Pablo Picasso 1881-1973

Linocut printed in colours, 1963, a fresh impression, signed in pencil, numbered 14/50, on Arches wove paper, with full margins, in good condition apart from pale light-staining, cellophane tape at three places along top edge of sheet verso

Picasso’s interest in the linocut sprang initially from his involvement in poster design.  In the same way that he was attracted to ceramics, which he was working on at the same time, Picasso was interested in the possibilities offered by the linocut in pursuit of a raw, almost primitive, intensity of colour.  Between 1959 and 1964, Picasso produced two-hundred works in linocut across the wide range of subjects for which he was famous – still lives, bullfights and decorative heads.  This wonderful example from 1963 is typical of its period, taking Jacqueline, whom he had married in 1961, as its inspiration.

The rich translucent light of the south of France imbued Picasso’s linocuts with a bright palette and uninhibited brushwork.  However, he was frustrated by the technical limitations and slow mechanic process involved in their production which he saw as hindering his creative fervour.  Determined to adapt the method to suit his more spontaneous approach, Picasso found in the young print-maker - Hidalgo Arnéra – a collaborator, not only of great technical ability, but who understood Picasso’s ultimate aims in using the medium.  The first linocuts were produced by gouging out a sheet of linoleum which had been fused onto a harder block of wood.  The relief areas would then be inked and transferred to the paper.  If multiple colours were desired, a separate linoleum block would be produced for each colour.  However, in later years, Picasso became ever more economical in his approach, revolutionising the process by inventing the technique of pulling multiple colours from a single block; successively cutting out more of the block at each stage in order to achieve the final print.