A fresh perspective on the importance of Picasso's drawing practice and how he used his materials and graphic techniques to reinterpret past traditions and invigorate his art

A rare look at the exceptional works on paper from private collections by the master of modern art. “There’s nothing more difficult than a line.” –Pablo Picasso Picasso: Seven Decades of Drawing surveys Pablo Picasso’s prodigious career as a draftsman, including over 40 examples on loan from private collections spanning nearly 70 years of the artist’s long and celebrated career. The book showcases drawings in a wide range of media, from works in charcoal and crayon to colored pencil, collage or papiers collés, graphite, gouache, ink, pastel, and watercolor. Some of the drawings on loan are rarely on view and they provide insight into the evolution of his iconic paintings, such as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Guernica, while others stand alone as virtuoso, independent works, highlighting Picasso’s mastery of line, form, and medium. The book ultimately examines how drawing serves as the vital thread connecting all of Picasso’s art.

Picasso may have the most uncanny line since Botticelli. Each medium or style he chose to master, no matter how solid or sculptural, can be seen as line disguised, metamorphic; as the labyrinth to which a single thread is the key. Theoretically, line is infinite; Picasso in his fertility nearly realized that theory in almost a century of ceaseless drawing, whether on paper, zinc, stone, or other media. Here is a sampling, rather than a comprehensive selection, from that plenitude; while nothing could be comprehensive within a single volume, the genius of Picasso's line manifests itself so clearly that this culling from various periods reveals the line in most of its guises. Beginning with a 1905 circus family in drypoint, 44 drawings cover Picasso's major themes, techniques, and styles. From the almost classic Ingresque clarity of the Diaghilev and Stravinsky portraits (1919, 1920) via cubist studies and "neo-classical" nudes, Picasso's restless hand remakes his world again and again with fresh energy, culminating here in six sketches of the artist/model dashed out in raging love/hate in the midst of personal crisis (1953–54). In between are times of serenity and introspection (Seven Dancers (1919), with the future Olga Picasso up front; many figures and bathers) and, particularity as book illustrations, many mythological studies; Eurydice Stung by a Serpent (1930 etching), Dying Minotaur in the Arena (1933), an etching for a 1934 edition of Lysistrata. Balzac is represented by a striking lithographic portrait (1952) and by etching for Vollard's edition of Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu. The sudden appearance of an earthy, hirsute Rembrandt (1934) seems to confirm Picasso's membership in the select group of art history's greatest draughtsmen.

In this generously illustrated and lively book, Christopher Lloyd sets out and interprets the lifelong achievement of Picasso (1881-1973) as a draftsman. Although there have been many publications about his drawings that have tended to focus on particular periods of his career, this stunning volume specifically examines how drawing serves as the vital thread connecting all of Picasso's art, just as it also links his private world with his public persona of which he was becoming increasingly aware in his later years. Picasso and the Art of Drawing ultimately showcases how the basis of the titular artist's style as painter, sculptor, printmaker, and designer was manifestly achieved through drawing. Distributed for Modern Art Press

When I was young I could draw like Raphael, but it has taken me my whole life to learn to draw like a child. Now you can learn from the master himself. Step by step, line by line we show you how to recreate some of Picasso's most famous motifs. Through copying and then improvising for yourself, this book will help you to see and appreciate Picasso's drawings and inspire you to try out many more of your own.

A collection of photographs of Pablo Picasso's life and art, taken by his friend, award-winning photojournalist David Douglas Duncan.