Bidspirit auction | After Pablo Picasso: From La

After Pablo Picasso: From La Celestine - After Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973): From La Celestine. Etching on Archival paper. Unsigned and unnumbered. Picasso was the most dominant and influential artist of the first half of the twentieth century. Associated most of all with pioneering Cubism, alongside Georges Braque, he also invented collage and made major contributions to Symbolism and Surrealism. About the series this print is after, from Goldmark Gallery: In 1965 the 84 year old Picasso underwent major surgery, followed by a period of convalescence and slow recovery. The effect upon his work was predictably traumatic: this giant of 20th century art was forced to consider his own mortality both physically and artistically. Picasso characteristically responded with a formidable productiveness, and in the final years of his life he applied himself with an absolute single-mindedness and energy that produced an extraordinary body of work. The 66 original etchings done for La Celestine are part of Picasso's 347 Suite, a collection of 347 etchings and aquatints generated in a furious creative frenzy; the 87 year old artist turned out etchings at the rate of virtually two a day between March 16th and October 5th 1968, a mere seven months.