Limited edition Picasso lithographs
Posted By Tom on January 4, 2012
Just What Is It That Makes Picasso So Different, So Appealing?
Pablo Picasso’s enduring popularity is undeniable. His importance as a historical figure cannot be questioned, yet the fact that his life and work remain as relevant now as ever is even more impressive. One of the reasons for this may be the fact that Picasso’s career spanned such a creative period in art history that he has since become synonymous with an entire culture of artistic innovation. It may be because his output included so many of his own distinct and influential phases, from the Blue and Rose periods to the radical originality of Cubism. Alternatively, it may be that Picasso’s prolific, lifelong engagement with perception, sensation and experience are universally acknowledged as being perfectly in tune with the fast-paced complexities of the contemporary world.
As mentioned in the previous edition of The Art Collector, interest in Picasso’s life and work is set to rise still further. At a time when the eyes of the world will be on London for the 2012 Olympic Games, Tate Britain is to stage ‘Picasso and Modern British Art’, a major exhibition focusing on the artist’s lifelong connections with this country. The show will explore his critical reception, his influence on British artists in particular and Modernism in general. By means of a broadly chronological presentation of his incredibly diverse practice, the Tate exhibition will chart the exponential growth of Picasso’s reputation and celebrity, letting the work answer the question as to why he became so collectible during his lifetime and beyond.
Picasso’s appeal in the art market is not in doubt. In February 2011, La Lecture, a 1932 portrait of the artist’s mistress Marie-Therese Walter – a model he famously accosted outside a Paris Metro station when she was 17 – sold at Sotheby’s London for £25.5m. In the following June, Jeune fille endormie, another little-known portrait of Walter, this time from 1935, was sold to an anonymous British buyer for £13.5m. Interestingly, this painting had been donated to the University of Sydney on condition that any sale would be used to fund medical research at that same Australian institution. It is also worth noting that another portrait of Walter made in the same year, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, continues to hold the record price for any art work sold at auction, having reached £66m at Christie’s New York in May 2010. This recordbreaking work has since been lent to Tate Modern for a new Picasso room and will surely feature prominently in the upcoming show a short distance upriver.
Meller Merceux is thrilled by the recent acquisition of twenty beautiful limited-edition lithographs produced by Picasso during the mid-1960s. Of particular interest is a rare proof etching, personally signed by the artist to indicate his approval of print quality ahead of reproduction. The evidence of the artist’s hand makes this piece especially desirable as it shows the unique trace of Picasso’s judgment and control over every aspect of his work. The remaining prints consist of an exciting mixture of figurative drawings, all bursting with colour, including a number of wonderfully playful self-portraits. The impact of these expressively gestural lithographs is so clear and compelling that it confirms what has already been stated: if one wonders why Picasso continues to be so popular, or why collectors are so keen to acquire him, one need only go back to his work for an answer.
written by DR. JOHN ROBERTS
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