Picasso And The Progressive Proof Linocut Prints From A Private Collection Masterpieces In Print

Touring exhibition in the United States, September 2023 - End 2025

While the late work of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) has attracted considerable interest in recent decades, much remains to be discovered about his prodigious activities as an engraver, in particular the role played by the progressive print. Over the last twenty years, museums and private collectors have increased their research and acquisitions of these proof sets, but exhibitions and publications have lagged behind.

This exhibition catalogue provides an in-depth analysis of one aspect of the artist's late graphic production: linocuts. The published prints and their proofs from a major private collection are examined in the context of the themes that Picasso developed throughout his career: the Spanish-born artist's love of bullfighting, his interest in Antiquity and, above all, his competition with the Old Masters. For the first time, it examines the set of eight progressive proofs produced by Picasso and his printer Hidalgo Arnéra for the artist's first published linocut, Cranach II.