Exhibitions - Previous Exhibitions - Pablo Picasso

Last years' exhibition was the most successful and exciting exhibition ever held. Huge numbers of people came to the gallery, many for the first time, and the level of sales was unbelievable. Having found other suites of this prolific print maker we are able to show more work of this brilliant artist.

Picasso made prints throughout his long creative career producing etchings, drypoints, woodcuts, lithographs and linocuts. Overall the diversity and range of Picasso's prints was bewildering and he was undoubtedly one of the greatest printmakers of the 20th century.

A first he concentrated on making etchings and drypoints, developing his skills with hatched shading and fine lines. Slightly later, 1906-13, Picasso created woodcuts but unlike contemporary German Expressionists he lost interest in this medium.

In 1919 Picasso began making lithographs and, during the next half century is known to have produced about 855 prints. His early lithographs were often worked on transfer drawings as opposed to worked directly on a plate. Later, in collaboration with a few highly skilled printers including Mourlot Frere of Paris, Picasso developed various techniques to demonstrate rich tonal qualities through his lithographs.

It is our good fortune that Picasso had such a great love of printmaking. By the time he died in 1973 he had produced a substantial body of original etchings, lithographs and linocuts, which rank with the greatest prints of the 20th Century. While the ownership of an original painting by the master is, for the majority of us, out of the question, his original prints made in comparatively small editions are still relatively accessible.