Vintage 1952 Picasso “Dream” Lithograph Art Print

Vintage 1952 hand tipped in lithograph of Picasso’s Dream (1932).

6 7/8” x 9 1/4” lithograph hand tipped in on thick 7 1/2” x 9 3/4” thick vintage paper.

 Commentary on Dream:

Picasso’s violent, abstract imagery of fantastic anatomies in the late twenties was followed during the early thirties by an indolent, voluptuous dream in paint, possibly under the influence of Matisse's odalisques and painted oriental decor. Always in Picasso's art, it would seem, there has been a rhythm between paroxysms of violence and release in peacefulness and meditation, between barbaric invention and classical memories.

The enriched surfaces and luxurious decoration and color of Dream create an atmosphere of hothouse languor. Unlike Matisse's intentions in some similar schemes, the investigation of the formal possibilities of a complex arrangement of curving forms and ornamental motifs is not an end sufficient to itself. Picasso's double-sided genius must draw psychological conclusions as well from his subject. He thus creates a divided reality: the objective shell is the schematic representation of a woman slumbering in an armchair; but an interior world is also evoked, the immaterial mystery of sleep and dream. The green profile is the spiritual aspect of the material form of the body. And it is released, most ingeniously, from the physiognomy of the full-face which it both helps to complete and also displaces. Hence, our impression is that in sleep and dreams the spirit is sprung free from the trap of the body. In this case, the sense of release is intensified by the emphatic, material splendor of the wall decoration and the tight, imprisoning enclosure of the armchair.