
Portraits imaginaire (Imaginary Portraits): one plate
This offset lithograph exemplifies Picasso's mastery of the medium, employing vibrant color and dynamic compositional elements to create a series of imaginary portrait heads rendered in his characteristic cubist and expressionist vocabulary. The work demonstrates the artist's continued experimentation with physiognomy and abstraction, fragmenting and reassembling facial features to explore multiple viewpoints simultaneously. As a print on wove paper in full sheet format, the work reflects Picasso's prolific engagement with lithography, a technique he championed throughout his career for its capacity to translate his innovative pictorial language into multiples for wider distribution.
- Medium
- Offset lithograph in colors, on wove paper, the full sheet.
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
MODERNISM 1880-1960: Editions & Works on Paper
April 16, 2025
Lot 71
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Georges Braque
French · b. 1882

Braque co-founded Cubism alongside Picasso and similarly fragmented and reassembled facial and figurative forms across multiple simultaneous viewpoints in his portraits and figure studies. His printmaking and use of vibrant abstracted compositions closely mirrors the experimental physiognomic vocabulary seen in this imaginary portrait series.

Fernand Léger
French · b. 1881

Léger produced boldly colored lithographic prints featuring abstracted and fragmented figural heads that share the same Cubist and expressionist visual language present in this Picasso portrait work. His graphic flatness and dynamic compositional energy in printed media align closely with the qualities of this specific piece.

Joan Miró
Spanish · b. 1893

Miró produced vibrant Surrealist and abstractly expressive portrait heads as offset lithographs, combining imaginative figuration with bold color and playful fragmentation of facial features. As a fellow Spanish artist working at the intersection of Surrealism and abstracted portraiture in print media, his work shares the imaginative and experimental spirit of this piece.
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