Picasso: Printmaker at the British Museum

In an ambitious attempt to cover the length of Picasso’s career, Picasso: Printmaker is made up of a selection of the British Museum’s 550 prints by Picasso, the largest collection of the artist’s œuvre as a printmaker within the UK. It is arranged chronologically, guiding viewers from the very start of his career to the end of his life. Picasso’s experiments and curiosities are extremely well recorded, and this display does an excellent job of attempting to take viewers through the span of his lifetime. Because of this, it is visually crowded, jamming as much as the eye can take into the museum’s small print room. Alongside Picasso’s work are prints by his contemporaries, such as Georges Braque and his idols such as Rembrandt and Goya.

Dividing the room in half is a white wall jutting out in angular shapes, presumably referencing the forms often seen in cubist art, and functioning as a timeline that tells the story of Picasso’s life. In particular, his romantic repertoire is explored and his promiscuous reputation is diplomatically grazed past. The exhibition comes to an end with prints completed toward the end of Picasso’s life known as the 347 Suite, a collection of 347 prints, which reflect upon the subject matter throughout his life and function as a visual stream of consciousness.

Choosing to focus on Picasso’s skill as a printmaker allows for viewers to digest his style in a way that is not often associated with the artist; in black and white, making room for the shape and form of Picasso’s work to stand out when it is unobstructed by the vibrant colours often associated with him. The dynamism of his lines and the variety of his subjects, ranging from lovers to mythology, stand out amongst the monochrome.

But it is not devoid of colour, the exhibition’s poster image Still Life with Glass Under the Lamp (1962) brings attention to the intentionality behind Picasso’s use of colour by showing the process of each print in green, yellow and red, demonstrating how prints are assembled and to what effect. This is a major strength of the exhibition, as it focuses on Picasso’s process. His esteemed Demoiselles d’Avignon can be seen in its preliminary stages, through a print of a particular woman featured in the final work. Picasso: Printmaker sheds light on Picasso’s artistic identity beyond just cubism, delving deeper into his style and creative process.

Perihaan Khan
Image: Still life under the lamp, 1962 © Succession Picasso, DACS, London 2024

Picasso: Printmaker is at the British Museum from 7^th November 2024 until 30^th March 2025. For further information or to book visit the exhibition’s website here.