Toros en Vallauris 1960

Like woodcut, linocut is a ‘reductive’ technique, meaning the artist works in the manner of a sculptor, cutting away from the block areas they do not want to print. Linoleum itself is a flat material pressed from a combination of cloths, gums, and wood dust compacted into one substance with the addition of purified oil. The processed material is relatively inexpensive, and in daily life it is most familiarly used as floor covering. It is softer, more supple, and lighter in weight than wood, and it has no grain. Linoleum can be cut, gouged, and slashed with greater speed and with much less effort than wood, yet it also offers a firm surface upon which the finest lines may be incised. What appealed to Picasso most about linoleum was that it can be quickly and easily carved. Indeed, in the teaching of children, linocut is often used as an introduction to printmaking and as a simple demonstration of how to create a multiple image.

The story of Picasso’s involvement with the technique began in earnest in Vallauris, the village above Cannes where the artist had made pottery since 1947. The idea of using linocut came from Hidalgo Arnéra, a local printer. He suggested that Picasso try the technique to make posters that were used to advertise the town’s ceramic crafts and bullfights, since they could be inexpensively printed. The facility with which linoblocks responded to decorative and cursive design particularly attracted Picasso, and the colors printed from linoblocks are characteristically flat and opaque—unlike any that Picasso had previously employed. From 1951 to 1964 he contributed a considerable number, and the present work is one of two in the sale which were created during this period.