Pablo Picasso

PABLO PICASSO (Malaga, 1881-Mougins, 1973).
"The abduction of Jezebel by Chiron the Centaur II", 1962.
Drypoint on Velin paper by Guarro with watermark, copy LX III.
Hand signed, signed and dated on plate "20.3.62".
Attached certificate of the print run, signed by Picasso.
Composition engraved for the book "Gavilla de fabulas sin amor" by Camilo Jose Cela.
Measurements: 35 x 25 cm (print); 71 x 62 cm (frame).

In "The abduction of Jezebel by Chiron the Centaur II", Picasso uses the drypoint with a plastic language very characteristic of his graphic production of the sixties. In this engraving we can appreciate his fast, nervous and sure stroke, made with lines that seem improvised but that, in reality, are carefully calculated to suggest volume, movement and character without the need for excessive detail. The style combines extreme simplification of forms and energetic contours. The figure of the centaur, as well as that of Jezebel, is defined by a linear drawing reminiscent of the archaic or mythological graphics that Picasso recurrently explored. The composition conveys a sense of dynamism and theatricality, typical of his work inspired by classical mythology, where narrative and symbolism blend with modern freedom. The result is an image where the spontaneity of gesture coexists with the archetypal strength of the characters.

Jezebel, a figure with biblical and literary resonances, appears here incorporated into a personal mythological universe, while Chiron (the wise and benevolent centaur of classical tradition) is transformed into a wild character, the bearer of a dramatic gesture.

The scene was created in tune with the poetic and symbolic tone of Camilo José Cela's "Gavilla de fábulas sin amor". In this series, Picasso draws on motifs from his own memory, his childhood and his Mediterranean imaginary, mixing mythology, eroticism, humor and drama, and the engraving functions both as a narrative episode within the book and as an autonomous image, charged with energy and formal synthesis.

This engraving is the only original drypoint of the edition and is part of the 32 illustrations made by Picasso for the book. It was executed in March 1962, two years after Cela and Picasso shared the poems that gave rise to the collaboration: when on June 13, 1960 in Cannes (France), the artist from Malaga read to some friends, among them the Galician writer, ten poems about his childhood in Malaga.

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 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 definitively in the French capital in 1904. The definitive international recognition will come in 1939, as a result of the retrospective that the MOMA in New York dedicates to him. 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.