Favorite detail from the PICASSO & MIRO’ EXHIBITION Throughout the spring of 2018, the Grand Master’s Palace in #Valletta #MyMalta will open its doors to a remarkable collection of works by two major Spanish artists of the 20th century – Pablo #Picasso and Joan #Miró. The exhibition consists of a selection of 100 etchings from the Collection Suite Vollard that belongs to Fundación Mapfre and 40 paintings of Miro belonging to the Espacio Miró exhibition in Madrid. Fundación Mapfre is bringing this exhibition to Malta in collaboration with the Office of the President of Malta and Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti (FPM). The exhibition is entitled: The Flesh and the Spirit. Pablo Picasso’s Faun Revealing a Sleeping Woman is the last print in the series known as the Suite Vollard. This series was the culmination of the collaboration between Picasso and Ambroise Vollard (1865-1939), who had been his first dealer and for whom he had illustrated a number of books. It consists of one hundred prints made in the period 1930-7. Of these, ninety-seven were selected by Picasso and given to Vollard in exchange for a number of his early works; the remaining three were portraits of Vollard. Picasso used a range of techniques in this series, such as etching, aquatint, drypoint, wash, burin and scraper. He depicted a variety of themes, among which the sculptor in his studio and scenes from Greek mythology, particularly relating to the Minotaur, predominate. The definitive edition of the Suite Vollard was printed in 1939 by the Parisian printmaker Roger Lacourière. It consists of at least two or three artist’s proofs on Montval laid paper, three impressions on vellum paper, fifty impressions on Montval laid paper measuring 500 x 760 mm and 250 impressions on off-white Montval laid paper bearing the watermark ‘Vollard’ or ‘Picasso’. Made on 12 June 1936, this is the sixth and final state of Faun Revealing a Sleeping Woman. Although the image remained fundamentally the same through the six states, the simple black lines and negligible shading of the earlier states developed into rich tones of grey that depicted a night-time scene with a dramatic play of light and shade. The faun, however, underwent a major transformation, growing more striking and classical-looking with every state, and finally becoming, as Picasso cataloguer Brigitte Baer has described him, ‘a god-like personification of beauty.’ ©Blackpaint20