[Poèmes et lithographes]

Artist Pablo Picasso (Spanish (active France), 1881-1973)

Publisher [Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris], 1954 (under the direction of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler)

Printer Mourlot Frères, Paris, 1954

Author Pablo Picasso (Spanish (active France), 1881-1973)

Date1954

DimensionsPortfolio: H: 26 1/2 in. (673 mm); W: 20 11/16 in. (526 mm); Depth: 1 in. (25 mm).
Sheet (untrimmed): H: 26 in. (660 mm); W: 19 13/16 in. (503 mm).

MediumOriginal prints: 14 lithographs. Text: letterpress (colophon) and lithography. Paper: Arches cream wove paper.

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss in honor of Barbara K. Sutherland

Object number

1984.906A-N

Not on View

Label TextFor this album, with its essentially descriptive title, Picasso drew, between April 6 and May 29, 1949, 30 subjects on transfer paper; an eagle, an owl, heads of women and fauns, flowers, heads of men, faces of a youth and a child, nudes, a large house, and a bull-fighting scene. Afterwards, he arranged the lay-out of the illustrations and the 26 pages of text on 14 sheets. Picasso had written the poems in 1941 during the German occupation of Paris. The text reveals his indignation and suffering at that time. There are many mental images evoked by the senses. The juxtaposition of text and image, their arrangement on sheets which are divided by four but not folded or cut, recalls Iliazd's book design for Poésie de mots inconnus.Published Referencescf. Goeppert, Sebastian, et al., Pablo Picasso: The Illustrated Books, Catalogue raisonné, Geneva, 1983, no. 69, reprs.

cf. Garvey, Eleanor M., The Artist & the Book, 1860--1960, Boston, 1961, no. 235

cf. Strachan, W. J., The Artist and the Book in France: The 20th Century livre d'artiste, New York, 1969, p. 340

cf. Johnson, Robert Flynn, Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870--2000: The Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, San Francisco, 2001, no. 74.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Picasso as an Illustrator, Jan. 23-May 29, 1988, no. 34.