Mason

About Artist:

A talented and prolific artist, Pablo Picasso remains one of the most revered and influential artistic visionaries of all time, renowned for his immense creativity and flexibility as an artist.

Pablo Picasso worked in a range of artistic mediums throughout his life, paintings, clay sculptures, glasswork, lithographs, linocuts, and etchings. While the Pablo Picasso paintings are best known , Picasso was equally skilled as a graphic artist and printmaker, capturing his striking and innovative images in a myriad of different print mediums. Picasso?s love of printmaking first began with his discovery of etchings, and what drew Picasso to the medium was the complexity. Exploring the printmaking methods utilized by peintre graveurs, Picasso became fascinated with the process: the metal plate has to be cut down to the desired image by acid and other chemical processes and then the plate is inked and transferred onto a piece of paper which makes the final etching. A method that involves skill, craftsmanship, and dedication and Picasso embraced the medium vigorously.

Picasso first began to create etchings in the early 1900s following his move to Paris. In trademark Picasso fashion, he pushed the boundaries of the etching medium, experimenting with the different possibilities and effects that etchings had to offer. Once he mastered the more traditional etching techniques, he began to experiment with the medium, incorporating dry point and aquatint into his etchings. Picasso utilized these techniques to create distinct textural and tonal effects and added elements of color. To explain a little about the deviations, dry point is a technique in which a hard steel needle is used to incise lines directly in the metal plate, whereas aquatint is a technique used to produce several tones by varying the etching time of different areas of a metal plate so that the resulting print resembles the tint of an ink wash or drawing. Experimentations such as these drove Picasso to become so engrossed with etchings that he purchased his own printing press so that he could make them at his leisure.

Picasso?s etchings show his masterful use of line and shadow which are not as dominant in his other mediums.

Picasso?s attention to detail, imagery, and fearlessness exemplify his mastery of the etching medium, earning him a place as one of the most accomplished masters of the graphic arts of the 20st century.

About Artwork:

Patrick OBrian, in his 1976 biography ?Picasso, recounts and exchange during the visit of Dr Cinti Revent?s to La Californie in February 1956:

They had not met for the best part of a generation, but Picasso took up their conversation just where it had left off.? ?What about the Salome?? he asked.

?I?ll buy it.?

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?That you will not,? said Dr Revents hotly: he had cherished the etching since Picasso had given it to him in 1905 and he had no intention of parting with it.