Artist Demonstrating Picasso’s Reduction Linocut Technique

Conservator and printmaker Christina Taylor demonstrates the reduction linocut printing technique pioneered by artist Pablo Picasso and master printer Hidalgo Arnéra to create the vibrant print “Jacqueline with Glossy Hair,” 1962. Taking us into her printmaking studio, Taylor unveils the layers of creative revision, correction, and adjustment behind the finished print.

Central to this process is the concept of a “print state,” which traditionally refers to a version of a print that precedes the final product. By tracing how artists move step by step to painstakingly rework and refine their images, we can explore how artists across time have maximized the iterative potential of states, for reasons ranging from the practical to the whimsical.

This suite of progressive prints from Picasso's “Jacqueline with Glossy Hair,” 1962, will be on view at the Harvard Art Museums in the exhibition “States of Play: Prints from Rembrandt to Delsarte,” from September 4, 2021–January 2, 2022. By decoding creative choices that the artist pursued or abandoned in each successive step, the exhibition helps uncover the full breadth of experimentation and demystifies printmaking terminology and techniques.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK:

Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Spanish; Printer Hidalgo Arnéra, “Jacqueline with Glossy Hair,” 1962. Linocuts on white wove paper [a series of eight proof states and the final state]. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, 2018.308. © 2021 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. https://hvrd.art/o/363207.

Exhibition—”States of Play: Prints from Rembrandt to Delsarte”: https://harvardartmuseums.org/stateso....

Discover more printmaking and artist demonstrations, featuring works from the Harvard Art Museums’ collections:    • In The Artist Studio: Art Making Demo...  .

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Speaker: Christina Taylor, Assistant Paper Conservator, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Programs, Harvard Art Museums.

This video is part of our Art Talks series in which curators, conservators, fellows, and graduate students share short, informal videos that offer an up-close look at works from our collections.

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All images of works by Pablo Picasso © 2021 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Video: © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Video by Christina Taylor. For questions related to permission for commercial use of this video, please contact the Department of Digital Imaging and Visual Resources at [email protected].