Picasso, born Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain, died on April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France. During his long life and career, his formidability and vision … as a creator would see Picasso reach heights in fame, fortune and influence that no other artist had previously or has since. He touched on every known medium available to an artist.

However his achievements and innovations in printmaking were like the navigational equivalent of discovering another continent. Picasso created nearly 3,500 graphic works, in every medium known, and some unknown, to the world of prints. If not for his prints, Picasso’s place in history would not have been as fixed.

“Since my examination of the handsome body of graphic work Picasso left behind began over two decades ago, I have felt as if I were mapping a territory of an ever-expanding wilderness. What one quickly discovers is that his work is void of conclusion. It never offers a remedy. Furthering life’s discourse, it always presents more questions than answers. His prints lull viewers into accepting an unsettled world, a world of contradictions and tension with shadows of beauty that lie in wait around every turn—but beauty, make no mistake, is what prevails.”

– Suleyman C. Cooke