Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocut Prints from a Private Collection

Picasso and the Progressive BOOK COVER

This book explores in great detail an aspect of the artist’s late graphic output: the linoleum block or linocut. In this book, published prints and their related proofs drawn from a notable private collection are examined in the context of themes Picasso developed over his entire career: the Spanish-born artist’s love of the corrida or bullfight; his interest in Antiquity; and, above all, his competition with the Old Masters. This U.S. private collection, while wide-ranging in 20th-century European and American paintings and works on paper, has a particular concentration in prints by Picasso, amassed over many decades. Beginning with the artist’s first print, Le Repas frugal (1904), and several prints from the Vollard Suite, the collection is especially strong with fine examples of the later linocuts, including the examples in the book (works from the collection have been featured on loan and in exhibitions at museums around the country).

Lucas Cranach, the Younger, Portrait of a Young Girl, 1564

With this book, examined for the first time is a particularly illuminating set of progressive proofs (and their original inspirations) made by Picasso and his printer Hidalgo Arnéra, including the artist’s first published linocut, the so-called Cranach II (1958). The first in a series in the medium of linoleum block prints (after a singular effort in 1939), Picasso created the first Portrait of a Young Girl after Cranach the Younger in two colors and in the same orientation as the Cranach original on 3 July 1958. The following day he commenced making five different linoleum blocks – bistre or grayish brown, yellow, red, blue and black – to be superimposed on each other in that order and in reverse of the original, the Cranach II print (with 8 total proofs). This began a decade of work in linocut (or linoleum block) printmaking, inspired by the South of France, where the artist had increasingly worked since the 1940s.

Francisco Goya y Lucientes, La Tauromaquia, 1816, plate 28, etching.

Speaking to the artist’s love affair with the region, he begins a series of linocuts depicting the bullfight. Eight proofs for the Pique II (1959) included in the book attest to this. Likewise, an additional proof for one of his Bacchanal series demonstrates his love of both the Cote d’Azur as well as for Classical Antiquity.

Pablo Picasso, Pique II, 1959 Linocut on Arches paper.

The enormous educational and aesthetic value of these proofs—windows into the mind of one of the world’s greatest artistic geniuses—and the fact that these particular prints are relatively little studied is why this book offers an extraordinary opportunity to understand Picasso’s artistic process and to examine one of printmaking’s most fascinating and demanding mediums. The book is edited by Richard P. Townsend, independent art historian, former museum director, and president of Townsend Art Advisory LLC., who has guided the acquisition of major works of art for over 30 years. His experience ranges from old master and 19th-century paintings and drawings to modern and contemporary art, architecture, and design. He has advised public and private collections around the country.

There is also a traveling exhibition with multiple museum stops set for Fall 2024 into 2026.

 Book Information

Year: 2023

Language: English

ISBN: 885725093

EAN: 9788857250939

Dimensions: 24.5 x 29cm

Pages: 88

Binding: Hardcover

Argument: Art

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