Picasso painter, sculptor, illustrator, ceramicist, genius, political figure etc. So much has been said and written about the most famous artist of the 20th century. Running until 30th March 2025, The British Museum in London features “Picasso: Printmaker”, an exhibition delving into the Spanish master’s extensive exploration of printmaking, showcasing around 100 of his prints that span his entire career and juxtaposed with other artists such as Ingres and Rembrandt. Another way to enter the artist’s spectacular appetite for all media.

“… as soon as the drawing gets underway, a story or an idea is born. And that’s it. Then the story grows, like theatre or life…” Picasso said about his prolific practice.

Visitors can explore his early etchings from the early 1900s, works from the renowned Vollard Suite of the 1930s, and selections from the prolific 347 Suite created in 1968. The space is configured around a chronology of his life, from leaving Barcelona to moving to Paris and then the South of France where he continued to experiment in Arles then Vallauris and the famous Madoura ateliers.

The exhibition offers insights into Picasso’s life, including his complex relationships and collaborations with printers and publishers. Catherine Daunt, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Prints, said: ‘Picasso made prints throughout his career and enjoyed the creative challenge that learning a new technique offered. From the etchings that he made in Paris in the early 1900s to the large-scale colour linocuts of the early 1960s, he demonstrated a deep understanding of the medium and eagerness to experiment and innovate.’

Highlights include Figure. Bather in the cabin, from 1929, a lithograph embodying cubism. This stunning piece portrays Marie-Thérèse Walter, a young woman with whom Picasso began an affair in 1927. Created while at the beach, the work evokes a sense of desire, reflecting how Picasso saw his lover in a bathing cabin, while close to the rest of his family and his then wife Olga Khokhlova.

The culmination of the show of course is the 347 Suite, a remarkable series of printmaking made in 1968, when the artist was 86, working with brothers Aldo and Piero Crommelynck who set up a print studio in Mougins near where Picasso was then established in his famous Villa La California. Printmaking became, for Picasso, the art form through which he could tell stories and follow a thought or idea, recalling his native Spain through themes such as bullfighting but also Greek mythology and eroticism. Few artists contributed more to the medium in the 20th century.

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Images: The little artist, 1954 © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2024. This colour crayon transfer lithograph depicts Françoise Gilot and their two children, Claude and Paloma, on a visit to Picasso after she left him in 1953 and Installation views.