Image: Hidden, Bristol
Hidden Gallery is spotlighting Pablo Picasso’s original prints with a dedicated online selection that gathers lithographs, etchings, aquatints and linocuts from across the artist’s long printmaking career. The Bristol-based gallery’s current presentation frames Picasso not only as a defining figure of modern art, but as a prolific maker of works on paper whose print practice extended from his first print in 1899, when he was still a teenager, to his last in 1972, when he was 90.
On its Picasso page, Hidden Gallery describes paper as both a medium and a source of inspiration for the artist, noting his habit of turning to found scraps, etching plates and even brown wrapping paper in pursuit of new imagery. The gallery says Picasso produced nearly 2,400 prints over the course of his career and worked in a range of printmaking techniques, including etching, lithography, aquatint and linocut. It also points to his long partnership with the Parisian lithography studio Atelier Mourlot, which it says generated nearly 400 original artworks over two decades from 1945.
The gallery’s text places particular emphasis on the recognisable subjects and visual force of these works. It cites recurring themes such as nudes, bullfights, doves and mythical beasts, and highlights the ‘Dove of Peace’ among the artist’s best-known images. The selection currently listed on the site includes works spanning the 1950s through the early 1980s, reflecting the breadth of Picasso’s printed output and the afterlife of his images in exhibition posters and related editions.
Among the works shown is ‘Colombe de Paix for ‘Pour un nouveau printemps’’ from 1963, priced at £32,500. Other listed prints include ‘Femme en Buste’ from 1955 at £14,000; ‘Femme faisant la sieste, entourée de spectateurs’ from 1968 at £10,500; and ‘Portrait Imaginaire 5.3.69 I’ from 1969 at £5,950. The page also lists several lower-priced works, including ‘Clown, Galerie Louise Leiris’ from 1971 and ‘Hommage à René Char’ from 1969, each at £1,850.
Hidden Gallery’s accompanying copy argues that Picasso’s printmaking should be understood as a central part of his artistic life rather than a side activity. It notes that he made posters for his annual ceramics exhibitions in Vallauris and illustrated books such as ‘Ces Peintres Nos Amis’ in 1958. The gallery also presents his print output as an area where subject matter and medium intersect, advising collectors to consider whether they are drawn to etching, aquatint or lithography, or to select works that feel unmistakably Picasso regardless of theme.
The wider Hidden Gallery site situates Picasso alongside other major 20th-century and contemporary names represented by the gallery, including Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Tracey Emin and David Hockney. In the Picasso biography on the page, the gallery describes him as a major influence on 20th-century art, a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramics artist, etching artist and writer whose work moved from childhood naturalism through Cubism and Surrealism and beyond.
The page invites enquiries for more information on Pablo Picasso and lists contact details for Hidden Gallery in Bristol, including its telephone number and email address. The current selection of Picasso prints is presented online through the gallery’s artist page.
