The Vollard Suite is regarded as one of the greatest print suites, and perhaps the most enigmatic and famous of the twentieth century. Comprising 100 intaglio prints it was made by
between 1930 and 1937 in Paris and at the Château de Boisgeloup — a country property near Paris the artist acquired in 1930. Although executed over a seven-year period, the majority of the plates date from 1933. This was the year when Modern art dealer and print publisher Ambroise Vollard commissioned Picasso to make the expanded series of 100 plates in exchange for a selection of French Impressionist paintings in Vollard’s private collection. It is thought that Vollard’s original intentions had been to use the works to illustrate a lavish livre d’artiste, and between 1936 and 1937 he enlisted master-printer Roger Lacourière to edition the works in preparation for publication.
Explored throughout are the enduring themes of history and creativity, ambition and achievement, fear and immortality, moral and physical fallibility, male sexuality and obsession. Illustrated with reference to classicism and Greek mythology, the Matador engaged in the bullfight, the artist and the model. Through these images the Vollard Suite can be viewed as an extraordinary auto-biographic document, reflecting Picasso’s mid-life musings on his own desires and conduct of an affair with his young lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, creativity and his growing stature as the twentieth century’s most celebrated and influential modern artist.
The National Gallery of Australia is one of the few cultural institutions in the world to hold the complete suite of 100. ( 09.06.2018 - 24.09.2018). (Text: National Gallery of Australia)
Explored throughout are the enduring themes of history and creativity, ambition and achievement, fear and immortality, moral and physical fallibility, male sexuality and obsession. Illustrated with reference to classicism and Greek mythology, the Matador engaged in the bullfight, the artist and the model. Through these images the Vollard Suite can be viewed as an extraordinary auto-biographic document, reflecting Picasso’s mid-life musings on his own desires and conduct of an affair with his young lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, creativity and his growing stature as the twentieth century’s most celebrated and influential modern artist.
The National Gallery of Australia is one of the few cultural institutions in the world to hold the complete suite of 100. ( 09.06.2018 - 24.09.2018). (Text: National Gallery of Australia)