Arguably the greatest painter and most innovative sculptor of
the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso was also its foremost
printer. His graphic oeuvre spans more than seven decades, from
1899 to 1972. His published prints total approximately 200
different images pulled from metal, stone, wood, linoleum, and
celluloid. His unpublished prints, perhaps 200 more, have yet to
be exactly counted. Picasso’s prints demonstrate his intuitive
and characteristic ability to recognize and exploit the
possibilities inherent in any medium in which he chose to work.
Once he had mastered the traditional methods of a print medium,
like etching on metal, Picasso usually experimented further,
pursuing, for example, scarcely known intaglio techniques such
as sugar-lift aquatint. The printed graphic work of Picasso
shows a clearly defined succession of periods in which certain
techniques predominated. Early on, the copperplate, with its
variants of the etching and drypoint, fascinated the young
artist. In the Parisian ateliers of th