Picasso

Catherine Daunt is Hamish Parker Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art at the British Museum and Curator of the exhibition Picasso: printmaker, opening at the British Museum in November 2024.

Picasso was one of the most creative and experimental talents ever to explore the medium of print. This book charts his career as a printmaker, which was characterised by close collaboration with skilled printers, through which extraordinary artworks were produced. Printmaking was a vitally important activity in the long artistic career of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). His long-standing, if at times episodic, engagement with printmaking, stretched from his early years in Paris until his old age in 1972. This book explores how the technical challenges of working in different print media (etching, aquatint, linocut and lithography) inspired Picasso's creativity. Together with a stunning selection of works on paper by Picasso, it also includes sculptures, drawings and prints by other artists and cultures of the kind that inspired Picasso. His prints often demonstrate his keen sense of belonging to an artistic lineage stretching back to antiquity (stemming from his kinship with the Mediterranean world of his birthplace, Málaga), as well as great artists of the past such as Raphael, Rembrandt and Ingres. One section explores the contradictions and controversies relating to Picasso's relationships with his wives and lovers. The focus on Picasso as a printmaker will argue for the importance of this activity in his long artistic career, and his continued relevance as one of the most creative and experimental talents ever to explore the medium of print.