and of rinsed impressions of the same linocut. The standard Baer and Bloch catalogues only give titles in French and do not give the size of the sheets on which the linocuts were printed and published. This new catalogue presents titles in both French and English, including variant titles. It also specifies a range of acceptable sizes of the printed image and of the sheet size, both of which are important to the collector and connoisseur in order to authenticate a print. The previous catalogues often gave different dimensions for the same image and this catalogue infers a range of reasonable dimensions both for the image and the sheet. There are introductions by prominent experts and collaborators of Picasso, specifically relative to the linocuts. The catalogue contains indexes of the titles, both in French and in English, as well as separate concordances to the Baer and Bloch catalogues. At each catalogue entry, there are also references to the print in prior catalogues and in auction sale catalogues, for unique and unusual impressions.Picasso s first linocut is in support of the Czech artists living in France after the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in March, 1939 (L-001). Beginning in 1951, he starts an annual tradition of creating a linocut poster in support of the potters of Vallauris, where he had become a resident and a potter himself. From 1952 to 1958 he creates linocuts as posters for the annual pottery exhibition in Vallauris together with a few experimental linoleum block prints. In 1958 he creates one of his most important linocuts, Bust of a Woman after Lucas Cranach the Younger (L-032). This print is made from 5 linoleum blocks and is published by the Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris, directed by Picasso s long time dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Following the success of this print, the artist produces another 44 linocuts from June through December, 1959. The Galerie Louise Leiris publishes these in editions of 50 impressions in 1960. A number of the linocuts are printed in several colors from a single linoleum block that the artist reduces seriatim by cutting out an additional state of the image after each color is printed. Picasso himself invented this reductionist technique for making a linocut. Many of the prints in the series are bullfighting subjects. There are also mythological and romantic images and portraits of the woman who would become his second wife in March, 1961 Jacqueline Roque. From November, 1961 through April, 1962 the artist creates another series of linocuts that the Galerie Louise Leiris will publish in 1963 in editions of 50 impressions. This new series consists of abstract and surreal portraits of Jacqueline, still lifes and some portraits in a 17th Century style in homage to El Greco. In January, 1963 Picasso uses five or six linoleum blocks to transform 3 images (L-159 to L-161) into The Old King or The Old Fool (L-162). The first three are published by the Galerie Louise Leiris in editions of 50 impressions and the final version is published by Le Patriote newspaper in Nice on the occasion of the annual carnival in February.In October 1963, Picasso creates his first rinsed linocuts of a couple embracing (L-167 to L-169). This is a new procedure that the artist invented to create a handmade look for a print. Picasso also makes a few more rinsed linocuts between October, 1963 and January, 1964. In July, 1964 Picasso creates his final linocut poster for the annual pottery exhibition in Vallauris