Born in 1881 in Malaga in Spain, Pablo Picasso was one of the most original, creative and prolific artists of the twentieth century. Although best known for such paintings as Guernica and as the originator of Cubism, Picasso worked in a variety of other media including sculpture, ceramics, murals, theater design, as well as writing plays and poetry. While much has been written about Picasso’s work in these other fields, Picasso’s activity as a poster designer has largely been overlooked and ignored.

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Pablo Picasso is the artistic giant of the twentieth century, and perhaps only Leonardo da Vinci rivals his fame throughout the history of art. In a working life that spanned nearlv eighty years, Picasso painted some of the archetypal images of modern art, including Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Guernica. But he did more than create individual works of originality and genius. Picasso invented, and inspired others to invent, a whole new vocabulary and way of thinking about art which have shaped the progress of modernism throughout the twentieth century.

Picasso’s fame is indisputable but rests largely on his oil paintings. A lesser-known but crucially important part of Picasso’s oeuvre is his graphic work, in particular his poster designs. From the 1940s to the 1960s Picasso produce hundreds of designs for posters, many advertising exhibitions of his work. They are interesting and important not only for their striking simplicity and bold color, but also because they sum up many of the expressionist ideas he had developed from Guernica onward. Themes and images from his paintings and ceramics such as bulls and goats, faces and the dove of peace recur and give remarkable coherence to this body of work.

Picasso Posters presents a comprehensive panorama of Picasso’s poster art. An illustrated introduction tells the story of Picasso’s long life and career, and sets his poster work in the context of the genre’s history and of his paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Sixty of Picasso’s finest posters are reproduced in large-scale color plates, making Picasso Posters a sumptuous, informative, and muchneeded study of this little-known aspect of the master’s work.

Introduction

Ballets Russes de Diaghilev

Pottery-Flowers-Perfume

Pottery-Flowers-Perfume

Pottery-Flowers-Perfume

Picasso Lithographs for Pierre

Reverdy’s ’The Song of the Dead

Vallauris: L’Homme au Mouton by Picasso

Latin-American Show

Vallauris Exhibition 1951

Vallauris Exhibition 1952

Picasso: 200 Works 1920-1953

The Three Graces

Vallauris Exhibition 1953

Vallauris Exhibition 1954

Prague Spring

Painter with Model Knitting

Bulls in Vallauris 1955

Deucalion and Pyrrha

Vallauris Exhibition 1955

Vallauris Exhibition 1955

Vallauris Exhibition 1955

Minotaur, Drinker, and Women

Painting Exhibition, Vallauris

Vallauris Exhibition 1956

Bulls in Vallauris 1956

Minotaur

Galerie 65, Cannes

Bulls in Vallauris 1957

L’Aveille

Vallauris Exhibition 1957

La Santerelle

Picasso Paintings 1955-56

Dans L’Argile de Picasso

The Dragonfly

Manolo Huguet

Vallauris Ceramics Exhibition

Picasso Ceramics Exhibition

Picasso Ceramics Exhibition

Minotaur

Bulls in Vallauris 1958

The Cat

Vallauris: Ten Years of Ceramics by Picasso

The Doe

Picasso: Ceramics and White Pottery Exhibition

Vallauris Exhibition 1958

The Goldfinch

Round of Friendship

Original Posters by Masters of the Paris School

Women and Goat

Bulls in Vallauris 1959

Picasso: Printed Works

Vallauris Ceramics Exhibition

Peace

Vallauris Exhibition 1960

Bulls in Vallauris 1960

Picasso: Drawings 1959-60

Picasso Drawings

The Toad

Vallauris Exhibition 1961

Gallery Madoura Exhibition

The Circus

Madoura Exhibition Invitation

Bonne Fete’Monsieur Picasso

Alex Maguy Expose Sept Tableaux Majeurs

Still Life under a Lamp

Peace

Cote d’Azur: Picasso

The Butterfly

Vallauris Exhibition 1962

Picasso Linocuts

The Bullfight

Vallauris Exhibition 1963

Picasso’s ’Les Dejeuners: Original Drawings

The Spanish Bull

Picasso: 28 Original Linocut Prints

Vallauris Exhibition 1964

Vallauris Exhibition ’Painting and Light

The Blue Owl

Picasso: 85 Prints

Picasso: 60 Years of Graphic Works

Soneto Burlesco

The Bullfight

Picasso

The Woman at the Window

Picasso Posters

Acknowledgments