Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)
Toros Y Toreros is a book of bullfighting drawings, published in 1961 with text by bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin (translated from Spanish by Georges Franck) and an essay by Georges Boudaille. The title of the book is handwritten by the artist.
Pablo Picasso created the cover page and illustrations using a series of three sketchbooks. The technique utilized an quasi systematic use of brush ink wash. The book is reproduced on Arches paper. The drawings were printed in Mourlot Studio, the famous lithographic print house that worked with Picasso, among other artists such as Matisse and Chagall in Paris, France. The text was printed and book bound in The Netherlands for distribution within Europe.
Picasso and Dominguin met in 1950, introduced to each other by Jean Cocteau. The book begins with an anecdote recounted by Luis Miguel Dominguin: "Pablo phoned me from Cannes. Some time ago he wanted me, he told me, to write something for one of his books that was about to be published. I asked him if it was a prologue or a comment, whether to speak of painting or polar star. He told me that any of these themes would do the trick."
The book consists of 32 pages of text followed by Picasso's illustrations which reproduce three sketchbooks from 1959. The works deal with all stages of bullfighting and Georges Boudaille highlights Picasso's persevering loyalty to portraying the theme of bullfighting since 1890. The plates are black & white, sepia and color, and many are single-sided. Part of the sketchbooks have never been found (the drawings of March 2 and 3, notably representing Jacqueline on horseback). Among the most astonishing images, there is a Christ on the cross saving a picador from death.
These drawings by Picasso covered a period from 1950 to 1960, during which time he enjoyed seeing Dominguin bullfight in the arenas of Nîmes, Arles, Frejus and Vallauris. The leading copies of this publication contain a series of reproductions of color drawings selected from the first two notebooks, as well as a lithograph of February 7, 1961 Pablo Picasso created the cover page and illustrations using a series of three sketchbooks. The technique utilized a quasi systematic use of brush ink wash.
The work of Picasso, which comprises more than 50,000 paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures, and ceramics produced over 80 years, is described in a series of overlapping periods.
His first notable period, the “Blue Period”, began shortly after his first Paris exhibit. Picasso painted in blue tones to evoke the melancholy world of the poor while he was mourning the death of his good friend Cassegemas. The following "Rose Period" in which he often depicted circus scenes, coincides with his first commercial success and his first serious romance with Fernande Olivier.
In 1907, Picasso painted the groundbreaking work "Les Demoiselles d’Avignon", which, with its fragmented and distorted representation of the human form, broke from previous European art. In Cubism, which is divided into two phases, analytical and synthetic, Picasso and Braque established the modern principle that artwork need not represent reality to have artistic value.
Picasso and Braque’s Cubist experiments also resulted in the invention of several new artistic techniques, including collage.
After Cubism, Picasso explored classical and Mediterranean themes, and images of violence and anguish increasingly appeared in his work. In 1937, this trend culminated in the masterpiece Guernica, a monumental work that evoked the horror and suffering endured by the Basque town of Guernica when it was destroyed by German war planes during the Spanish Civil War.
Picasso remained in Paris during the Nazi occupation but was fervently opposed to fascism and after the war joined the French Communist Party. Picasso’s work after World War II is less studied than his earlier creations, but he continued to work feverishly and enjoyed commercial and critical success. He produced fantastical works, experimented with ceramics, and painted variations on the works of other masters in the history of art.
Known for his intense gaze and domineering personality, he had a series of intense and overlapping love affairs in his lifetime. He continued to produce art with undiminished force until his death in 1973 at the age of 91.
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973)