Pablo PICASSO: MasterPrints

A master painter of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso created throughout his career a vast body of graphic work, producing around 2,400 drypoints, aquatints, lithographs and linocuts between 1905 and his death. He practiced and experimented with all etching techniques, often breaking new ground in the artistic field of printmaking.

Unlike his contemporaries, such as Miro, Braque or Chagall, from 1930 onwards Picasso's prints took on a life of their own, freeing themselves from his pictorial work. They represented a catalyst for Picasso's boundless creativity Picasso's boundless creativity, presenting ever-different themes and styles. The artist's work and life are closely intertwined. Each time Picasso embarks on a new love affair - with Fernande Olivier, Olga, Marie-Thérèse, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot or Jacqueline - a new creative flight and a change of style follow. This metamorphosis of the work is not only superficial, but also thematic.

Always concerned with the history of art and his place in it, Picasso often looked to the masters of the past, both for inspiration and to confront

them. In the artist's great Print Suites, we often find references to the masters of engraving - Rembrandt, Cranach, Goya and Degas. 

Picasso was to produce several large series of prints, from the Suite des Saltimbanques, which also opened his collaboration with Ambroise Vollard in

1905, to his magnum opus graphic, the Suite Vollard, to undertake towards the find of his life two great series - the 347 and 156 - a veritable technical tour de force. We should also mention his linocuts which, despite their separate publication, bear witness to a very specific stage in Picasso's life and creation, a moment of return to his Mediterranean roots in the South of France. In each case, the artist collaborated closely with master printers Fréault, Lacourière, Arnera and the Crommelynck brothers.

Located for over a decade next to the Musée Picasso, the Galerie Jean-François Cazeau has played a key role in the discovery of the artist's graphic work, often presented in conjunction with exhibitions. Pablo Picasso: MasterPrints offers a panoramic view of the artist's graphic creations through all his techniques, series and creative periods.