As early as 1951, Picasso had made annual linocut posters for the Expositions and bullfights at Vallauris, assisted by a Vallauris printer, Arnéra. . . .Also at Vallauris, in 1947, the artist had begun to work with ceramics, with Suzanne and Georges Ramié, discovering new technical and artistic possibilities in this ancient art and enjoying the intimate relationship of artist and craftsman-collaborator within the small village workshop. Eleven years later, in 1958, Picasso again sought out the master printer Arnéra in nearby Vallauris, and began what was to become an epic initial series of forty-five multi-colored linocuts and a total production of over one hundred linocuts by 1963. (Donald H. Karshan, Experiments in Linogravure, Gagosian Gallery, Athens, 2010, p. 9)
Picasso revolutionized the process of making prints using linoleum beginning in 1958, the same year that he moved to the South of France. There, this "linocut" printing method was already popular for creating advertisements or other posters that promoted local events, such as bullfights. Linoleum’s soft aspect allowed for a meandering line in which the artist could capture emotional crests and troughs of an energetic, live-action bullfight. With the liberating linocut method, Picasso explored his own cultural history while simultaneously upending long-practiced printing traditions with a radical method of printing multiple colors upon one linoleum block. A 1968 review of Picasso’s linocuts acclaimed “No other series of graphic works, aside from Goya’s, explores with such range the duality of man and beast . . .” (Donald H. Karshan, Picasso Linocuts 1958-1963, 1968.)
He discovered that by printing in strong colors from the same block, after cutting away the unwanted parts, he could overprint more economically and obtain a density of color and texture which gave entirely new possibilities to the process as well as a subtle richness to the effects. To obtain these it was essential to see clearly from the start the consequences of each successive printing, because once the block had been altered by cutting away part of the surface there was no return. Roland Penrose, Picasso: His Life and Work.