NARRATOR:
There’s a delightful exuberance in this linocut of a bacchanal, a subject popular with artists since Classical antiquity. Picasso has simplified the outdoor celebration of nature to its very essence. The figures to the right dance wildly, one banging cymbals together as he moves. Their fluid, curving limbs convey a strong sense of action. Even the goat prances, lifting his forelegs to join in the dance. The piper on the left is larger than the other figures, perhaps indicating the power of music over the scene. Above, a white reclining figure presides calmly over the party, at the same time visually linking the revelers to the glorious patterned sky. There, white fans and swirls layered over a blue and black ground suggest blowing clouds or shooting stars, as if the heavens themselves are in motion.
For this linocut, Picasso combined the traditional technique of cutting a separate block for each color with a more unconventional approach of going back to a previously used block and re-cutting it for another color. He used only three different blocks for the five colors, printing one color at a time. This technique is especially challenging, because once the block has been altered, it’s impossible to go back and print more copies of the earlier layers if the artist isn’t happy with the end result.
Details
- Artist Name: Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
- Title: Bacchanal with Young Goat and Onlooker
- Date: 1959
- Medium: Linocut on Arches wove paper with watermark
- Edition: Edition of 50, No. 14
- Dimensions: comp: 21 x 25 1/4 in. (53.3 x 64.1 cm); sheet: 24 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (62.2 x 74.9 cm)
- Printer: Arnera (1960)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: M.1979.69.12.G
- Copyright: © Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object Information
Unseen Picasso
- Norton Simon Museum, 2021-09-03 to 2022-01-10
Through His Eyes: The World of Pablo Picasso
- Norton Simon Museum, 2003-12-12 to 2004-02-16
Seven Decades of Picasso
- Norton Simon Museum, 1979-10-11 to 1980
Picasso: Graphic Magician, Prints from the Norton Simon Museum
- Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, 1999-01-24 to 1999-03-28
- Toledo Museum of Art, 1999-11-07 to 2000-01-16
- Norton Simon Museum, 2000-04-12 to 2000-09-04
- Fryberger, Betsy G. and Gloria Williams, Clinton Adams, David Carrier, and Pat Gilmour, Picasso: Graphic Magician, Prints from the Norton Simon Museum, 1998, color pl. 8 pp. 106, 154, cover
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 171 p. 266
Additional Artwork by Artist
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Please allow up to four weeks for your request to be reviewed. Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.