After Picasso

After PABLO PICASSO (Malaga, 1881 - Mougins, France, 1973).
"Le Repos du Sculpteur" belonging to the "Suite Vollard".
Set of two lithographs, copies 927/1200 and 982/1200.
Posthumous edition S.P.A.D.E.M.
Measurements: 42 x 33 cm and 33 x 42 cm.

The Vollard Suite is a clear testimony of Picasso's skill as a draughtsman. The one hundred prints cover a wide variety of subjects in Picasso's universe. The series is a considerable part of Picasso's graphic production from 1930 to 1937, and many of the works not included in it have similar themes. Each of the prints becomes comprehensible when analyzed in the context of the series as a whole: it is the themes and motifs that preoccupied Picasso that impart unity and coherence to the prints. The major themes are: the passion of love personified in the model, her relationship with artists past and present, and the extent to which creative activity can be considered divine. The two preferred incarnations of the artist are as a classical sculptor and as a minotaur, opposing personalities that form a typological dichotomy comparable to Nietzsche's Apollonian-Dionysian antithesis. In the prints, a linear Apollonian style is sometimes fused with dark, baroque strokes of Dionysian impetus.