Pablo Picasso

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, also known as Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973), Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright, original, first edition copy of "Picasso 347."

First edition of this catalogue of 347 engravings Picasso executed at Mougins from March 16 – October 5, 1968, “a kind of diary in which every day he inscribed his thoughts on copper”—using engraving, etching, dry point, aquatint and mezzotint.

“To say that Pablo Picasso dominated Western art in the 20th century is, by now, the merest commonplace” - Robert Hughes. The extraordinary variety of prints contained in 347 were originally executed in 1968 and exhibited in the United States and France in December of that year. “Neither Dürer, Rembrandt nor Daumier — all admittedly great and productive printmakers — approaches Picasso either in mastery of the wide variety of graphic techniques or in sheer outpouring of ideas or images… Never has there been a sustained achievement equal to that captured in these pages. All the prints included here were produced in an incredibly short time, always with superb mastery of the medium. Viewed in toto, these images, dreams and visual poems by the greatest artist of our time seem almost limitless. There is no point in comparing Picasso to other artists; he stands Olympian and alone. Though not himself immortal, with these 347 gravures this legendary figure has given the world one more immortal work” – from the introduction. Includes part of Georges Bloch’s introduction to 'Pablo Picasso: Catalogue of the Printed Graphic Work 1904-1967,' as well as a portion of Picasso’s printers Aldo and Piero Crommelynck’s introduction to the exhibition catalogue issued by the Art Institute of Chicago.

New York: Random House/Maecenas Press, (1970). Two volumes. Oblong folio, 17 x 12 inches, original linen-backed black cloth stamped in gilt, top edges gilt; housed in original clamshell box.

In very good condition with negligible cloth flaws and splitting to both bottom corners of outer box.