See Picasso’s lesser-known printed works, which he continued to experiment with into the 1980s

Pablo Picasso is best known for his role in the Cubist movement, creating abstract paintings that showed a subject from multiple perspectives. Now a new exhibition at the British Museum reveals a lesser-known part of his career: his skill as a printmaker.

The Spanish artist produced almost 2,500 prints, about 100 of which will be on display at the London show. Although Picasso had little formal training, his curiosity drove him to explore etchings, lithographs, aquatints and linocuts.

“Many people will be familiar with Picasso’s paintings,” said Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum, in one statement. “But this exhibition aims to build an appreciation for him as a master of printmaking and highlight how his lifelong experiments with the medium inspired his creativity.”

Titled “Picasso: Printmaker“, the exhibition begins with the first professional print of a young Picasso from 1904. The piece, The frugal mealshows a thin couple at a dining table in front of an empty bowl, a small loaf of bread and a bottle of wine. As the man puts his arm around the woman, the two avoid eye contact and stare blankly in opposite directions.

Picasso made the famous print during his blue period. “Much of his work at that time was… melancholic in tone,” says Catherine Daunt, curator of modern and contemporary prints at the British Museum. Guardian‘s Dalya Alberge. “There were a lot of people around him who lived in relative poverty – alcoholics, sex workers, touring artists, other artists like him.”

Also on display are prints from the “Vollard Suite”, one of Picasso’s most celebrated series. The artist was inspired by classical mythology and other printmakers for the series, which includes 100 etchings made between 1930 and 1937. One of those works, Faun discovers a woman (1936), “Illustrates the development of Picasso’s skills in this field during this period, as well as his interest in Greek and Roman art and mythology,” the museum said.

“Printmaking became the art form for Picasso that allowed him to tell stories and follow a thought or idea,” Daunt said in the statement. “Few artists have contributed more to the medium in the 20th century.”

Picasso worked with prints well into his later years and the exhibition includes pieces from the prints 347 Suitewhich he made when he was in his eighties. The artist created the 347 images in a frenzied seven-month period in 1968, although only 28 will be on display.

“They are erotic and fantastic works full of animals, breasts and black belts,” writes Artnetby Richard Whiddington. “In [the series’] best known work, Picasso, his work and his audience (1968), the eighty-year-old confronts himself and his viewer quite bluntly.”

The British Museum has been actively acquiring Picasso prints in recent years. With over 500 copies in its possession, it now has the largest collection in Great Britain.

These works of art exemplify Picasso’s “relentless creativity, curiosity and eagerness to find new ways to make images,” Daunt says. Guardian. “He saw printmaking not just as a way to reproduce an image, but as something on paper that was not possible on canvas.”

“Picasso: Printmaker” will be on display at the British Museum in London from November 7, 2024 to March 30, 2025.