'To me a picture has always been a sum of total destructions.' —Pablo Picasso
Femme dans un fauteuil et guitarist combines two of Pablo Picasso’s most frequently visited Cubist subjects: a woman seated in an armchair and a guitar player. Portrayed using the lightest ink, the abstracted figure of the woman is indicated by a series of pulsating lines, evoking imaginary soundwaves emanating from the musical instrument depicted. A glow appears to radiate from the woman, lighting up the legs of the musician and the side of the guitarist’s armchair, uniting her with the instrument. The guitar’s sound hole is mirrored in the space one would expect the woman’s face to be, as if her mouth was open in song while the musician plays.
Produced in 1959, Femme dans un fauteuil et guitarist is an example of Picasso’s revolutionary linocut ‘reduction’ technique. Rather than cutting into separate linoleum blocks for each colour used and running the risk of the layers not lining up correctly, Picasso decided to make successive cuts in the same block, using a new colour at each stage. Picasso invented this method during a small burst of activity between 1958 and 1963, when linocut temporarily became his favoured graphic medium. Forming a relatively small part of his oeuvre, Picasso’s innovative approach to the linocut technique meant that only a finite number of prints could be produced – in this instance, only 50.
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.