Pablo Ruiz Picasso

PABLO RUIZ PICASSO (Malaga, 1881-Mougins, 1973).
Untitled, 1970.
Wax on sheet from the Catalogue Raisonné of Graphic Work Vol. II by Georges Bloch.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 29.5 x 48 cm; 46 x 66 cm (frame).

It is common to find spontaneous interventions by Picasso through wax drawings on bibliographic supports. The work on offer, fully representative of his imaginary by integrating his iconic fauns, is exceptionally relevant because of its support: a double page of his own catalog. This piece was intervened by the artist just one year after the edition of the volume, which underlines the immediacy and personal character of the execution.

Creator of Cubism together with Braque, Picasso's painting was a turning point in the history of art. He began his studies in 1895, at the Provincial School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, and only two years later he had his first individual exhibition, at the café "Els Quatre Gats". After several short stays in Paris, Picasso settled permanently in the French capital in 1904. After his blue and pink periods, developed in the early years of the century, the painter began his geometrical experiments in 1906, during a stay in Lérida. A year later he began to paint "Las señoritas de la calle Avinyó", and in 1909 he came into contact with Braque and began his cubist period. During the second decade he developed his classical period, and created his famous sets for Diaghilev's Russian ballets. In 1936 he was appointed director of the Prado Museum by the Government of the Spanish Republic, and a year later he painted "Guernica". The definitive international recognition will come in 1939, as a result of the retrospective dedicated to him by the MOMA in New York. During the following decades, anthological exhibitions will be dedicated to him all over the world, in Rome, Milan, Paris, Cologne and New York, among many other cities. He is represented in the most important museums around the world, such as the Metropolitan, the MOMA and the Guggenheim in New York, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the National Gallery in London or the Reina Sofia in Madrid.