The British Museum readies for a major exhibition showcasing the print works of Pablo Picasso, one of the finest graphic artists of the 20th century. The exhibition will feature around 100 prints that reflect Picasso’s life and loves, highlighting his extraordinary vision. Among his best-known masterpieces is ‘Guernica’, one of the most powerful anti-war paintings in history.
The exhibits will span from his first professional print in 1904, regarded as one of the greatest in the history of printmaking, to later masterpieces from the 1960s, including an impressive series of hundreds of prints created when Picasso was nearly 87 years old.
Catherine Daunt, the British Museum’s curator of modern and contemporary prints, explained that Picasso’s prints reveal his “relentless creativity, curiosity, and eagerness to explore new ways of making images.”
Succession Picasso DACS-London-2024
“He saw printmaking not merely as a method for reproducing an image, but as a medium that allowed for something unique on paper, which couldn’t be achieved on canvas,” she added.
The exhibition, titled *Picasso: Printmaker*, will begin with his first professional print, *The Frugal Meal* from 1904, a powerful depiction of two emaciated figures. One of Picasso’s lovers, Fernande Olivier, described it as “an intense expression of poverty and alcoholism.”
Daunt noted, “Much of his work at that time had a melancholy tone. *The Frugal Meal* was created during Picasso’s blue period, when his paintings often featured blue and green palettes. He was partly reflecting the life around him in Montmartre, where many lived in poverty—alcoholics, sex workers, itinerant performers, and other struggling artists like himself.”
The exhibition will also showcase the largest collection of prints from the extraordinary *347 Suite*, acquired by the British Museum in 2014. Created over seven months in 1968, this series consists of 347 sheets and represents a remarkable burst of printmaking creativity.
