Pablo Picasso - Editions & Works on Paper New York Wednesday, June 21, 2023 | Phillips
  • “Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy”
    —Pablo Picasso.

    The first overtly political works made by Pablo Picasso, Sueño y mentira de Franco I & II (The Dream and Lie of Franco), are two plates consisting of serial vignettes, that combined, create an eighteen-scene narrative. Invoking a style akin to comic strips, a format historically associated with mass-appeal and popular culture, this pair of etchings sought to graphically illustrate the violence of General Franco's totalitarian regime. Picasso sold the works to benefit Franco’s opposition, the Spanish Republic, showcasing his commitment to artistic activism and profound social engagement.

     

    Combining his signature cubist style with a biting political commentary, Picasso applies distorted figuration to emphasize the grotesque imagery of war and the dehumanizing toll of dictatorship. In the first work, Sueno y mentira de Franco I, Picasso portrays Franco as a monstrous figure ravaging the landscape in conquest for power. Here, the artist's critique is explored through satire: the dictator is shown humorously disfigured, feminized in a silk veil, riding a pig, attacked by a bull, and raising his sword with an oversized phallus. Despite the playful quality of this first etching, the second print reveals the darker, violent realities experienced by the Spanish public. In this work, the bestialized Franco devours his horse's innards alongside graphic renderings of decimated bodies killed in battle. The final four scenes were executed on June 7th 1937, several months after the prints' initial conception in January, following the bombing of Guernica. These vignettes are differentiated from the rest of the work as Picasso depicts the suffering of women and children through a fervent application of line. Serving as partial studies for his infamous Guernica mural, these scenes reflect the increasing influence of politics in Picasso's oeuvre.

    • Provenance

      Merrill Chase Galleries, Chicago

    • Exhibited

      Seattle Art Museum, The Art of Protest, April 27, 2000 - January 21, 2001

    • Literature

      Georges Bloch 297 and 298
      Brigitte Baer 615 and 616
      Patrick Cramer books 28

    • Artist Biography

      Pablo Picasso

      Spanish • 1881 - 1973

      One of the most dominant and influential artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was a master of endless reinvention. While significantly contributing to the movements of Surrealism, Neoclassicism and Expressionism, he is best known for pioneering the groundbreaking movement of Cubism alongside fellow artist Georges Braque in the 1910s. In his practice, he drew on African and Iberian visual culture as well as the developments in the fast-changing world around him.

      Throughout his long and prolific career, the Spanish-born artist consistently pushed the boundaries of art to new extremes. Picasso's oeuvre is famously characterized by a radical diversity of styles, ranging from his early forays in Cubism to his Classical Period and his later more gestural expressionist work, and a diverse array of media including printmaking, drawing, ceramics and sculpture as well as theater sets and costumes designs. 

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101

Sueño y mentira de Franco I & II (The Dream and Lie of Franco) (Bl. 297 & 298, Ba. 615 & 616, C. bks 28)

1937
The complete set of two etchings and aquatints, on laid Montval paper, with full margins.
both I. 12 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. (31.8 x 41.9 cm)
both S. 15 1/4 x 22 1/2 in. (38.7 x 57.2 cm)

Both with the artist's stamped-signature (as issued), and numbered 664/850 in pencil (there was also a signed edition of 150 and 30 artist's proofs in Roman numerals), both unframed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$7,000 - 10,000 

Sold for $22,860

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 21 June 2023