Review 2025

32 PRINTS &MULTIPLES The auction price of just under CHF 600 000 achieved for Pablo Picasso’s colour linocut ‘Buste de femme d’après Cranach le Jeune’ from 1958 underlines two things: the Spaniard’s standing in 20 th -century art and the exception- al quality and expressive power of his graphic work. The group of colour linocuts created between 1954 and 1963 in collabora- tion with the printer Hidalgo Arnéra in Vallauris is now regarded as one of the most innovative phases of Picasso’s oeuvre. During these years, Picas- so perfected the lost-cut technique, in which all colours are printed from a single linoleum block. After each colour is printed, the block is further reduced – an irreversible process re- quiring the utmost precision and re- sulting in works of remarkable density and clarity. For the present linocut, Picasso drew on a Renaissance subject: a postcard sent to him by his dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler from Vienna, depicting a female portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger. Starting from a two-colour proof, Picasso developed a composi- tion of five superimposed colours, ex- perimenting with their combinations. The final version – presented here as an artist’s proof outside the edition of 50 – is striking for the powerful layering of colour fields, which lends the image a sculptural presence. Picasso trans- forms Cranach’s elegant Renaissance figure into a frontal, archaic-modern ap- parition, creating an abstracted face of compelling formal tension. Andy Warhol. Grevy’s Zebra, 1983. Colour screenprint, 123/150. 96.4 × 96.2 cm. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich Sold for CHF 160 000 to Hong Kong Andy Warhol. Mick Jagger, 1975 Colour screenprint, 115/250. 111.5 × 73.5 cm. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich Sold for CHF 130 000 in Switzerland Andy Warhol. Apple, 1985 Colour screenprint, 126/190. 96.5 × 96.5 cm. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich Sold for CHF 175 000 to Great Britain Pablo Picasso. Buste de femme d’après Cranach le Jeune, 1958. Colour linocut, 64.5 × 53.5 cm. © Succession Picasso / 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich Sold for CHF 595 000 to Germany