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Picasso would come to work with several printmakers through Vollard. Along with Lacouriere, Picasso met Louis Fort, with whom he became close friends. Fort worked with Vollard on many of his large editions of prints, facilitated by his use of the technique of steelfacing. It likewise allowed Picasso to print larger editions while working with Vollard. Aside from increasing his already considerable exposure as an artist, this appealed to Picasso’s aspired-to populist tendencies.

Picasso bought Fort’s printing press when the printmaker retired, a testament to their friendship as well as Picasso’s enjoyment of the process in the printmaker’s atelier.

Learn more about Edmond Desjobert at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Deux Femmes Nues II (Two Female Nudes II), 1930 Etching on strong wove paper with margins. Signed lower margin and numbered “123 - 125”.

The Atelier Desjobert in Paris was founded by lithographer Edmond Desjobert and eventually passed on to his son, Jacques. Edmond worked with Picasso on some of his earliest lithographs. He would later print for Dali, Chagall and Matisse, as well as many emerging artists. As a result his workshop became a meeting place for many artists in Paris, particularly foreigners and those new to the medium. He was open to experimentation in the lithography process, including the chine collé method and working with washes on the stone.

Learn more about Edmond Desjobert at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Le peintre et son modèle (The Painter and His Model),1929-1930 Lithograph on BFK Rives velin with full margins. An artist’s proof outside the numbered edition of

Jacques Frelaut revived the Atelier Lacouriere in 1957. The son of Jean Frelaut, a French printmaker and friend of Lacouriere who had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at the turn of the century. Jacques directed the atelier beside his brother, Roger. Artists such as Chagall and Miro worked with the atelier known for its technical precision. Picasso worked with Jacques on some of his most evocative etched portraits of women, the energy of the precise but gestural line rendered among soft aquatint resembling ink washes.

Learn more about Jacques Frelaut at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Sabartes avec deux femmes, (Sabartes with Two Women) c.1959 Drypoint on Rives wove paper.

Centaure et homme barbu (Centaur with Bearded Man), 1961 Sugar-lift aquatint in color on Arches wove paper.

Sculpture. Tête de Marie-Therese, (Sculpture. Head of Marie-Therese) 1934 Etching and drypoint on Richard de Bas laid paper.

After World War II, Picasso’s proclivity as a printmaker increased substantially, further demonstrating his intuitive ability to recognize the endless possibilities inherent in any medium in which he chose to work.

Of particular fascination to Picasso was the process of the Linoleum cut.  Holding true to his methodology of adapting a chosen medium to his own language and individual approach, Picasso took this most basic printing method (an art form so simplistic that it is often a project approached by pre-schoolers) to such extremes that it challenged his printers to what was considered the limits of their skills as craftsmen.

Picasso’s real interest in the linocut began in 1951 when he was seventy years old, and lasted for most of twenty years in his work.  During this period, Picasso not only makes reference to his own previous work, but also characteristically develops images of other artists (Rembrandt, El Greco, Cranch, and Manet).  Picasso’s invention in 1959 of the one-block technique of linocut printing enabled him to achieve brilliantly colored and richly textured works on paper.  Like woodblock printing the linoleum is cut away from the flat surface of the block except those areas that, when inked and printed, articulate the components of the composition.  Softer, more supple and lighter in weight than wood, linoleum can be cut, gouged, and slashed with greater speed and much less effort than wood.  This material and process suited Picasso’s temperament well: by taking something away he was also creating, a contradiction the artist reveled in.  The linocut images present to the buyer a rare opportunity to own a color work by this 20th century master.

Danse nocturne avec un Hibou, Pablo PICASSO, 1959, Color linocut, 'Epreuve d'essai' of the final state but printed in a different color combination than the definitive edition. This impression is in 'blanc crème' over black. #911208

Aldo Crommelynck first met Picasso as a rising printmaker in the Atelier Lacouriere. As with Lacouriere previously, Picasso would create extensive an series in close collaboration with Crommelynck. The 347 Series, named for the number of etchings created for it, was completed in 1968 and caused some stir in Paris with its often erotic themes. The 156 Series, created between  1970 and 1972, was the last major print series Picasso created.

Crommelynck began his relationships with many of the preeminent modern artists there, such as Miró, Léger and Matisse. He left the atelier in 1955, having already established himself as a creative and technically meticulous printer. Along with his brothers, he opened his atelier in Paris, and continued to work with Picasso. In fact, when the artist moved to Mougins, Aldo and Piero set up a printing workshop nearby to accomodate his work, and would print all of Picasso’s etchings until the end of the artist’s life in 1973.

Learn more about Aldo Crommelynck at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Untitled (From 347 Suite), 1968 Sugar-lift aquatint on Rives BFK wove paper.

Sable Mouvant: Peintre et Modèle Accoudé (Quicksand: Painter and Leaning Model), 1964, Aquatint and drypoint on Japon paper.

Sable Mouvant: Deux Femmes au Miroir (Quicksand: Two Women at the Mirror), 1965 Aquatint, etching and drypoint on Japon ancien.

Sable Mouvant: Peintre Debout à son Chevalet, avec un Modèle (Quicksand: Standing Painter at his Easel, with a Model), 1964 Aquatint on Japon paper.

Belle jeune femme à sa toilette (Beautiful Young Girl at Her Vanity), 1971 Etching on wove paper. Plate 144 from Series 156.

Sur le Scene: Viellard Barbu S’Appretant a Poignarder une Femme Dans Son Lit, 1966 Etching and aquatint on Rives.

Le Peintre et son Modèle (from Dans l’Atelier), (The Painter and His Model, from In the Atelier),

With the rapidly increasing scarcity of Picassos – prints as well as paintings – objects such as the etching plates Picasso produced are beginning to enter the market in a serious way. There is even an indication that they are forming their own sub-market. There are objects that, unlike the prints themselves, are unique, fabricated (rather than just signed) by Picasso’s hand. Especially when accompanied with impressions make from them, the plates are authentic artworks and at the same time are valuable documents, records of a process that is fascinating to connoisseurs and the general public alike. Even cancelled, the plates are also attractive as artworks.

Given the aura attached to masters such as Picasso, the sub-market in original plates is already heating up, and it can be argued that, in exhibition and selling these objects, Galerie Michael is out ahead of the curve. It should be noted that not all such objects are viable as integral artworks; lithographic stones, for instance, are unwieldy things in and of themselves, and many stones and plates and other sources of impression bear only incomplete versions of the final images, having been used in combination with other sources to produce those impressions.

Picasso began working with Roger Lacouriere in 1934, a major step in his development as a printmaker. Lacouriere introduced him more thoroughly to the aquatint technique and a deeper use of intaglio. Picasso would work on major projects with him, most famously the Minotauromachy, as well as the Vollard Suite. Many of the themes he explored in this period were influenced by the chaos in Picasso’s personal life as well as an anxiety about the onset of civil war in his homeland. Minotaurs, Spanish motifs and a look at the past are ever-present. Lacouriere was the first printer to truly act as a collaborator with Picasso, in the sense of working in-depth with Picasso to gain the technical means of expression equal to what he could already achieve in painting.

Learn more about Roger Lacouriere at our exhibition PICASSO – Unique Proofs from His Ateliers at Galerie Michael, May 5 – June 5, 2012.

Femmes d’Algers, D’Aprés Delacroix. VIII (Algerian Women, After Delacroix), 1955 Sugarlift aquatint on Rives wove paper

En la Taberna (In the Tavern), 1934 Etching on Richard de bas Auvergne paper. Stamped signature lower right