Throughout His Career, Pablo Picasso

hroughout his career, in the Tauromaquia series and his Pablo Picasso (Málaga, Minotauromachie (Minotauromachy, 1881 – Mougins, 1935), regarded by many specialists 1973) accorded great as one of the greatest graphic importance to his achievements of the twentieth century. graphic work. The fact that between 1899 and 1972 he applied T PICASSO THE ENGRAVER: himself to this artistic genre without interruption, producing approximately THE EARLY YEARS (1904–1905) 2,200 prints, attests to this. Accurately dated, these engravings make up a personal diary that enables us to retrace his trajectory. Picasso’s extraordinary drawing skills ensured that he achieved the same remarkable and expressive results in engraving as in other artistic disciplines, bringing his prints to the Le repas frugal (The Frugal Repast), level of his better-known work. A Picasso’s fi rst major work as an tireless artist, he not only produced engraver, dates from 1904. Picasso cycles of paintings, but also executed executed this etching under the series of prints that reveal his favorite tutelage and technical supervision themes and preferred techniques. of his friend Ricardo Canals. The His relentless exploration of different artists worked together at a workshop disciplines and his mastery of various popularly known as the Bateau-Lavoir, media make Picasso an internationally located at 13 rue Ravignan in Paris, a renowned artist and one of the greatest place frequented by eminent members printmakers of all time. of the Parisian avant-garde. In Le repas The Museu Fundación Juan March frugal, Picasso represents subjects recently opened a new gallery devoted such as poverty, misery, and despair— to the graphic work of Picasso. The distinctive features of his early Blue prints on display there complement Period—with surprising realism. the overview of Spanish avant-garde Vollard purchased this plate in art represented in the permanent 1913, together with other engravings collection through the works of Juan completed between late 1904 and Gris, Joan Miró, Julio González, and early 1906, Picasso’s Rose Period, and Salvador Dalí, among other artists. The published them under the title Les museum rotates its display of Picasso’s saltimbanques (The Acrobats). Several graphic work, giving the visitor the of these prints had been published opportunity to admire the main features before, though with little success, by of his Blue and Rose periods, his Cubist Eugène Delâtre. Central themes of work, and his later classicism. In terms his work during this period include of numbers, the museum’s collection circus scenes, acrobats, actors, and consists mainly of engravings from the the nomadic existence of artists, with Suite Vollard—100 in total. Nonetheless, some of whom Picasso himself was valuable prints from his early period acquainted. These were illustrated are also exhibited, as well as those in keeping with a practice rooted 183 in tradition—that of representing characters such as Harlequin, Pierrot, or the buffoon, a fi gure present in medieval Italian tradition and the Commedia dell’arte—though he also depicted contemporary circus acts including those performed at the Circus Medrano of Paris, which he regularly attended. During these early stages of his printmaking career, he primarily worked with etching and drypoint techniques. CUBIST PICASSO (1909–1915) Two years after painting Les demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) and embarking on an intellectual and artistic journey called Cubism, Picasso proceeded to explore this style in the fi eld of engraving. Several of his Cubist prints illustrated books such as Saint Matorel and Le siège de Jérusalem (The Siege of Jerusalem) by friend and poet Max Jacob. Picasso worked on the engravings for Saint Matorel, which contributed to the creation of Analytic Cubism, during his stay at Cadaqués in the summer of 1910. In this, his fi rst attempt to assimilate space and abandon conventional perspective, Picasso 1910 employed thin, sharp lines to represent Mademoiselle Léonie dans une chaise longue, (Mademoiselle Léonie in a Lounge Chair) objects fragmented in as many planes Etching on Van Gelder paper as possible points of view. Le siège de 26.2 x 20.5 cm Jérusalem (1914) features representative examples of Synthetic Cubism, in which he presents a selection and synthesis of the object’s main points of view. Picasso 184 L’homme à la guitare, 1915 (Man with Guitar) Etching on Japan paper 27.8 x 19 cm 185 Minotaure caressant une dormeuse, 1933 (Minotaur Caressing a Sleeping Woman) Etching on paper 38.7 x 50.2 cm 186 sometimes incorporated letters into these compositions, as in Nature morte, bouteille (Still Life with Bottle) from 1912. In others, Picasso used papier collé or scraps of newspaper, as in L’homme au chien (Man with Dog), from 1914, in an effort to blur the lines between art and reality. SUITE VOLLARD (1930–1937) The collection of engravings by Picasso known as the Suite Vollard is one of the most important series of its kind in the history of art, comparable in quality and diversity only to those of Rembrandt and Goya. This collection of prints owes its name to the art dealer who commissioned the copperplates, Ambroise Vollard. The series is made up of 100 engravings executed with various tools and methods, including burin, drypoint, etching, and sugar aquatint. Picasso used these techniques in an innovative and surprising manner: by applying acid directly on the surface with a paintbrush he obtained astonishing hues, while his pure and simple lines gave the fi nished prints a sensual naturalism. These expressive achievements are evidence of Picasso’s virtuosity as a master printmaker. Four themes are clearly identifi ed in Suite Vollard: The Sculptor’s Studio, The Minotaur, Rembrandt, and The Battle of Love. Also included are three portraits of Vollard executed in 1937. 187 188 Minotaure, une coupe à la main, et jeune femme, 1933 (Minotaur, Goblet in Hand, and Young Woman) Etching on paper 38.5 x 50 cm Scène bacchique au minotaure, 1933 (Bacchanal with Minotaur) Etching on paper 38.5 x 50.2 cm 189 Some of these themes are loosely based on a short story by Honoré de Balzac entitled Le chef-d’œuvre inconnu (The Unknown Masterpiece, 1831), which had a profound impact on the artist. The work tells the story of a painter’s efforts to capture the essence of life through feminine beauty and announces the origins of modern art, a movement Picasso helped forge. The links between life and art, metaphorically embodied in the artist- model relationship, are clearly present in Balzac’s story. However, Picasso, who had been exploring this subject since 1914 in his paintings, drawings, and other engraving series, did more than merely illustrate it. Using this modern myth, Picasso weaved the events from his own life into his art. Indeed, many episodes of his personal life can be traced in these plates, such as the deterioration of his marriage to Olga Koklova, his troubled relationship with Dora Maar, or his illicit love affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was a minor at the time. In the series, Picasso becomes Marie-Thérèse’s Pygmalion, the mythical Cypriot sculptor who carved a sculpture of such beauty that he fell in love with it and begged the gods to instill it with life and sensuality. Other engravings feature iconographic elements which would later be found in Guernica, a contemporary tragedy that had such an impact on Picasso that he brought it to the world’s attention in his famous painting. Sculpteur et modèle agenouillé, 1933 (Sculptor and Kneeling Model) Etching on paper 50.5 x 38.5 cm 190 Sculpteur avec coupe et modèle accroupi, 1933 (Sculptor with Goblet and Crouching Model) Etching on paper 50 x 38.5 cm 191 192 3 Minotaure et femme derrière un rideau, 1933 (Minotaur and Woman behind a Curtain) Etching on paper 38.7 x 50.2 cm 193 in this confrontation signifying the MINOTAUROMACHIE eternal battle between good and evil, a (1935) composition that suggests the victory of the forces of good. TAUROMAQUIA (1957) Minotauromachie (Minotauromachy) is one of the fi nest examples of Picasso’s graphic output. A seminal work in his oeuvre, this engraving, executed in 1935, was printed in large format and The Tauromaquia series was executed served as a precedent for Guernica. in 1957. After witnessing a magnifi cent The artist’s ability to translate personal bullfi ght in Arles, Picasso completed experience into a universal language is this collection of twenty-six etchings in manifest in this print’s many levels of just a few hours. The prints illustrated meaning. Taking real life situations and the new edition of the handbook perceived realties as a starting point, Tauromaquia o el arte de torear though in no way attempting to create (Tauromachy or the Art of Bullfi ghting) accurate depictions of them, Picasso by Pepe-Hillo, fi rst published in 1796 successfully captures the essence of and reedited by Gustavo Gili in 1959. man’s existential dilemma. To this end, The plates represent, in a nervous and he used several formal elements to brash manner, different moments of satisfy his own expressive needs and the bullfi ght and are a direct testament also borrowed symbols from previous of Picasso’s own experience of the generations, periods, and cultures. spectacle. Five groups of motifs revolving around the main theme of the bullfi ght are present in this work. These elements would become part of Picasso’s iconographic program: the minotaur embodying the artist’s alter ego; a central group in which a female bullfi ghter (once again, Marie-Thérèse) lies on a wounded horse; a young girl raising a candle in one hand in the manner of an Annunciation; a bearded man (possibly Picasso) on a ladder, Minotauromachie, 1935 ready to escape from an increasingly (Minotauromachy) complicated situation; and two women Etching and engraving on paper peering down at the scene.

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