The Royal Academy of Arts has announced Picasso and Paper, an exhibition that will bring together over 300 works on paper by Picasso. The exhibition scheduled for January 2020 will span his entire career showcase the Spanish master’s interest in the medium of paper. He drew incessantly, using many different media, including watercolour, pastel and gouache, on a broad range of papers. He assembled collages of cut-and-pasted papers; created sculptures from pieces of torn and burnt paper; produced both documentary photographs and manipulated photographs on paper; and spent decades investigating an array of printmaking techniques on paper supports.
Picasso’s drawings, including Self-portrait, 1918 (Musée national Picasso-Paris) and Seated Woman (Dora), 1938 (Fondation Beyeler), will be fully presented tin the exhibition. These will feature alongside key examples of the variety of printing techniques that he explored – etching, drypoint, engraving, aquatint, lithograph and linocut – such as ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’ after Manet I, 26 January – 13 March 1962 (Musée national Picasso-Paris).
Further highlights will include Le Mystère Picasso of 1955, a remarkable documentary recording Picasso drawing with felt-tip pens on blank newsprint, will be shown alongside original drawings made for the production.