Le Banderillero (third state)

This series of proofs reveals Picasso’s working method as he collaborated with master printer Hidalgo Arnéra using the reduction linoleum cut method—a process that seems to have materialized from their partnership. Reduction linocuts involve using a single block to print layers of ink and cutting the block between successive printings. Mia acquired a series of five proofs from Arnéra’s archive. They first engaged with the technique in the summer of 1959, and Picasso became fascinated by its possibilities. After making several small linocuts from this method, he made one larger one, and then threw himself into this large, energetic image of a banderillo confronting a powerful bull. A banderillo is a bullfighter whose role is to thrust darts (banderillas) into the bull’s shoulders to anger and weaken the animal before the matador finishes it off. Picasso shows an arena filled with spectators where the lithe banderillo is doing his job. Behind him, to our left, the matador waves his cape. The bull lunges forward, head lowered with his horns nearly striking the banderillo, just as the darts strike their target. Abstract lines suggest the many vectors of force and motion in the brutal, balletic scene. This print is the third state of the first block. Picasso returned to the block, gouging out more lines of force and scraping much of the surface, including more work on the body of the bull. This time the proof is printed on sturdy, white paper, and there is another change. It appears that Picasso decided that he did not like the disruption of the nail marks in the borders of the caramel-colored layer and that a new set of background rectangles was printed from a second block—a bit of an end-run around the limitations of reduction block printing!