ArtBohemia

Link: http://www.panorama.sk/go/mapa.asp?lang=sk&sv=2&mc=1802&mid=1#tm

Monografia o grafickom diele Albína Brunovského.
Slovenský a anglický text obsahuje kompletnú grafickú tvorbu z rokov 1960 až 1997, 645 reprodukovaných grafík vo farbe, množstvo zatiaľ nepublikovaných kresieb, kompletnú bibliografiu, zoznam grafík s údajmi o nákladoch, použitých grafických papieroch a tlačiaroch.
Objednat Albín Brunovský - Kompletné grafické dielo 1960 - 1997 lze zde: http://www.panorama.sk/go/mapa.asp?lang=sk&sv=2&mc=1802&mid=1#tm

Link: http://www.bohemia-galleries.com/ArtTerms.htm

Intaglio - The process of incising a design beneath the surface of a metal or stone. Plates are inked only in the etched depressions on the plates and then the plate surface is wiped clean. The ink is then transferred onto the paper through an etching press. The reverse of this process is known as relief printing.

Planographic - The process to print impressions from a smooth surface rather than creating incised or relief areas on the plate. The term was devised to describe lithography.

Relief - All printing processes in which the non-printing areas of the block or plate are carved, engraved or etched away. Inks are applied onto the projected surface and transferred onto the paper. The reverse process is known as intaglio printing.

Printmaking Techniques

Aquatint - Printing technique capable of producing unlimited tonal gradations to re-create the broad flat tints of ink wash or watercolor drawings by etching microscopic cracks and pits into the image on a master plate, typically made of copper or zinc. Spanish artist Goya used this technique.

Blind - Printing using an uninked plate to produce the subtle embossed texture of a white-on-white image, highlighted by the shadow of the relief image on the uninked paper. This technique is used in many Japanese prints.

Collograph - Printing technique in which proofs are pulled from a block on which the artwork or design is built up like a collage, creating relief.

Drypoint - Printing technique of intaglio engraving in which a hard, steel needle incises lines on a metal plate, creating a burr that yields a characteristically soft and velvety line in the final print.

Engraving - Printing technique in which an intaglio image is produced by cutting a metal plate or box directly with a sharp engraving tool. The incised lines are inked and printed with heavy pressure.

Etching - Printing technique in which a metal plate is first covered with an acid-resistant material, then worked with an etching needle to create an intaglio image. The exposed metal is eaten away in an acid bath, creating depressed lines that are later inked for printing.

Giclée or Iris - A computerized reproduction technique in which the image and topography are generated from a digital file and printed by a special ink jet printer, using ink, acrylic or oil paints. Giclée printing offers one of the highest degree of accuracy and richness of color available in any reproduction techniques.

Lithography - Printing technique using a planographic process in which prints are pulled on a special press from a flat stone or metal surface that has been chemically sensitized so that ink sticks only to the design areas and is repelled by the non-image areas. Lithography was invented in 1798 in Germany by Alois Senefelder.

Mezzotint - (mezzo = half + tinta = tone), a reverse engraving process used on a copper or steel plate to produce illustrations in relief with effects of light and shadow. The surface of a master plate is roughened with a tool called a rocker so that if inked, it will print solid black. The areas to be white or gray in the print are rubbed down so as not to take ink. It was widely used in the 18th and 19th centuries to reproduce portraits and other paintings, but became obsolete with the introduction of photo-engraving.

Monotype - One-of-a-kind print made by painting on a sheet of metal or glass and transferring the still-wet painting onto a sheet of paper by hand or with an etching press. If enough paint remains on the master plate, additional prints can be made, however, the reprint will have substantial variations from the original image. Monotype printing is not a multiple-replica process since each print is unique.

Offset Lithography - A special photo-mechanical technique in which the image to be printed is transferred to the negative plates and printed onto paper. Offset lithography is very well adapted to color printing.

Serigraphy (Silk-screen) - A printing technique that makes use of a squeegee to force ink directly onto a piece of paper or canvas through a stencil creating an image on a screen of silk or other fine fabric with an impermeable substance. Serigraphy differs from most other printing in that its color areas are paint films rather than printing ink stains.

Woodcut - Printing technique in which the printing surface has been carved from a block of wood. The traditional wood block is seasoned hardwood such as apple, beech or sycamore. Woodcut is one of the oldest forms of printing dating back to the 12th century.

Common Art Print Terms

Acid-free Paper or Canvas - Paper or canvas treated to neutralize it's natural acidity in order to protect fine art and photographic prints from discoloration and deterioration.

Canvas Transfer - Art reproduction on canvas which is created by a process such as serigraphy, photomechanical or giclée printing. Some processes can even recreate the texture, brush strokes and aged appearance of the original work.

Color-variant Suite - A set of identical prints in different color schemes.

Impression - Fine art made by any printing stamping process

Limited Edition - Set of identical prints numbered in succession and signed by the artist. The total number of prints if fixed or "limited" by the artist who supervises the printing. All additional prints have been destroyed.

Monoprint - One-of-a-kind print conceived by the artist and printed by or under the artist's supervision.

Montage (Collage) - An artwork comprising of portions of various existing images such as from photographs or prints and arranged so that they join, overlap or blend to create a new image.

Multiple Originals - A set of identical fine prints in which the artist personally conceived the image, created the master plates and executed or supervised the entire printing process. Example: etching.

Multiple Reproductions - A set of identical fine prints reproducing the image of an original artwork created by a non-printing process. Example: serigraph of an oil on canvas.
Open Edition - A series of prints or objects in an art edition that has an unlimited number of copies.

Original Print - One-of-a-kind print in which the artist personally conceived the image, created the master plates and executed the entire printing process.

Provenance - Record of ownership for a work of art, ideally from the time it left the artist's studio to it's present location, thus creating an unbroken ownership history.

Remarque - Small sketch in the margin of an art print or additional enhancements by the artist on some or all of the final prints within an edition.

Restrike - Additional prints made from a master plate, block, lithograph stone, etc. after the original edition has been exhausted.

Print Proof Types

Proofs are prints authorized by the artist in addition to the limited signed and numbered edition. The total size of an art edition consists of the signed and numbered prints plus all outstanding proofs. If a set of proofs consists of more than one print, numbers are inscribed to indicate the number of the prints within the total number of the particular type of proof, (e.g., AP 5/20 means the fifth print in a set of twenty identical prints authorized as artist proofs). Proofs are generally signed by the artist as validation of the prints.

Artist's Proof - Print intended for the artist's personal use. It is common practice to reserve approximately ten percent of an edition as artist's proofs, although this figure can be higher. The artist's proof is sometimes referred to by it's French épreuve d'artist (abbreviation E.A.). Artist's proofs can be distinguished by the abbreviation AP or E.A., commonly on the lower left of the work.

Cancellation Proof - Final print made once an edition series has been finished to show that the plate has been marred/mutilated by the artist, and will never be used again to make more prints of the edition.

Hors d'Commerce Proof - Print identical to the edition print intended to be used as samples to show to dealers and galleries. Hors d'Commerce (abbreviated to H.C.) proofs may or may not be signed by the artist.

Printer's Proof - Print retained by the printer as a reference. Artists often sign these prints as a gesture of appreciation.

Trial Proof - Pre-cursor to a limited edition series, these initial prints are pulled so that the artist may examine, refine and perfect the prints to the desired final state. Trial proofs are generally not signed.

Abbreviations Used in Art

2nd ed - Second edition: prints of the same image as the original edition but altered in some way (as in change of color, paper or printing process).

2nd st - Second state: prints of proofs which contain significant changes from the original print.

AP - Artist's Proof (see definition)

Del - (Latin, delineavit) He (she) drew it. Generally inscribed next to the artist's signature.

E.A. - (French, épreuve d'artist) An artist's proof (see definition)

Exc or Imp - (Latin, excudit) He(she) executed it. The meaning is synonymous with (Latin, impressit) he(she) printed it.

HC - (French, Hors d'Commerce) Prints from an edition intended to be used as samples to show to dealers and galleries.

Inc. or Sculp - (Latin, incidit) He(she) cut it. The meaning is synonymous with (Latin, impressit) he(she) carved it. These abbreviations refer to the individuals who engraved the master plate.

Inv. or Invent - (Latin, invenit) He(she) designed it. Generally inscribed next to the artist's signature.

Lith. or Litho - "Lithographed By". Usually follows the name of the printer of the lithograph.

Pinx. - (Latin, pinxit) He(she) painted it. Generally inscribed next to the artist's signature.

PP - Printer's proof (see definition)

TP - Trial proof (see definition)

Art Styles and Art Movements

Abstract - A 20th century style of painting in which nonrepresentational lines, colors, shapes, and forms replace accurate visual depiction of objects, landscape, and figures. The subjects often stylized, blurred, repeated or broken down into basic forms so that it becomes unrecognizable. Intangible subjects such as thoughts, emotions, and time are often expressed in abstract art form.

Art Nouveau - A painting, printmaking, decorative design, and architectural style developed in England in the 1880s. Art Nouveau, primarily an ornamental style, was not only a protest against the sterile Realism, but against the whole drift toward industrialization and mechanization and the unnatural artifacts they produced. The style is characterized by the usage of sinuous, graceful, cursive lines, interlaced patterns, flowers, plants, insects and other motifs inspired by nature.

Cubism - An art style developed in 1908 by Picasso and Braque whereby the artist breaks down the natural forms of the subjects into geometric shapes and creates a new kind of pictorial space. In contrast to traditional painting styles where the perspective of subjects is fixed and complete, cubist work can portray the subject from multiple perspectives.

Dadaism - An art style founded by Hans Arp in Zurich after WW1 which challenged the established canons of art, thoughts and morality etc. Disgusted with the war and society in general, Dadaist expressed their feelings by creating "non-art." The term Dada, nonsense or baby-talk term, symbolizes the loss of meaning in the European culture. Dada art is difficult to interpret since there is no common foundation.

Expressionism - An art movement of the early 20th century in which traditional adherence to realism and proportion was replaced by the artist's emotional connection to the subject. These paintings are often abstract, the subject matter distorted in color and form to emphasize and express the intense emotion of the artist.

Impressionism - An art movement founded in France in the last third of the 19th century. Impressionist artists sought to break up light into its component colors and render its ephemeral play on various objects. The artist's vision was intensely centered on light and the ways it transforms the visible world. This style of painting is characterized by short brush strokes of bright colors used to recreate visual impressions of the subject and to capture the light, climate and atmosphere of the subject at a specific moment in time. The chosen colors represent light which is broken down into its spectrum components and recombined by the eyes into another color when viewed at a distance (an optical mixture). The term was first used in 1874 by a journalist ridiculing a landscape by Monet called Impression - Sunrise.

Pop Art - A style of art which seeks its inspiration from commercial art and items of mass culture (such as comic strips, popular foods and brand name packaging). Pop art was first developed in New York City in the 1950's and soon became the dominant avant-garde art form in the United States.

Realism - A style of painting which depicts subject matter (form, color, space) as it appears in actuality or ordinary visual experience without distortion or stylization.
Romanticism - An art style which emphasizes the personal, emotional and dramatic through the use of exotic, literary or historical subject matter.

Surrealism - An art style developed in Europe in the 1920's, characterized by using the subconscious as a source of creativity to liberate pictorial subjects and ideas. Surrealist paintings often depict unexpected or irrational objects in an atmosphere of fantasy, creating a dreamlike scenario.

Symbolism - An art style developed in the late 19th century characterized by the incorporation of symbols and ideas, usually spiritual or mystical in nature, which represent the inner life of people. Traditional modeled, pictorial depictions are replaced or contrasted by flat mosiac-like surfaces decoratively embellished with figures and design elements.

Trompe l'oeil (Trick of the Eye) - A style of painting in which architectural details are rendered in extremely fine detail in order to create the illusion of tactile (tangible) and spatial qualities. This form of painting was first used by the Romans thousands of years ago in frescoes and murals.

Art Print by G. Bodenehr
Printing from a woodblock was the earliest form of printing and was invented in China around the 9th century. To other sources it goes back to around 150 AD. Anyway - it took a long time until the knowledge of printing came to Europe. The origins of printmaking in Europe go back to the beginning of paper making around the year 1390.
Print Editions
The number of images printed in one process from the printing block or plate (woodblock, steel plate, stone, linoleum), is called an edition. The number of art prints produced in one edition was (and still is) determined by commercial aspects and by limitations of the block - depending on the technique used. In the 19th century, artists started numbering an edition with the well-known two number system. For example, 97/200 means that this is the 97th impression out of an edition of 200 art prints. Additional signs of authenticity are often added to a print to make it authentic like an artist's signature in pencil, a seal or a stampmark.
Unfortunately it is not as simple as that example. Usually an artist receives 10-15% out of an edition for his own use. These impressions are called artist's proofs and are in addition to the numbered edition. To make things even more complicated, the publisher and/or printer sometimes receives 10-15 % out of the edition. These prints are called hors du commerce (not for commerce). In the art market, you will find the following expressions and abbreviations for these very special prints:
English artist proof a.p.
French épreuve d'artiste e.a.
French hors du commerce h.c.
Italian prova d'artista p.a.
German Künstlerabzug
Sometimes artist's proofs are used to hide the real number of an edition. Another tricky way is to publish another edition - this time using roman numbers. And frequently you find yet another edition, printed on different paper. The only way to get full information on an artist's edition, is the so-called catalog raisonnée (see below).
A subsequent print from an original block authorized by the artist is called a late edition. A restrike is made from the original block, but the words are usually used for prints without the authorization of the artist - for instance posthumous prints edited by the publisher or the widow. A reproduction is a later copy of an original and is usually considered as something without any artistic or market value.
There are many discussions among experts about the question "what is an original art print". A common definition of an original art print is the requirement of a manual creation of the printing block by the artist and at least the subsequent supervising of the printing process. This definition can be strictly applied for modern art prints. However when looking at some of the old masters, these works were often produced by skillful and highly specialized carvers. And for Japanese woodblock prints, the whole process was separated between the artist who made the drawing, the carver and the printer.
Catalog Raisonné
Especially for art prints of the 20th and the 19th century, documentations were made by scholars, publishers, art enthusiasts and sometimes by the artists themselves about all the works created by a particular artist. These documentations describing each work painstakingly with all details, are called catalog raisonné.
Abbreviations
On old art prints you sometimes find abbreviations taken from Latin or French words.
Latin pinx. (pinxit) painted by
del. (delincavit) designed by
inv. (invenit) invented by
fec. (fecit) made by
sculp. (sculpsit) engraved by
inc. (incisit) engraved by
exc. (excudit) published by
imp. (imprenit) printed by
French dessinée par designed/painted by
gravé par engraved by
impr. (imprimé) printed by
Conservation Tips for Art Prints
Everybody who acquires an original art print, should feel a moral obligation to preserve a valuable cultural heritage and not only an object of market value. Here are some recommendations how to preserve a print well.
Use a mat for framing or for storing a print to avoid direct contact between the glass and the print to make sure the air can circulate.
Use only acid-free mats.
Never cut or trim a print.
Do not apply any tapes or glues to a print
Do not expose prints to bright sunlight.
The Condition of an Art Print
The market value of an art print can differ considerably depending in which condition it is. For instance, when a print has been trimmed (margins cut off) the value is lower. Elegant yet not too rarefied, this attractive site caters to novice and seasoned collector alike, offering upscale collectibles and mid-range fine art and antiques. Beyond its 15,000 items in 13 categories, it has an impressive schedule of Special Auctions, whose themes are consistently engaging. "Ansel Adams and the American Landscape," "We've Got Cher, Babe," and "Impressionist and Modern Art" to name a few, the latter done in conjunction with Sotheby's high-end live sale. Prices range from a few hundred bucks to tens of thousands, available at a "Bid" or "Buy Now" price. Original Pissarro's and Warhol's mingle with stuff that looks as if it was culled from Grandma's summer cottage. For the cream of Sotheby's offerings, purchase catalogs of its live auctions, which are available online, now with illustrations.
BEST: The Special Auctions are an exciting opportunity for novice and niche collectors. The connoisseur guides are not to be missed, either.
WORST: The exceptions to its authenticity guarantee, for instance: "The Authenticity Guarantee does not apply to the authorship of Chinese and Japanese paintings, regardless of the date of creation."

The mystery here is: how does Pablo do it? Clouzot and cameraman Claude Renoir investigate by simply placing the camera behind a transparent canvas in order to watch the master at work. It's a thrilling and almost totally successful experiment, enhanced by lovely music from Georges Auric (there's no commentary) and graced with an extrovert performance from the 75-year-old painter himself.

THE MYSTERY OF PICASSO (LE MYSTČRE PICASSO)
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Cast (as himself): Pablo Picasso
(Filmsonor S.A./Lopert, 1956) Rated: Not rated
Release date: 14 January 2003 (Milestone/Image Entertainment)

Being Pablo Picasso
One would die to know what was on Rimbaud's mind when he wrote 'The Drunken Boat,' or on Mozart's when composed his symphony, 'Jupiter.' We'd love to know that secret process guiding the creator through this perilous adventure. Thankfully, what is impossible to know for poetry and music is not the case in painting. To know what's going through a painter's mind, one just needs to look at his hands. Here's what the painter's experiencing.
— Henri-Georges Clouzot, The Mystery of Picasso.
Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1956 film, The Mystery of Picasso (Le Mystčre Picasso), sets out some lofty goals for itself. In only 75 minutes, Clouzot seeks to uncover nothing less than the "mystery," not merely of Picasso's process of painting, but of artistic production itself. We're talking metaphysical meta-projects here, the search for the core truth of capital-A "Art."
To this end, the film documents the production of 20 original works by Picasso. Some, the earlier works in particular, are rendered primarily in black ink, with a splash of color here or there; others, certainly the final ones, explore a wide range of colors. All have that post-Picasso "Picasso" feel about them. You know, the almost regimented feel of paintings painted like "Picasso would have painted them," the kind of paintings more apt these days to draw yawns than elicit shocked gasps. Slightly abstract in quality, with the occasional old school cubist flourish, the paintings feature many of the master's usual iconographic suspects: women and women's breasts, bullfighting, Mediterranean scenes.
Clouzot's primary aesthetic conceit is to represent Picasso's process, literally, sans artist. By placing an illuminated piece of paper in tight close-up in front of the camera, and situating Picasso behind the paper (and thus completely hidden from view), Clouzot manages to remove Picasso's body from the artistic method.
What we're left with is brush strokes. As Picasso applies ink or paint to the back (or front?) of the paper, the paint bleeds through to the front (back?) to be recorded through Clouzot's camera lens. The visual effect is dramatic: since the paper fills the entire frame, the strokes appear to leap across the screen with a life of their own, the effects of an absent cause.
While this makes for interesting film, it hardly gives us unmediated access to Picasso's (and more abstractly, painting's) creative moment. It probably creates the complete opposite. By strategically employing the techniques of filmmaking to separate the body of the artist from his work, we end up with an exercise in unintended alienation.
This is a big problem for a film that begins by asserting, "One just needs to look at his hands [to] know what's going through a painter's mind." A host of interrelated questions beg asking. If "knowing" Picasso depends on looking at his hands at work, what happens when the hands aren't visible? Is the director (himself an artists) arguing in bad faith when he asserts such a "truth," only to deny its expression on film? And, in any event, even if one can see the artist's hands on film, is this the same as seeing his hands in person? Is a representation of the artist's hands (even such a "realistic" representation as that of film) the same as the flesh-and-blood hands themselves?
The Mystery of Picasso offers neither embellishment nor critique of its own rhetoric. It's as if it's engaged in a sleight of hand, making references to the artist's body while systematically removing it from the very moment of artistic creation. In a weird way, the mechanical apparatus of the film camera assumes what should be, properly speaking, the physical place of the painter's primary apparatus, his hands. It doesn't take a giant leap of imagination to go one step further and wonder whether the director is usurping the role of painter.
It's probably fitting then that Picasso is ultimately constrained by the limitations of the camera's mechanics. In the film's central visual "rupture," about midway through what had been a seamless series of paintings, the camera lens suddenly fills the screen, front and center and in tight close-up (undoubtedly in conscious parallel to the placement of the painter's paper medium throughout the film). A second camera then "shares" with the audience the dynamic of camera, director, and artist.
This is a powerful self-reflexive gesture but it is not, importantly, the beginning of a self-critique of Clouzot's cinematic project. Rather, it functions almost like a pit-stop in which the director takes a step back from "Picasso-in-process," and reaffirm the central and dominant role of director and camera in the overall organization of meaning.
Presented to the viewer in a medium shot are Picasso, his palate and paper, Clouzot looking over one of Picasso's paintings, and the camera and cameraman presumably recording the "artistic event." Turning to the cameraman, the director is informed that he has only 450 yards of film remaining in his current reel. In an almost imperious tone, like a foreman to a shop-worker, Clouzot lays down the laws of production to Picasso: "So let's be clear. If anything happens, you stop. And I'll do the same, since we have so little film left." It's clear that the film apparatus comes first, the predilections of the painter second. What could have been the beginning of a provocative dialectical dance between two creative agents, becomes instead an almost sinister affirmation of the control of the director.
There's also a fair amount of talk throughout the film, concerning the painter's "perilous journey" and the "risk" of the artistic creative process. It's hard to imagine though, that there was much at risk for Picasso in being the subject for Clouzot's film. Surely, even in 1956, when the film was first released, Picasso was supremely established, his once radical and avant gardist cubist aesthetic long since having achieved a safe and unassailable position within the artistic establishment. How can a work by Picasso, no matter how mundane, fail to achieve the status of a "Picasso" in 1956? Risk connotes the possibility of disaster, but surely disaster was never a possibility during the making of this film.
Yet, the film goes through the motions. During the rendering of the 19th, and penultimate, painting (the "failed" painting, "On the Beach No. 1"), Picasso makes grand allusions to the darkness of artistic failure: "All this is what I wanted to show: the truth revealed from within. It's getting dark. It's getting darker and darker. The moon... the stars... a shooting star. [The painting's] really bad. I'll get rid of the collage."
But, as if assuring the audience that there was really never anything to fear, the threat of self-destruction turns out to be illusory, a charade. The artist, lost, suddenly finds the lighted path and, selecting a new sheet of paper, reveals in the final painting, "On the Beach No. 2," the true meaning that resided, yes imperfectly but gloriously so, at the heart of the very failure he destroyed. A happy Hollywood ending for all.
In the closing moments of the film, Picasso comes shirtless before the camera and signs a large canvas with his name. Turning back to the camera, Picasso solemnly pronounces the words: "This is the end." But of course, this is not Picasso's film to end, it's Clouzot's. The words ring hollow, as if Picasso was playing the part of a ventriloquist's dummy, forced to mouth words that were never his to begin with. Maybe Clouzot misspoke at the beginning of the film. Maybe he meant to say that we can only know the director by looking at his subjects.
— 5 May 2003

The Mystery of Picasso is the ultimate document on the process of the most prolific master of 20th-century art, Pablo Picasso. In 1955, this celebrated artist, then 74 years old, agreed to paint before the camera. In a brilliant move, Picasso sets to work on a unique mechanism: A vertical easel holds a glass plate on which the paper is mounted. Using saturating inks, the camera catches the work in progress from the other side of the substrate, without the "distraction" of the artist, his arm or even his brush.

There is only one Picasso, and only one film of this kind. From the first stroke, this is cinematic magic. More importantly, this is the intuitive genius of Picasso on display; it's as if we can see his thoughts as they come to him, as they translate from his mind to his brush. If you are a painter watching this, you are familiar with the sensations this creates, and something more extraordinary can happen as you see his work progress: Picasso makes mistakes and paints them out, sometimes successfully, other times not. This is encouraging. If you are not a painter, you just might want to be after viewing this; Picasso makes it seem so simple. If nothing else, one might better comprehend the complexity of skill made manifest in a single line—it's good to know the rules before you break them.

Director Henri-Georges Clouzot (Les Diaboliques) constructs his film as a kind of suspense thriller. The first drawing is accompanied only by the scratching noise of the artist's marker as he works in real time. He draws his old friend and rival, Matisse, whom he depicts studying one of the older painter's signature odalisques. (Matisse had died just months before, and his visage would appear in Picasso's work from time to time until his own death.) The drawing done, Picasso begins with a brush and still working in black, goes too far—if you don't ruin your work, your work is ruined—yet continues, far beyond beauty to the ruinous. The second is done with brushes, in color, accompanied by Georges Auric's (Blood of a Poet, Rififi) orchestrations. This, too, features Matisse, this time standing over the artist himself, who here is dwarfed and clownish, an homage to the older man. Matisse's death haunts him.

What amazes is Picasso's courage and confidence; he starts drawing anywhere and ends up where he wants. (I admit to rendering the figure basically from top to bottom; Picasso can begin with the curve of the back and everything falls into place.) This unique aspect of his talent may not have been known to the public if not witnessed here by the camera.

The pieces continue to build in color and complexity, consistently accompanied by music—sometimes supporting, sometimes distracting—in real time. In chapter seven, The King and Queen, the image begins to appear in time-lapse sequences, changing the pace dramatically. By chapter nine, Fish's Tail, a second camera is now over Picasso's shoulder and our view flips and back and forth. It's here Clouzot succumbs to a bit of whimsy, cutting to himself, the nervous director, as the film reel is about to run out and Picasso attempts to "beat the clock." Filming goes back to real time until Chapter 14, Goat Head, when the medium changes to oils, which are opaque and cannot be filmed from the back. Layers of paint appear and disappear as Picasso re-organizes his composition. This is exciting stuff, but if the film hasn't captivated you by now, it might feel like watching paint dry.

"Give me a large canvas."
For Chapter 15 until the film's end, the format dramatically widens out to 2.35:1 and Picasso begins one of several paint-and-paper collages, this a geometric still life. Although captured in animation-style time-lapse, this last set of paintings is by far the more interesting as Picasso alternately wipes and washes layer upon layer, restructuring shape and composition until he is satisfied.

As in most thrillers, there is a suspenseful climax. The grand finale is a beach scene, the most ambitious canvas in the film and uncharacteristically busy for Picasso. It begins innocently enough, a series of lines and geometric shapes that moves into Fauvist color before devolving into a wretched cacophony the master himself cannot control. He attempts to rescue his composition with collage, but fails. "This is going wrong." As if turning back the hands of time, Picasso courageously removes the pasted papers, wipes down the paint in certain areas. Still nothing. All is not lost, however; the artist now understands where this exercise has led him and so begins again on a fresh canvas to achieve it. Laying down areas of bright color, he creates something that again echoes Matisse, taking inspiration from his The Joy of Life, Luxe, calme et volupte and one of his largest canvases, Bathers by the River. As Picasso was to have said, "In the end, there is only Matisse."

(Images below are of various stages of the above described "failed canvas.")

Extras Review: This section is where this Milestone release departs from the usual art packages of which Image has availed us. There's not one but two commentary tracks, a related film short on Picasso's Guernica, and a theatrical trailer. English subtitles are removable.

The first commentary is by Peggy Parsons "of the National Gallery of Art," who limits herself to reading what others have written about the artist (many by Arianna Huffington) or describing the action on screen ("And you see what he's doing..."). Exactly what her title may be is unknown, but her track reads as one by a docent, or by a junior high school teacher. Ms. Parsons neither recognizes the figure of Matisse nor the homage paid to him, thereby setting the stage for mistrust early on. This commentary is recommended for younger viewers; read any book about Picasso and you'll gain more knowledge than Ms. Parsons imparts.

Archie Rand offers the second commentary. He's a professor of Visual Arts at Columbia knows his subject intimately. Reciting from what seems to be an essay he's written, Rand's insights are more informative and if nothing else, read with a poetic cadence that might be the most interesting accompaniment to the film. He's got a thing about what he calls "Picasso's generosity," and does occasionally discuss the subject of a particular piece before any telling details are laid down, so one might want to view the film in its entirety before playing this track or else be forewarned of "spoilers."

"Women and children all have the same red roses in their eyes."
Guernica (1950), a film (13m:11s), by Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad, La Guerre est finie) and Robert Hessens that uses various works by Picasso along with images of newspaper headlines to illustrate an anti-war sentiment, with his mural Guernica (1935-7), painted as a cry against the Spanish Civil War, as its centerpiece. The reading by Jacques Pruvost and actress Maria Casarès (Children of Paradise, Cocteau's Orphée) is trčs sérieux and reads like a Beat anthem—it was written by poet Paul Eluard—and is supported by a properly discordant score. The image shows the wear of time and, like the main feature, has a preponderant darkness, but one can still be moved by its content as intended.

Final Comments
A film as unique as Picasso himself in which toreadors and their victims, reclining nudes and the rare aubergine appear on the screen as the artist realizes them. Inspiring and relentlessly authentic in its representation of the artist at work, and named a National Treasure by the government of France, this reviewer highly recommends this as the most important film made on the subject of art in the 20th century.

1. "...Clouzot not only takes you into Picasso's den, he strips away all obstructions -- including the artist..."

2. The friendship between French director Henri-Georges Clouzot (THE WAGES OF FEAR, DIABOLIQUE) and Pablo Picasso allowed Clouzot to film the legendary artist as he created 20 original works (ranging from black-and-white sketches to full color paintings). The result is THE MYSTERY OF PICASSO, an in valuable look at the most influential artist of the 20th century at work. Picasso destroyed nearly all the canvases after filming was completed. Generally considered to be one of the greatest documentaries on art ever made, the film was declared a national treasure of France in 1984.

3. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot and Pablo Picasso were friends and neighbors. The film originally was going to be a short, but it turned into a much longer project. Picasso destroyed most of the canvases once the movie was finished because he wanted them to exist only on celluloid, created for the film and the film only.

4. DVD Features: Region 1 Keep Case Full Screen Audio: Dolby Digital Mono - French Additional Release Material: Audio Commentary - 1. Peggy Parsons - Curator of Film, National Gallery of Art, Archie Rand - painter and Professor of Art, Columbia University Featurette - 1. GUERNICA (1950), directed by Alan Resnais Interactive Features: Interactive Menus Scene Selection

5. "This is very bad."--Pablo Picasso, examining one of the paintings he created for the film

Released shortly after Luciano Emmer's documentary Picasso, H. G. Clouzot's Le Mystčre Picasso managed to attain better international bookings than the earlier film, largely on the strength of Clouzot's worldwide hit Les Diaboliques. Like Emmer before him, Clouzot offers rare and precious glimpses of Pablo Picasso at work. The film traces two of the artist's paintings, from inception to pencil sketch to final product. The director comes as close as humanly possible to defining the genius of Picasso within the parameters of the camera lens. Oddly, Le Mystčre Picasso does not appear on many of the "official" lists of Clouzot's films, even though it won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Hal Erickson

Réalisation: Henri-Georges Clouzot et Pablo Picasso
Photo: Claude Renoir
Musique: Georges Auric
Distribution: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Pablo Picasso et Claude Renoir
Durée: 78 min
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Director Henri-Georges Clouzot films Pablo Picasso as the great Spanish artist dashes out a series of abstract paintings.
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In 1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot had the idea for making an unusual documentary about the legendary artist Picasso. It is intriguing to speculate how the film might have developed, given Clouzot’s mastery of the suspense thriller genre. When the two great men met, the film Clouzot had envisaged took a spectacularly different turn, and the result is one of the most famous and best art films ever made.
In this film, Picasso paints onto a transparent canvas which is filmed from the other side. The spectator is invited to watch as the artist’s creation gradually takes shape. Although not all of the pictures which Picasso produces in this way are necessarily great works of art, it does offer a profound insight into his thought processes. The artist admits to making mistakes and is often seen to struggle to achieve the result he is after.
The unusual, almost surreal, style of the film matches Picasso’s inimitable abstract style of painting, and the combination of Picasso’s seemingly unstoppable creative genius and Clouzot’s direction makes this a mesmerising film.
What is also interesting to watch is the interaction between the two men when the camera is turned on them. Clouzot, famously renowned for being a hard taskmaster, appears to almost bully the great artist, forcing him to hurry up when the precious film starts to run out, whilst deceiving him into how much time he really has left. Picasso’s good humour and humility makes him an engaging and sympathetic character, revealing something of his nature which is not easily discerned from his artwork.
© James Travers 2001

PICASSO: GRAPHIC MAGICIAN
PRINTS FROM THE NORTON SIMON MUSEUM
Press Release
The exhibition Picasso: Graphic Magician focuses on the four major periods of Picasso's long and productive printmaking career. The prints have been lent by the Norton Simon Museum, whose holdings are of exceptional depth, with more than seven hundred prints.
Although Picasso's early interest in printmaking was only sporadic, by the 1930s he attained a fluidity in etching evident in his illustrations to classic texts by Ovid and Balzac, and the major series of one hundred prints, Suite Vollard. In this last sequence, scenes of a sculptor at work in his studio form the dominant motif, which is then altered by the entry of a Minotaur.
Lithographs, especially those of the late 1940s, form the second major group. At the end of the Second World War at the Atelier Mourlot in Paris, Picasso experimented with this technique new to him. Defying conventional approaches, Picasso achieved extraordinary effects. Among the most complex subjects are his reinterpretations of works by Lucas Cranach and Eugène Delacroix. Portraiture is a significant component late in this period, with images of Françoise Gilot followed by those of Jacqueline Roque.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Picasso was working in the south of France and engaged in making ceramics, he began to make linocuts. Again he subverted the accepted technique (of printing each color from a separate block) by reworking the same block with results that are exuberant and intensely colorful.
During the late 1960s, in the last chapter of his printmaking, Picasso returned to the intaglio technique, with which he felt the greatest affinity. In marked contrast to the oversize and public nature of the linocuts, his final etchings, which include Suite 347, are direct and deeply experienced. Still inventive technically, this series of 1968 is an astonishing outpouring of 347 prints. References abound to earlier subjects from Balzac and Old Masters to Rembrandt and El Greco. The cast of characters include his parents, wives, and mistresses, who often appear as performers magically set in circus scenes. With irony and ribald humor, he reviewed his life, his failing powers, and his place in history.
Picasso and Printmaking
In Picasso's first extended printmaking statement the Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard played a pivotal role, commissioning and publishing book illustrations and the major suite that bears his name. Vollard published many suites of original prints by Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard and others, as well as editions of bronze sculpture. However, his most important contribution was to a vital new form, the artist's book (livre d'artiste) in which the images, not the text, were of primary importance.
Picasso's major series of the 1930s was the group of one hundred prints known as Suite Vollard. Although the etchings span the decade, most are concentrated in the period of 1933 - 34, when Picasso was sculpting plaster heads of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter at his studio at Boisgeloup outside Paris.
The theme of a sculptor in his studio is the longest sequence in the series and runs to more than 40 compositions. Picasso characterized the sculptor variously--at times youthful or old, but most often mature and handsome, with a godlike head of curly hair and beard. The sculptures and models also change, including likenesses of Marie-Thérèse, Sarah (wife of the artist Gerald) Murphy, and a dark-haired model who closely resembles Françoise Gilot, Picasso's future mistress. In one scene Ingres's odalisques crowd the studio.
Later in the series a Minotaur enters and, after drinking with the sculptor and model, assumes the role of the sculptor. One of the most moving sequences is of a blind Minotaur, created in late 1934 - 35, which demonstrates Picasso's active experimentation with and combination of a variety of intaglio techniques.
Of Picasso's more than four hundred lithographs, his most original work dates to the initial period of creativity at Fernand Mourlot's workshop in Paris, which began in late 1945 and continued unabated into early 1946. At this time, Picasso often moved from working on one stone to another, altering and developing several compositions simultaneously. Norton Simon bought more than 228 lithographs in 1977 from the personal collection of Mourlot, including an unusual number of artist's proofs.
Notes on the Picasso's Techniques
The lithographs in the exhibition include many proofs and unique states. Many of the early lithographs were printed in special editions of 18 proofs reserved for the artist; others were annotated by Picasso: Bon à tirer (meaning ready to pull an edition); still others were unique proofs dedicated to Mourlot. Picasso worked many lithographs through a succession of states, meaning that as he worked on the composition, he pulled proofs to check his progress.
Picasso began to make linocuts while working in the south of France. After cutting several designs to serve as posters for exhibitions at Vallauris, he experimented further with the technique, working with the printer Hidalgo Arnéra and his workshop. Picasso's infatuation with the linocut lasted less than five years, but in his prodigal way he created some hundred prints. The appeal of the linocuts lies both in their spirited character and bold patterns, and in his unconventional use of the medium. The linocuts were published by the Galerie Louise Leiris in 1960 and 1963. In 1964 Norton Simon made his first major purchase of prints by Picasso, one hundred linocuts.
Picasso's first large linocut was after Lucas Cranach of 1958. It was printed from five blocks in the traditional chiaroscuro woodcut technique, in which each color was cut into a separate block. Tiring of this tedious approach, Picasso devised the radical solution of using a single block, which he reworked with a gouge, penknife, and various scrapers. After printing the preliminary design in one color, he recut and refined the composition, and printed the block in a second color, and later in a third.
When in his final years Picasso returned to printmaking, he was in a very different mood from that in which he created the exuberant and decorative linocuts of the early 1960s. Oppressed by his celebrity, the relative privacy of printmaking became particularly attractive. Suite 347 shows him in an introspective, at times confessional, frame of mind. Picasso began the series shortly after the death of his companion and friend Jaime Sabartés, and dedicated a set of proofs in his memory. Between March and early October 1968 Picasso created 347 etchings and aquatints (some days completing two or three plates), in collaboration with the printers Aldo and Piero Crommelynck at Mougins. Late in 1968 and 1969 the Galerie Louise Leiris exhibited and published them. The works had no titles when published because, as usual, Picasso had no use for them. The descriptive titles, now generally cited, are here used to help explain the subject.
Betsy G. Fryberger
Curator of the Exhibition
The exhibition was made possible by a generous gift from John and Jill Freidenrich.

Nouveau Cercle Parisien du Livre, Paris 1955, first edition, 140 copies (total edition 240), produced hors commerce for the members of the club and contributors. The edition contains 22 excellent original woodcuts (20 hors-texte) engraved by Georges Aubert after drawings by Pablo Picasso. This copy has an additional suite of 21 full-page woodcuts, printed on cream stock, in a separate wrapper portfolio inserted in the back. The total number of hors-texte (full-page) prints in this copy is 41. Picasso produced the drawings on Vollard's request to illustrate the play by André Suares. Large folio (18 x 13.5 inches; 441 x 328 mm), text in French, 203 pages, all leaves loose in 2 wrapper portfolios, boards chemise and slipcase. References: Monod no.10485; Rauch no.80; Johnson (Vollard) no.193; Solvay 861; Strachan "The Artist & The Book in France", p.340; Geiser-Bolliger 1955; Horodisch p.75; not in G-Cramer.

Sixteen linoleum cuts, printed in colors, 1958, including an exceptional signed proof of the final state, the most complete existing sequence of progressive proofs, with unique proofs of the yellow, red, blue and black blocks, as well as unique proofs of several of Baer’s superpositions. (The final, signed state is hand-printed, before the edition and without the accidental horizontal black lines which mark all the impressions run on the press for the published edition.)

Picasso first became interested in making linoleum cuts, following his meeting with the young printer, Hildago Arnèra, because the technique appeared to him well suited to the execution of graphic posters.

The artist’s first linoleum cuts were, for this reason, bold but simple images. Once he began to visualize significant multicolor compositions in linoleum cut, the medium became more central to his expression, succeeding in printmaking his work in lithography, which had reached a peak of virtuosity in his 1958–59 portraits of Jacqueline, but which had become frustrating for him to work on by long-distance correspondence with his lithographic printer in Paris, Mourlot.

In his linoleum cuts, as in other mediums, what appealed to Picasso was the exploration and extension of the limits of the technique, and the pleasure of retaining, in visual form, the evolution of a work of art as it developed through the stimulating interplay between concept and means of realization.

This exhibition draws special attention to the vitality and virtuosity of Picasso’s creative process in linoleum cut by showing, for the first time, the most complete sequences of states and variant proofs of the artist’s principal works in the medium, from his first glittering masterwork, Portrait de jeune fille, d’après Cranach le Jeune (checklist no. 51), (which was produced in a multi-block and multi-state process of immense complexity), and including his two major still lifes, of which the first to be completed, Nature morte à la suspension (checklist no. 55), required two blocks and over eight states in many combinations, while the Nature morte au verre sous la lampe (checklist no. 54), building on this experience, was brought to perfect completion in only five states of one block.

Finally, Jacqueline au chapeau à fleurs (checklist no. 56) shows the artist picking up again a work that was already an elegant gem as a two-tone composition and transforming it, by progressive cutting of the same block, into one of his most brilliant multicolor portraits.

This exhibition has been prompted by the confluence of works (proofs and unique sets of states) from two private collections which go back to the time of Picasso’s daily collaboration with his printer, Arnèra, and a selection of prints from the published editions which comes from one of the most important collections of modern prints formed in this century. All of these works are in virtually pristine condition, having been carefully stored since the day of their execution.

Picasso produced linoleum cuts over a period of more than a decade (1952–64), but it is in the years covered by this catalogue that his passion for the medium became most intense. It is our hope that the exhibition will be visually exciting and will illuminate the process and means by which Picasso conquered and transformed this previously humble medium, capitalizing on its potential to distill images of dazzling color and dancing arabesque.

Marc Rosen and Susan Pinsky
September 1998

"L'Estampe en France: Thirty-four Young Printmakers" provides an opportunity for the art-loving public of the nation's capital to appreciate the work of contemporary French artists committed to printmaking.
In a city like Washington, where the presence of France is so strongfrom the urban plan of the city itself to the collections in museums on the Mallit is particularly appropriate for the Cultural Center to present an exhibition honoring France and the city of Paris on occasion of the IDB's Annual Meeting there in March of this year. The goal is to share with the Washington audience a little known facet of contemporary French art.
Paris today remains the world's artistic center for printmaking, the place where all itsdiverse techniques are practiced by artists of all persuasions. More than 40 professional workshops in Paris alonesome of them dating back three generationsare constantly producing images that range from traditional techniques such as drypoint and etching to experimental approaches in the technological fields of silkscreen and lithography. Some artists are working in even more advanced electronic venues such as computer-generated graphics. Many internationally renowned artistsincluding a roster of outstanding Latin Americans such as Cuevas, Seguí and Moraleshave developed their graphic work in France.
From all of these angles, this exhibition fits the main theme of the IDB agenda for the 1999 Annual Meeting: Development and Culture. The Cultural Center plans to make this exhibit of printmaking techniques a traveling showcase throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States in the months to come. We hope the exhibit will contribute to further renewing interest in the possibilities that printmaking offers to the creative artistic spirit, and to demonstrating that tradition can always be incorporated into the direction a society takes toward establishing its identity and its future.
A Tradition of Innovation
The contributions of France to the development of the arts are not only known across the globe; they are basic elements of world culture. In the plastic realm, so wide is their variety and so great has been their impact that it is virtually impossible to summarize them.
The graphic arts have a tradition of long standing in France. A still older tradition in French art, however, is a permanent openness to innovation and a quickness to identify forms of expression that, though not necessarily French in origin, require a favorable environment for development. The present exhibit, then, should lead the viewer to reflect on the nature, meaning and function of the graphic arts.
Without denying the didactic possibilities of printmaking, one must also keep in mind that it enables the artist to establish a dialogue with a broader public than does art that exists in but a single example. As an object of investment, the latter may be more attractive to the collector and the dealer. But by their nature, both the artist and his creation require an extended public of admirers.
Paris continues to maintain its leadership as a world capital of art, and within that the graphic arts are practiced with admirable intensityor better still, dedication. It would be difficult to find another city with such a large number of printmaking establishments equipped to turn out works in every conceivable technique. Among them are shops that use manual labor of a type that has rendered them all but obsoletelithography based on the actual use of stone, drypoint and stencil, for example. Thanks to such establishments, however, those techniques live on and display a vitality equal to the latest advances in computer-produced imagery.
Innovation does not exist in a vacuum; it must spring from a base, and that base is tradition. In turn, it is innovation that gives life and growth to tradition. The cycle is never-ending, but it takes the form not of a closed circle, where the beginning cannot be distinguished from the end, but of a constantly expanding, outward-growing spiral. The number and quality of the artists included in this exhibit give ample proof that the French graphic tradition today is vigorous on all fronts, from the purely technical to the conceptual realm and the area of social commentary. And the exhibit more than refutes the view, taken by many, that the print is a minor art form. The contrary could not be more clearly evident.

The Exhibition
This exhibit presents, for the first time in Washington, thirty-four French artists currently active in the field of graphic arts. None is older than 40, and nearly all are primarily printmakers. The intent of the exhibit is to offer a broad panorama of contemporary printmaking by the new generation of French artists based in Paris.
All the works in this exhibit were executed and printed in specialized workshops, where master printers and support personnel lent the artists their full technical collaboration. This system of work is inherent in the art of printmaking, but it is of particular importance to the French tradition. Parisian printmakers are recognized as being among the world's best. They work not only for local artists, but also for a broad range of artists from other countries, among them such Latin American and Caribbean figures of past and present as Wifredo Lam (Cuba), Roberto Matta (Chile), Rufino Tamayo, José Luis Cuevas and Francisco Toledo (Mexico), Antonio Seguí (Argentina), Armando Morales (Nicaragua), and Fernando Botero (Colombia).

The Graphic Tradition in France
One of the earliest figures in French graphic art was the metal engraver Jean Gourmont, active in the first decades of the 16th century. His work reflects the influence of Italian Renaissance artists and the "Little Masters" of Germany. Thanks to the German invention of lithography by Aloys Senefelder (1796), the graphic arts acquired great popularity in France following the revolution and took on characteristics peculiar to the country. The publication of Goya's first lithographs in 1826, during the artist's exile from Spain, showed that the technique had possibilities previously unrealized by other painters. Throughout the 19th century, figures such as Eugène Delacroix, Honoré Daumier, Odilon Redon, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir were to practice printmaking of both experimental and artistic character (and in the case of Daumier, for purposes of humor and social commentary).
Lithography acquired unheard-of popularity. It modernized the technique of producing unlimited numbers of prints, further revolutionized later with the invention of photolithography. Lithography was not, however, the sole means of reproduction to which artists gave attention. More traditional techniques continued to be practiced. Gustave Doré, for example, was responsible for a monumental uvre of metal engraving in his illustrations for great works of literature such as Cervantes' Don Quixote, Milton´s Paradise Lost, and Dante´s Divine Comedy.
The modern French tradition in the art of printmaking is represented in particular in this exhibit by the presence of three workshops whose prestigious histories include collaboration with artists of the category of Matisse, Miró, Picasso, Léger, Braque and Cocteau. Editions Atelier Clot has specialized in lithography since 1896. Atelier Jacomet was founded in 1910 by Daniel Jacomet, and today is in the hands of his grandsons. It specializes in stencil (pouchoir), the oldest technique of multicolor reproduction. While none of its work is represented in the present exhibit, its director, Dominique Jacomet, provided liaison with the other workshops. Atelier Pons, founded in 1938 by the painter and lithographer Jean Pons, specializes in limited editions produced by the traditional method using prepared stone and a hand press rather than the metal plate and mechanical press in more common use today.
Lithography maintained its prominence even in the years immediately following World War II, when artists such as the members of the COBRA group and the lyric abstractionists were among its practitioners. There is no denying that during the two decades that followed, however, silkscreen came to enjoy great popularity, in part because of trends of the postwar period. This was particularly true in the developing countries of the Western Hemisphere, owing to the ease with which the process could be adapted to local needs. Silkscreen was produced in greatest volume, however, in industrialized countries such as France, where it also underwent considerable technical refinement.
The popularity of silkscreen, with its figurative pop photo montages and optical compositions, was seen not only in commercial galleries and museums of contemporary art but also in daily lifewitness the everyday T-shirt and metallic outfits reminiscent of Paco Rabanne. A large new social class was emerging, barely cultured and with relatively comfortable buying power, toward which industrial production of disposable consumer goods with ephemeral value was directed en masse. Living rooms and discotheques alike were converted into psychedelic environments dominated by the colors and designs of advertising and optical illusionsclear evidence of the turn in public taste.
Toward the end of the decade of the seventies, it became evident that, contrary to what was once believed, this trend could be reversed. Artistspainters in particularreturned to works centered on the human figure, rich in effects, unusual in their lyric violence. For whatever reason, graphic art took a pictorial direction opposite that of commercial graphic design. A need was felt to broaden the scope of the multicopy image, and there was a renewed desire to take up more traditional means of expression with works crafted by hand that imparted a more personal touch to preparation of the printing plate and the printing process. In France, the establishment of numerous workshops was a clear sign of fresh interest in the graphic arts in the country's contemporary art scene.
France's longstanding collaborative tradition in graphic arts was officially recognized as part of celebrations marking Print Month in Paris in 1998. An official declaration by the Department of the Secretary of State for Small Business, Trade and Crafts noted that cooperation by creative artists and master craftsmen in workshops exemplifies the ever closer relationship between skills characteristic of the artistic professions. "The aim of this Department," the declaration stated, "is to accompany these professions in their continuing enrichment of that heritage through original creation of uncommon merit." present-day society, and to have developed new capacities for artistic perception. The computer may provide a new means of creating virtual reality, but even this new technological medium does not permit dispensing with the artist.
Scope of the Graphic Image
There are two basic and inseparable elements in graphic work: manual dexterity on the part of the artist, either innate or acquired through training, and teamwork by craftsmen skilled in the process of reproducing images.
If a thousand printmakers were asked why they had chosen that type of artistic expression, they might give as many different answers. Nevertheless, all will have been driven by the desire to produce multiple copies of the same image, since this permits their work to be seen in several places at the same time. More specifically, they can reach out to a far wider audience with a real, as opposed to virtual, image. Finally, printmaking permits more than one member of that audience to possess his or her originalthough numbered and not uniquework of art.
In terms of sheer numbers, then, the value of printmaking is easily understood. The world population today stands at more than four billion, and we live in an era when the artist must compete with the mass media for the attention of a public ever more dependent on technology for communication. The concept of time as a production unit increasingly has brought into disrepute the idea that idle time can be important to the powers of imagination and creativity. The average amount of time spent by visitors to art museums does not exceed 12 seconds per work of art.
It is precisely for this public, overwhelmed by daily tasks and as such often limited in attention span, that prints may represent an opportunity to enter into communication with a work of art, to possess it at relatively low cost, and to give it a home. From such a beginning, the individual may be able to develop a sensibility and imagination about art that might be difficult to otherwise develop based on such limited direct contact with the works themselves.
Given its relative ease of reproduction, its extraordinary multiplier effect, and its capacity for reaching the public, it is not surprising that the print has been used to serve purposes as diverse as social criticism (Goya), humor (Honoré Daumier), political satire (José Guadalupe Posada), and elegant illustration (Gustave Doré). It has even been used for the propagation of faithFlemish engravings were used aggressively in the evangelization of the Americas. In modern times, prints have become a vehicle for the expression of ideas and positions, and have developed a popular iconography of immediate public recognitionall of which at times has caused problems for those associated with print production, given the economic and social realities of our day.
Approach to the Exhibit
For reasons inherent in its nature, this exhibit was not conceived in thematic terms or along lines of visual preference that might otherwise have imparted a more cohesive aspect to the whole. The exhibit draws its dynamic force from the juxtaposition of dissimilar developments within a single field, namely, graphics. From the viewpoint of style, the position taken is neutral. The lack of definition betokens the youth of the artists and the freedom of their actions, inclinations and tastes.
Although one may note an apparent preference of the artists for lithography, the variety of techniques representedetching, drypoint, lithography, carborundum, silkscreen, aquatint, woodcut and computeris such that one cannot speak in overly general terms. All the techniques are valid as means of expression and fields for experimentation.
Neither can one speak of any perceptible new trend characteristic of visual expression. The artists participating in this exhibit seem more disposed to experience the visual than to experiment with it.
In fact, it is notable that there is little in this exhibit of the pop, optical and kinetic art so popular in Paris and elsewhere in the world only a few decades ago.
As for abstraction, it seems to have returned to the scale on which it was originally conceived in France. This regression has been aided by the limitations implicit in printmaking. Figuration, whether expressionistic or free, continues admirably timeless, even when placed at the service of conceptual art, which, despite its capacity for avant-garde reinvention, has not succeeded by itself in relating to the public the realities or themes it seeks to question.
All these types of expression have claimed to draw attention to the problems and realities of present-day society, and to have developed new capacities for artistic perception. The computer may provide a new means of creating virtual reality, but even this new technological medium does not permit dispensing with the artist.
THE IMAGE PROBLEM
As a vehicle of expression, the print is closely linked to the dissemination of liberal ideas. It is versatile, it is produced by craftsmen, and virtually limitless editions are possible at very low cost. Ever since its first appearance, the print has afforded new roles for the reproduced image and new functions for art.
Glorious precursors of the print of today can be found in the wood engraving practiced by Italians as early as the 13th century and in the first examples of work in metal executed by anonymous Germans toward the end of the 15th century. Ever since, the qualities inherent in such techniques and the economic advantages of multiple copies have opened new fields for development, transforming graphic practices and leading to the opening of public discussion of the function and value of prints.
The argument that led artists of the 1950s and 1960s to question the social validity of the unique work of art was responsible in part for the boom in serial art during that period. The idea was to make the artistic image available to everyone to enjoy and possible to discard once it had been "used."
Ever since the 19th century, the popular character of the print has given rise to an image problem for the graphic arts. Opinion as to its value has been divided between those inspired by certain economic and social views and those whose views are of a more intellectual and artistic nature. Most of contemporary society is still unable to distinguish between what is cheap and that which, though low in cost, is not without significance. Ill-informed and uncaring, the public assumes that if something is costly, it must be good and beautifulan idea that would be anathema to Plato or Aristotle.
Despite all that has been said in our century about serving the interests of the majority, when it comes to the art trade, it seems ironic that the print continues to be looked down upon. As a matter of supply and demand, it does not possess the quality of uniqueness that in time could cause its market value to rise. And egalitarianism notwithstanding, the printat once spurned and glorious, as alwaysdoes not possess the prestige associated with an object that only the privileged can afford.
The Artists and Their Works
Some of the works included in this exhibit deal with entirely conventional themes, as with the aquatints of Pascal Andrault, the etchings of Catherine Keun, and the lithographs of Catherine Chaux. Andrault and Chaux demonstrate an interest in landscape, while Keun treats the human figure. None is particularly concerned with description; they are moved rather by the desire to articulate in an individual manner the relationship between image, theme and technique. Other participants, such as Nathalie Grenier, Emmanuelle Renard and Monique Tello, find in carborundum a medium of sufficient power to sustain images of great emotional charge.
Large format silkscreen is admirably suited to the images produced by Kriki, which resemble three-dimensional puzzles. Paul Raguenes, François Boisrond, Hervé Di Rosa, and Rémi Blanchard practice "free figuration" in lithograph or silkscreen with the young energy suggested by the style, and with as much ease as if working on large scale canvas.
Figuration persists, betraying reminiscences of varying provenance, but without subjection to any determined style, in the works of Frédéric Mary (who leaps with ease from figuration to abstraction), Didier Hagège, Annick Claudé, Olivier Fanget, and Frédérique Danse.
The same might also be said of works in the vein of lyric abstraction, such as those of Emmanuelle Aussedat and Anne Turlais, or the expressionistic compositions of Jean-François Péneau. Dreams inspire the work of Marc "Triton" Brémont. Yves Chaudouët and Louis Marie Catta evidence ecological concerns, and humanism is reflected in the compositions of Vincent Busson and Nunzio d´Angerio.
Color and form are fundamental elements in the images produced by Bernard Filippi, Gil Griffoux, Valérie Crausaz and Laurence Lépron; aside from this, however, the four have little in common. Works of more intellectual intent, although this does not outweigh the visual aspect, are those of Joël Leick, Frédérique Lucien, Didier Mencoboni, Françoise Pétrovitch, and Denis Briand. And the finishing touch to this display of works of unabashedly dissimilar intent is lent by the techno-urban compositions of Miguel Chevalier.

Glossary
Printing techniques can be divided today into two groups. The first is that of flat techniques, in which the image appears on paper without alteration of the surface. These include stencil, lithography and silkscreen. The second group is that of relief techniques. As the name indicates, in this case the image stands forth on the paper in relief, either high or low, as a result of the pressure exerted on the matrix plate by the rollers of the press in passing over the engraving. This group includes etching, aquatint and drypoint.
There are two basic requirements for a print to be considered an original. First, the matrix containing the image, whatever the material, must have been executed by the artist, either alone or with the help of assistants. The second is that the editionthe number of copies run off from the matrixmust be limited in number and each copy must be signed and numbered by the artist.
A description of the principal techniques follows. Naturally, many of them may be combined to produce varying effects. There are still other techniques as well, such as mezzotint, paper stencil and inkless relief, but in one way or another, all are interrelated.
Aquatint: A process similar to etching, but a microscopic crackle is engraved in the plate permitting delicate shadings, monochromatic or polychromatic, depending on the inks used, which produce effects reminiscent of the transparencies of water color.
Carborundum: The principle involved is that of etching, but the plate used is acetate rather than metal.
Drypoint: The principle is that of traditional metal engraving. The artist must be sure and precise in drawing, for no type of correction is possible. The image on the plate is produced solely with the engraving tool, under the pressure of the hand. The depth of the cut is therefore not great. Under the pressure of the press, after a few impressions, the line loses its velvety quality.
Engraving: The name traditionally given to the technique in which the image is executed on a metal plate or block of wood using needle-like metallic burins or gravers. A mechanical press is required for printing. Depending on the ground material used, the product will be called either a metal or a wood engraving. The image produced is usually of a delicate nature.
Etching: The principle is the same as that of metal engraving, but acid is used to corrode the plate in the places where the image has been drawn. Printing requires a roller press. Before the drawing is made, the plate is covered with a varnish that is removed by the sharp tool with which the sketch is made. Acid penetrates these areas alone. The plate is inked and wiped, leaving ink only in the engraved areas. When the plate and paper pass through the press, the paper enters into the etched areas, producing a slightly raised line. Acid etching permits reworking the plate; areas deemed satisfactory can be protected with varnish while other areas undergo modification.
Linoleum block: The technique is the same as that employed in woodcut, but linoleum substitutes for wood. As in the case of woodcut, printing may be carried out in a number of colors, programmed to accompany the advance made in engraving.
Photo silkscreen: The technique is the same as for silkscreen, but instead of the plastic film, a photo-sensitive emulsion is used, as in the case of photography. When the emulsion dries and the silk is washed, only the areas in which the negative did not take remain covered.
Silkscreen: The process is the same as that of stencil, but the technique is more refined. The image is cut out of a plastic film that is applied to specially prepared silk placed on a stretcher. The stretcher with the silk covered by plastic is placed on the paper and the ink is pressed through with a squeegee. The ink passes through the areas of silk not covered by plastic, transferring the image to the paper.
Stencil: The image is sketched on cardboard, which is then cut to produce a stencil. The stencil is placed on the paper that is to contain the image. The cut-out areas are then colored with a small brush. Each color requires its own stencil. When this technique is used, the edition will never be completely uniform. At times, advantage is taken of this to lend greater individuality to each of the reproduced images. Stencil may be used to produce either positive or negative images.
Woodcut: Engraving executed on a block of wood using gouges of different gauge and V-tools. The background is cut out, leaving in relief the area that is to be printed. Printing is generally done by hand. The paper is placed on top of the inked or colored block and pressure is exerted with a baren (a cushioned hand tool). The pressure determines the intensity of the image. At times a press is used, similar to the flatbed press employed in typography.

Marie Hélène Gatto, Curator
Department of Prints and Photography
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
France, they say, cultivates paradoxes. Diverse and complex, French printmaking is no exception to this rule, embracing contradictions of every sort. Contemporary printmaking is especially paradoxical because it stands in contrast to both the nature and the history of this technique. Although prints are by nature reproducible and their function is to reach a broad audience, only a few knowledgeable enthusiasts in France seem to appreciate them. In a country where printmaking has a long history, most people are unfamiliar with the traditional techniques. And even though such renowned artists as Picasso, Gauguin and Matisse lent their talents to this art form, prints have long been absent from museum walls. Rarely do exhibitions display both paintings and prints without the artist expressly requesting itJean-Michel Albarola is one example. Still, anyone with enough curiosity will discover the creative and innovative aspects of printmaking, which draws on centuries-old traditions while at the same time being constantly renewed.
The art of printmaking in Franceand, more broadly, in Europedates to the late 14th century, when the oldest known Western matrix, the Portat Woodcut found in Mâcon, is believed to have been produced. The prints circulating at the time, mostly woodcuts, were pictures in the popular sense of the word. They included pious images lining the interior of pilgrimage boxes, playing cards, almanacs, and book illustrations. Copperplate (line) engraving, developed by goldsmiths, came next. The prints of the Maître of playing cards, depicting the lords and ladies of the court, were aimed at a more refined audience.
Obviously, religion and its panoply of saints remained the most abundantly illustrated of subjects. In much the same way, printmaking techniques would soon be used to reproduce paintings, and the enormous numbers of copies produced gave paintings an exposure that was previously unimaginable. Although Marc-Antoine Raimondi was the first to make the printing of reproductions both a profession and an art, generations of printmakers (Tardieu, Audran and Drevet, among others) from the 16th through the 18th centuries would follow and pass on the traditions of this distinguished profession. Far from confining itself to the customary subjects of paintinghistory, portraiture, mythologyprintmaking invaded every field of knowledge, including architectural plans, treatises on geometry and perspective, anatomical, zoological and botanical plates, and geographic maps and topographical views. Heedless of protocol, prints were equally adept at portraying events large and small: street scenes and royal celebrations, brawls and famous battles. All of the greatest printmakers, from Callot to Goya, treated these subjects in turn. A unique and unusual collection because it came into being through copyright registration, the Department of Prints and Photography of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, with its 11 million prints, reflects the variety and number of fields encompassed by printmaking over the centuries.
Because it can reach a wide audience quickly and anonymously, printmaking is an effective political and satirical weapon, as demonstrated by its extensive use during the French Revolution. New impetus to the tradition of popular prints came during the 19th century, which saw the invention of lithography and the rise of the press. Represented in the newspapers by Daumier's daily illustrations of events, printmaking also took over the city walls, plastering them with color posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. In the latter half of the 19th century, however, the invention and advance of photomechanical reproduction processes vied strongly with printmaking. Because of their faithfulness to the original, photography and photoengraving made extremely precise illustration possible. Printmaking, losing much of its documentary appeal, focused once more on artistic aims and became the province of bibliophiles and lovers of contemporary art. An entire market developed for fine prints, alive to such elements as printing and paper quality. At the same time, printmakers became painter-engravers.
Printmaking in the 20th century has been a part of every artistic movement from the cubism of Braque and Picasso to the expressionism of Vlaminck, from the experiments of Dubuffet to the geometric abstraction of Aurélie Nemours and the Paris school with Soulages, not to mention pop art. In the 1960s, printmaking strived for material effects, rivaling painting.

Marina Picasso was born to Picasso's son Paulo in 1951 and makes her home in New York, Geneva, and her grandfather's house in Cannes. She has two children, Gael and Flore, and has adopted three Vietnamese children, Florian, Mai, and Dimitri.
Since 1990 Marina has been working tirelessly to help abandoned and neglected children in Vietnam, and to that end she started the Marina Picasso Foundation. Her foundation has been a benefactor to Vietnamese orphanages and pediatric hospitals throughout that country.
Multitalented, Marina's other pursuits include show jumping, being very involved with the Cannes International Jumping Festival which each year includes the "Challenge Marina Picasso." She has also developed a famous perfume, "Chapeau Bleu," and has recently published a book about life with her famous grandfather.
Marina lends her collection of 400 paintings and over 7000 sketches, drawings, and sculptures to Picasso exhibitions around the world
In 1962, at the height of Pablo Ruiz Picasso's career, he produced a notebook of images that demonstrate the greatness of his talent.
The images in the notebook were never published, but Picasso left it to his granddaughter Marina Picasso after his death. Marina finally published the collection in 1980 in collaboration with the renowned chromist Marcel Salinas, who worked with Picasso on the famous "Imaginary Portraits" series. A master in the art of chromolithography, Salinas reproduced the images in this collection on hand-drawn lithographic plates.
This collection of posthumously published work is called The Marina Picasso Collection. It is also known as the Estate Collection, since the signed lithographs could not of course be approved and signed by the artist himself, but only by his estate.
In addition to the signed lithographs, a limited edition of un-signed posters was also published.

"Anything that pleases you is art - you make the choice. You shouldn't be ashamed to like or to not like - you should only be ashamed of not understanding. There are no art movements - just a sensibility to the new possibilities in art." -- Marcel Salinas
In 1962, at the height of Pablo Ruiz Picasso's career, he produced a notebook of images including "Visage 9.1.62 II" and "9.1.62 III" that demonstrate the greatness of his talent. The renowned lithographer and chromist Marcel Salinas collaborated with Picasso on the "Imaginary Portraits" series from 1969 to 1972. Salinas recreated the lithographs in the Estate Collection, to which both "Visage" images belong, on hand-drawn lithographic plates after Picasso's death in 1973.
Marcel Salinas
Salinas, called a "living treasure of the art world" by 20th Century Masters Gallery owner Jack West, matched Picasso in skill and talent in both painting and lithographs. His style was influenced by Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Juan Gris, and by his background in Egyptian art and architecture. Salinas saw Picasso's "Guernica," a powerful metaphoric statement on war, while the paint was still fresh.
Born in 1913 in Alexandria, Egypt, Salinas abandoned law to become a struggling young painter. Lithographs saved his career and his life. In 1955, he took a job at a Parisian print shop, and soon became a master painter while his renown as a printer and lithographer grew. He worked with major publishers and artists, such as Rene Magritte and Max Ernst, but his landmark collaboration was with Picasso.
A Unique Collaboration
Picasso, in addition to his genius as a painter, created a new standard for excellence in lithography, and part of the credit is due to his partnership with Salinas.
Picasso heard of Salinas' work when he was looking for new interpretations, rather than just copies, of his "Imaginary Portraits" painting series. He asked Salinas for two prototypes, and was as impressed with Salinas' work as Salinas was with "Guernica."
Between 1969 and 1972, Picasso and Salinas produced new versions of the "Imaginary Portraits" series, 29 works in all. Although Picasso was a solo genius, the collaboration between Picasso and the French/Italian Salinas was probably the most successful marriage or partnership in Picasso's lifetime. All 29 works are signed by both Picasso and Salinas.
When Marina Picasso wanted to publish lithographs of the paintings and sketches her grandfather left her, she immediately called on Salinas. The partnership between Picasso and Salinas has endured even after Picasso's death, and you see the result in the lithographs you will be privileged to own.
A Unique Process...A Collector's Item
After Picasso's death in 1973, Salinas created the lithographs using 100% acid-free museum Arches paper and exacting hand-drawn lithographic plates. You can see the high Picasso lithographic standard in the vividness and detail of "Visage II" and "Visage III."
There are no prior editions of these works and no rights for restrikes of signed limited editions of these images. The lithograph you purchase is one of a limited edition of 500.
The uniqueness of Picasso's collaboration with Salinas shows in every detail, particularly in Salinas' seal, which sits side by side with the seal of the Picasso Estate. Every time you look at the seals, and the fine beautiful lines of the lithographs, you'll know you own a piece of genius. Bring one into your home today.

The Story Behind the Creation of "Visage II" and "Visage III"
How does an artist like Picasso create a lithograph? And how did the images in the notebook become "Visage II" and "Visage III"? What is a lithograph, anyway?
What is a lithograph?
The lithograph was invented nearly 200 years before Picasso's birth. An artist like Picasso uses the printing method of lithography to create drawings or paintings by applying crayon or tusche and then ink to a prepared flat stone, metal or plastic plate. An example of a comparable lithograph is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's 1896 "Seated Female Clown, Mlle. Cha-U-Kao," rendered with crayon.
Marcel Salinas used a special form of lithography to create "Visage II" and "Visage III." Chromolithography allows an artist like Salinas to create already colored prints instead of applying color to prints after the prints are created on plates of stone.
Chromolithography, invented in 1860 by Louis Prang, allowed everyone to own classic and priceless works of art, which had before been only available to the wealthy. Chromolithography brings the valuable "Visage II' and "Visage III" to your home or office.

How is a lithograph created?
Rather than provide you with an art history textbook description of lithographs, and in particular chromolithography, we'll share a glimpse inside the studio of an artist, and take you through the procedure step-by-step. We do this to show you just how unique and detailed your beautiful new purchase is.
Beginnings, 1962
1) Picasso executes "Visage II" and "Visage III" on his notebook.
1969-1972
2) Picasso carves lithographic plates for the "Imaginary Portraits" series. In creating the lithographs he uses the basic lithography process in **An Artist's Method**.
1980
3) Marina inherits Picasso's notebooks and commissions the unique series of lithographs. She enlists Salinas for the task of chromolithography.
Salinas creates "Visage II" and "Visage III"...
An Artist's Method
Step 1: Marcel Salinas uses hand drawing on flat stone to create lithographic plates in the model of Picasso's plates for "Visage II." He applies crayon or tuche to the plates
Step 2: Marcel Salinas applies wet ink to the plates.
Step 3: Marcel Salinas positions the colors on each plate. This is known as printing each plate in register.
Step 4: Marcel Salinas creates a series of plates for each color in "Visage II". This gives the image more dimension and more richness of color, which distinguishes it from other lithographs.
Step 5: Salinas assembles the plates for each color:
*Black for hair, clothes, eyes, and outlines
*Yellow for cheeks, hands and nose
*Blue, darker for cheeks, hair, necks and faces, lighter for background
*Brown for clothes, eyes, outlines, hair and backgrounds
*Red for lips, fingernails and outlines
Step 6: Once the plates are ready, Marcel Salinas applies 100% acid-free museum Arches paper to each plate, forming the image one part at a time and one color at a time.
Step 7: Once the ink dries, Marcel Salinas and Marina Picasso apply the Picasso Estate and Salinas seals. They dry-stamp the date and the title in English and French, which adds to the collector's value.
Step 8: The lithographs are crated and sent to collectors and authorized resellers Alvah and Rita Cummins, who hold them back until the 1990s to sell to art lovers like you.
In 1962, at the height of Pablo Ruiz Picasso's career, he produced a notebook of images, which included "Visage 9.1.62 II" and "Visage 9.1.62 III," that demonstrate the greatness of his talent. These works were published postumously by Picasso's granddaughter, Marina Picasso, in collaboration with noted chromist Marcel Salinas. The reproductions of "Visage 9.1.62 II" and "Visage 9.1.62 III" are part of this collection.
>> More on The Marina Picasso Collection
Art collectors Rita and Alvah Cummins purchased the limited edition reproductions of "Visage II" and "Visage III" in 1980 and held back the lithographs until the present.

Each of the lithographs is hand-numbered from 1 to 500 and signed "Collection Marina Picasso" by Marina Picasso. All the lithographs bear the seal of the Picasso estate and a certificate of authenticity. SPADEM, the French society for the protection of copyrighted art, has endorsed and approved the Marina Picasso Collection. These works are some of the only editions approved by Picasso's family after his death.
Only 500 of each of these limited edition works exist, and each one has 34 Artist's Proofs. On the back of the lithographs, you'll find the official seal of the Picasso Estate, "Approved by the Heirs of Pablo Picasso." This seal is Marina's personal guarantee to you, the collector, that the reproduction is genuinely a part of the Picasso legacy. Additionally, on the back of each lithograph is a dry stamp indicating the name of the work and the date of publication. You will always know that you have a rare, limited edition lithograph.
In 1962, at the height of Pablo Ruiz Picasso's career, he produced a notebook of images, which included "Visage 9.1.62 II" and "Visage 9.1.62 III," that demonstrate the greatness of his talent. These works were published postumously by Picasso's granddaughter, Marina Picasso. The reproductions of "Visage 9.1.62 II" and "Visage 9.1.62 III" are part of this collection.

Art collectors Rita and Alvah Cummins purchased the limited edition poster reproductions of "Visage II" and "Visage III" in 1980 and held back the poster versions until the present. High quality hand-signed lithographs are also available.
The posters are printed on high quality poster board, not paper, and are a limited edition of 500. There are no permissions for re-strikes of this image, so once these 500 posters are gone, there will be no more! Your poster will truly be a rare Picasso reproduction.
Now, for a limited time only, you can purchase the set of two coordinating posters for $50 off the regular price.

1. How do I know this is the genuine article?
The lithographs have an embossed seal of the Picasso Estate, a dry stamp with the year of original printing and the year in English and French, and the penciled, hand signed signature of Marina Picasso, Pablo Picasso's granddaughter and heir.
2. How do I know that this hasn't been forged?
These items, printed in the early 1980's, have not been sold and re-sold over time. The origin of these lithographs can be traced directly back to 1980 when the Marina Picasso Collection came into being in conjunction with Jackie Fine Arts of New York. Picasso-Galleries.com is owned by Alvah and Rita Cummins of Las Vegas, Nevada; the original owners of these lithographs since they were purchased through Jackie Fine Arts. We are the legal owners of the copyrights to these images, and these limited edition lithographs are also approved by SPADEM, the French society for the protection of copyrighted works of art.
3. I purchased/saw a Picasso somewhere else. Can you tell me if it is genuine? Can you tell me how much it is worth?
No, we can't. While we guarantee the authenticity of the works we sell, we cannot tell you if some other work is genuine or how much it is worth. We recommend you contact a professional art appraiser in your area.
4. Do you ship outside of the USA?
Absolutely! We ship anywhere in the world.
5. Can I purchase these at volume or wholesale prices?
Yes, we can and do sell quantities of the lithographs for resale in art galleries. For more information on obtaining a volume discount for resale.
6. Can I get a low number of the limited edition?
Currently the numbers for both lithographs are under 50/500.
7. Do you offer a guarantee?
Yes! If for any reason your artwork arrives in less than perfect condition, it will be immediately replaced free of charge, upon return of the original.

Fernand Mourlot (1895-1988)
Dates and principal realisations
1895
- Fernand Mourlot is born in Paris
1914
- His father, Jules Mourlot buys the Imprimerie Bataille, 18 rue de Chabrol.
1921
- After the death of Jules Mourlot, the printing studio becomes Mourlot Frères.
1923
- Mourlot prints an original poster by Pierre Girieud for the French Modern Art exhibition, Copenhagen.
1926
- Les Hommes abandonnés, a book by Duhamel with lithograph illustrations by Vlaminck, published by Marcel Seheur.
1929
- 1OO années de locomotion mécanique, tribute to Kervoline oil, printed byMourlot Frères with lithographs by Pierre Noury.
1930
- At the behest of the Musées Nationaux, Mourlot prints lithographs for thehundred-year anniversary of Romantism, and for a Delacroix retrospective at the Musée du Louvre.
1932
- Poster for the Manet exhibition.
1937
- For the Art Indépendant exhibition at the Petit Palais, two Mourlot lithograph posters: le petit Déjeuner by Bonnard and Le rêve by Matisse.Fernand Mourlot meets Henri Matisse.
- Fernand Mourlot meets the publisher Tériade; first edition of Verve.Mourlot will go on to print several plates, covers and spreads for Tériade publications.
1941
- Fernand Mourlot meets and collaborates with Louis Carré for the Matisse exhibition. The studio will print many lithograph spreads, posters and covers for Louis Carré's exhibition catalogues (Matisse, Calder, Dufy, Léger, Rouault, among others).
- Jean Fautrier creates lithographs for Lespugue with poems by Robert Ganzo
1944
- Jean Dubuffet is introduced to Fernand Mourlot by Jean Paulhan, discovers lithography and composes at the rue de Chabrol studio two of his most beautiful books : Matière et Mémoire (texte by Francis ponge) and Les Murs (poems by Guillevic).
Matière et Mémoire, par Jean Dubuffet, 1944
1945
- In November, arrival and first lithographs of Picasso at the Mourlot studio: Tête de femme, Les deux femmes nues, (18 states), le Taureau (11 states). : Tête de
- Fernand Mourlot publishes Braque le Patron (texte by Jean Paulhan)
- Dubuffet lithographs exhibition at the gallery André with three original posters.
1946
- Collaboration between Mourlot and Matisse for the book Visages,published by Editions du Chêne. Henri Matisse creates 14 lithographs basedon the poems of Pierre Reverdy.
- Matisse prints at Mourlot 70 original lithographs for Les lettres portugaises, published by Tériade.
- Original poster by Jean Dubuffet for Mirobolus, Macadam & Cie, exhibition at the Gallery René Drouin.
- Signe de Vie, Matisse lithograph printed at Mourlot, and based on the poems of Tristan Tzara; first collaboration between Fernand Mourlot and the publisher Pierre Bordas.
- Picasso Françoise lithographs.
1947
- First color lithograph by Joan Miró printed by Mourlot for the frontispiece of the Exposition internationale du Surréalisme catalogue ; Mourlot also prints the original exhibition poster.
- Repli, 12 original lithographs by Henri Matisse, text by André Rouveyre,published by Editions du Bélier.
- Beginning of the collaboration between Fernand Mourlot and Aimé Maeght for the review Derrière le Miroir ( Miró, Braque, Chagall, among others).
- Fernand Mourlot meets Fernand Léger for the frontispiece of L'illustre Thomas Wilson by Loys Masson, published by Pierre Bordas.
- Beginning of the collaboration between Fernand Mourlot and Pierre Matisse. The studio will go on to print several catalogues, covers and spreads for theNew York gallery (notably Dubuffet, Miró)
- Picasso : the David et Bethsabée series (11 states, 1947 - 1949)
1948
- Miró composes on stones at rue de Chabrol his 13 lithographs for album 13.
- Florilège des Amours de Ronsard, monumental book with 128 lithographs by Henri Matisse, published by Albert Skira.
- First original lithographic posters by Picasso,"Exposition Poteries, Fleurs, Parfums, Vallauris". His lithographic work culminates in Femme au fauteuil.
- Le Chant des Morts, poèms by Pierre Reverdy embellished with 123 red lithographs by Picasso, published by Tériade.
- Fernand Léger creates in the Mourlot studio lithograph for Marie l'Acrobate.
1949
- Picasso creates in the Mourlot studio La colombe an original lithograph which will become La Colombe de la Paix, a poster printed by the thousands and seen around the world.
- First volume of the catalogue raisonné of Picasso lithographs (1919-1947). Published by André Sauret. Preface by Jaime Sabartès. 2500 numbered copies with two original lithographs on the cover.
- Picasso creates his most beautiful color lithographs Le corsage à carreaux,Jeune fille inspirée par Cranach, Femme aux cheveux verts and Figure aucorsage rayé.
- Braque Théière et citrons, lithograph.
1950
- Miró's monumental book Parler Seul. 73 black and color lithographs illustrate the poem by Tristan Tzara (project begun in 1948)
- Picasso's De mémoire d'homme published by Pierre Bordas (eight lithographs created by the artist by directly inking his fingers, illustrations for thepoem by Tristan Tzara).
- second volume Picasso Lithographe (1917-1949). Catalogue edited by Fernand Mourlot. André Sauret publisher. Contains two original lithographs.
- Cirque by Fernand Léger, 63 black and color lithographs, published by Tériade.
- Henri Matisse poster Nice, Travail et Joie.
- First personal exhibition of Marc Chagall at the gallery Maeght . For this occasion the artist composes his first original poster and first lithographs at the Mourlot studio.
- Joan Miró composes a color lithograph for the first 50 copies of André Breton's, Anthologie de l'Humour Noir
- Une Aventure méthodique, published by Mourlot with text by Pierre Reverdy and images by Georges Braque.
- Poèmes de Charles d'Orléans hand writed and illustrated et illustrés by Henri Matisse (54 full-page lithographs), published by Tériade.
1951
- Fernand Léger creates his first original lithographic poster for Les Constructeurs, la maison de la Pensée Française.
1952
- Original posters from Mourlot, exhibition at the galerie Kléber in Paris. Picasso, Braque, Miró and others attend. Original poster by Henri Matisse (cut-paper).
- For the studio's hundred-year anniversary, Fernand Mourlot publishes acollection of original lithographs: Picasso, Léger, Matisse, Marino Marini, Derain, and Miró, among others.
- Apollinaire, a book by André Rouveyre illustrated with 7 lithographs by Henri Matisse, Raisons d'Etre publisher, Paris
- Echos, a book with six lithographis by Matisse with de texts by Prévert, Verdet and Hikmet, edition of 15 copies hors-commerce (published by Henri Matisse,printed by Mourlot au profit des étudiantes tuberculeuses de Vence)
- Parution du Bonnard lithographe, par Claude Roger-Marx, réalisé par Fernand Mourlot et André Sauret
- For Vol. VII, N°s 27 and 28, of Verve, Joan Miró creates the lithograph Le Chien aboie à la lune.
- Joan Miró creates 35 color lithographs for the first 35 copies of André
Breton's La Clé des Champs.
Joan Miró creates a color lithograph for the first 35 copies of André Breton's La Clé des Champs.
- Jean Dubuffet : Series de lithographies Assemblages d'Empreintes, (Chat furieux, Le Ciel étranger, Le Braconnier, les Défricheurs, l'Homme à la casquette, Fougère au chapeau, Jeux et Travaux... ) most of wich are printed at Mourlot.
- Mourlot studio poster exhibition and catalogue at the Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem. (with catalogue)
1954
- Jean Dubuffet exhibition at the Cercle Volney (poster, catalogue and invitations printed by Mourlot).
- For the Maeght gallery exhibition, the review Derrière le Miroire publishes a special solo edition of Marc Chagall, who creates 11 lithographs on the theme Paris fantastique.
- Georges Braque lithograph Feuilles, couleur, lumière
1955
- Publication by Tériade of Le Corbusier's Le Poème de l'angle droit.
- New series of lithographs by Picasso : Les Femmes d'Alger
- Maurice Estève creates his first litho at the Mourlot studio.
1956
- Joan Miró creates an original color lithograph for the 37 copies of the original edition book Anthologie de l'Amour Sublime by Benjamin Péret.
- Verve n°33/34 solo edition of Marc Chagall ; 28 original lithographs onthe theme La Bible.
- Third volume of Picasso lithographe
1957
- Dans l'Atelier de Picasso, text by Jaime Sabartès, six original lithographs (7 supplementary lithographs for the "suites"). Fernand Mourlot publisher
1957/58
- Picasso : Series lithographs Jacqueline
1959
- La liberté des Mers, text by Pierre Reverdy, seven color lithographs by Georges Braque, published by Maeght.

Feuilles, couleur, lumière,
Georges Braque, 1954
1960
- The Imprimerie Mourlot studio moves from rue de Chabrol to rue Barrault
- First volume of Chagall lithographe (1922-1957), forword by Marc Chagall, text by Julien Cain, catalogue edited by Fernand Mourlot, André Sauret publisher.
- Dubuffet Phénomènes exhibition at the Berggruen gallery (poster, catalogue and invitations printed by Mourlot).
1961
- Daphnis et Chloé, published by Tériade, a monumental realisation with 42 original color lithographs by Marc Chagall.
- Georges Braque poster L'atelier de Braque, for his personal exhibition at the Musée du Louvre
1962
- Georges Braque creates his last great illustrated book, Lettera Amorosa,29 original lithographs based on poems by René Char, published thefollowing year by Edwin Engelberts, Geneva.
- Chagall creates his original poster Nice, Soleil, fleurs
- for the Album Rimbaud, lithographs by de Picasso, Braque et Miró
1963
- Braque lithographe published by André Sauret, (preface by Francis Ponge).In this catalogue raisonné, all of Braque's lithographs are reproduced in lithography by Henri Deschamps. Two original lithographs for the cover and frontispiece.
- Portfolio 52 affiches, Lithographs by Miró with poem by Jacques Prévert
- Marc Chagall lithograph Le grand bouquet
1964
- Fourth and last volume Picasso Lithographe, catalogue edited by Fernand Mourlot, André Sauret publisher, (2 original lithographs)
- The Smithsonian Institute organizes an exhibition of Fernand Mourlots works with lithographs of Chagall, Picasso, Miró and others. (Catalogue).
1965
- Mourlot exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, London (catalogue contains original lithographs by Chagall, Miró, Picasso and others).
1966
- Last original poster by Picasso for the 60 Years of Graphic works exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
- Ubu Roi, by Alfred Jarry, published by Tériade,13 original lithographs by Joan Miró.
1967
- Cirque by Marc Chagall, published by Tériade, with de 38 original color lithographs
- Bouquet de rêves pour Neila, illustrated book by Miró, 19 color lithographs (text by Yvan Goll), published by Fernand Mourlot.
1969
- Giacometti's Paris sans fin published by Tériade (work started in 1964)with 150 original lithographs.
- Third volume of Chagall Lithograph, catalogue edited by Fernand Mourlot and Charles Sorlier with two original lithographs.
1970
- Publication of Picasso Lithographe by Fernand Mourlot in a single volume (André Sauret publisher).
1971
- Ubu aux Baléares, an album with 25 color lithographs by Joan Miró,published by Tériade.
- Le Lézard aux plumes d'or, illustrated book by Joan Miró with 15 colorlithographs, published by Louis Broder.
1972
- Souvenirs et Portraits d'artistes by Fernand Mourlot, preface by JacquesPrévert, (Le coeur à l'ouvrage). Published by Alain Mazo. Book illustrated with several original lithographs, notably by Miró, Picasso, Braque,Matisse, Cocteau, Masson, Delvaux, Estève, Jenkins.
- Poésies Antillaises, Poésies Antillaises, book with 28 original lithographs by Henri Matisse,with poems by John Antoine Nau, published by Fernand Mourlot. (L'ouvrage destiné à Fernand Mourlot, bien que publié après la mort de l'artiste fut entièrement conçu par Matisse; le projet remontant à 1946)
- First volume of Miró Lithographe by Fernand Mourlot (presented by Michel Leiris). In the catalogue appear 12 original color lithographs.
1974
- Fourth volume of Chagall Lithographe (1969-1973) with two original lithographs, catalogue by Fernand Mourlot and Charles Sorlier. Published by André Sauret.
1975
- Second volume of Miró lithographe with a preface by Raymond Queneau. with 12 original color lithographs.
- L'Enfance d'Ubu, album with 23 original color lithographs by Joan Miró. Published by Tériade.
1976
- Hommage exhibition at the Sandelin museum at Saint-Omer for FernandMourlot, celebrating his 80th birthday (catalogue and text by Philippe Chabert).
1977
- Third volume of Miró lithographe (preface by Joan Teixidor) with sixoriginal color lithographs.
Ubu aux Baléares, Joan Miró, Tériade édit. 1971
1978
- Cinquante années de lithographie aux Ateliers Mourlot, hommage exhibition at the Palais des Papes, Avignon (catalogue and poster)
1979
- Fernand Mourlot's book memories Gravés dans ma mémoire, published by Editions Robert Laffont (presentation by Pierre Cabanne).
1981
- Japanese edition of Gravés dans ma mémoire (Kyuryudo Library).
1982
- On the advice of Fernand Mourlot, Jean Dubuffet takes up lithography again, now at the printing studio of Franck Bordas, Mourlot's grandson. Between 1982 and 1984 the artist composes over twenty original lithographicworks.
A même la pierre, album by Fernand Mourlot (with a text by Castor Seibel, original cover by Jean Dubuffet).
1983
- Pierre Bordas & Fils publish the book Cinquante années de Lithographie (a new edition of the Avignon exhibition catalogue with a text by Pierre Cabanne).
1984
- Pierre Bordas & Fils publish the book Braque-Paulhan, text by FernandMourlot and Castor Seibel.