“If you become a soldier”, Picasso’s mother once predicted to her son, “you will be a general. If you become a monk you will be Pope”. Neither prophecy came true. Years later, when asked to describe his profession Picasso replied: “I wanted to be a painter and I became Picasso.”

The most important artist of the 20th Century, Pablo Picasso revolutionized modern art. No other artist in history influenced so many styles and other artists working in every possible medium from painting, printmaking, sculpture, collage and ceramics. Undoubtedly his greatest sources of inspiration were the women who shared his life: Fernande, Eva, Olga, Marie-Therese, Dora Maar, Francoise and Jacqueline.

Throughout his remarkable career, Picasso continuously remade himself and stunned the art world with each successive series – the Blue Period, the Rose Period, Cubism, NeoClassicism – within each, producing a dizzying number of masterpieces. His two most important works, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” which led to his development of Cubism with George Braque, and “Guernica” a painting that screams of the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, continue to have a lasting impact on the history of art.

Picasso was a prolific and inventive printmaker, producing over 2,500 graphic works. The legendary dealer and editor Ambroise Vollard encouraged his early graphic endeavors. As time passed, he managed to test the patience of some of the finest master printers of his day, pushing the limits of every technique – dry point, etching, lithography, linocut, aquatint and monotype. In 1945 he began a great collaboration with the master printer Fernand Mourlot with whom he created a series of stunning lithographs. His unorthodox and creative approach to this medium enabled him to achieve bold and striking effects, resulting in some of his most important graphic works.

When Picasso moved to the south of France after World War II, he established a new relationship with the printer Arnera in the town of Vallauris. Between 1958 and 1963 Picasso created over 100 magnificent color “Linocuts” – linoleum block prints – that have become one of his most significant bodies of graphic work.