Exhibition

Picasso’s Vollard Suite at ICO

14/02/2025

Pablo Picasso, Toro alado contemplado por cuatro niños, diciembre de 1934. © Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2025

On view through 20 July, ‘Picasso’s Vollard Suite and Spanish Engraving in the Museo ICO Collection’ presents a full series by the Málaga-born artist Picasso in dialogue with works by Luis Gordillo, Eduardo Arroyo, Rafael Canogar, Juan Genovés, Lucio Muñoz, Juan Barjola, and others that the Official Credit Institute (ICO) acquired in the 1990s.

Curated by Gonzalo Doval Sánchez, the exhibition is a journey through the evolution of engraving in Spain during the second half of the 20th century. Considered by many historians to be the masterpiece of contemporary engraving, the Vollard Suite was done by Picasso between 1930 and 1937, a period of close collaboration with the art dealer Ambroise Vollard. This series came about from a friendly commercial deal by which Vollard acquired 97 original engravings in exchange for a set of paintings Picasso had wanted for his private collection. The series was completed with three portraits of Vollard, making a total of a hundred works.