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17

Pablo Picasso

Sable mouvant (Quicksand)

1966
The complete deluxe suite of 10 etching and aquatints, on Auvergne paper watermarked Picasso, with full margins, loose (as issued), title page and justification, all contained in the original linen-covered portfolio with slipcase.
all I. 15 1/8 x 10 7/8 in. (38.4 x 27.6 cm)
all S. 23 x 18 3/8 in. (58.4 x 46.7 cm)
All signed and numbered X/X in pencil (there were also 50 in Arabic numerals and 20 in Roman numerals on Japanese paper, and a book edition of 255), printed by Atelier Crommelynck, Paris, published by Louis Broder, Paris.
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Including: Sculpteur au travail; Peintre et modèle aux cheveux longs; Deux femmes au miroir; Peintre debout à son chevalet, avec un modèle, Sculpteur et sculpture; Peintre et modèle accoudé; Tête d'homme barbu. II; Nu accoudé; Sculpteur devant sa sellette, avec un specateur barbu; and Sculpteur.

At a small monastery in northwestern France the avant garde poet Pierre Reverdy died in 1960 and hardly anyone noticed. News of his passing only reached a handful of close friends, Pablo Picasso among them. Throughout Picasso’s ascendance to international acclaim he relied heavily upon a friendship with Reverdy, this trustworthy, literary recluse. Reverdy’s last poem, Sable mouvant (Quicksand) spun the tale of a desert sojourn’s hallucinations and personal realizations. Picasso agreed to illustrate the poem with this aquatint series in memoriam to its writer. Turing to imagery of an artist and his muse, Picasso revealed his close kinship with the poet as well as a paradox: the artist, like the muse, is himself also a subject, as illustrated by this wonderfully personal tribute to an enduring friendship.

Pablo Picasso

Spanish | B. 1881 D. 1973

One of the most dominant and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was a master of endless reinvention. While significantly contributing to the movements of Surrealism, Neoclassicism and Expressionism, he is best known for pioneering the groundbreaking movement of Cubism alongside fellow artist Georges Braque in the 1910s. In his practice, he drew on African and Iberian visual culture as well as the developments in the fast-changing world around him.

Throughout his long and prolific career, the Spanish-born artist consistently pushed the boundaries of art to new extremes. Picasso's oeuvre is famously characterized by a radical diversity of styles, ranging from his early forays in Cubism to his Classical Period and his later more gestural expressionist work, and a diverse array of media including printmaking, drawing, ceramics and sculpture as well as theater sets and costumes designs. 

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