May 10, 2016 - Sale 2414

Sale 2414 - Lot 86

Price Realized: $ 10,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) BAL BANAL. 1924.
49x37 1/2 inches, 124 1/2x82 1/2 cm. Bernouard, Paris.
Condition B+ / B: time-staining in margins and text; minor losses at lower edge; repaired tears and errant mark in image. Image tipped to paper.
The second of only three posters that Picasso produced before the Second World War, this image was his entry into a poster design competition for the Bal Banal, and it garnered second place to Alexey Brodovitch (see previous lot). The history of the competition is shrouded by the past, and we are unfamiliar with any other entries that were made. The printing process is the same as one used in the very early days of poster advertising, in which a typographic poster printed on thin, often tinted paper has a separate, smaller lithograph tipped onto the center. Manet's legendary poster Champfleury Les Chats from 1869, was similarly printed. Here the tipped-on image of the couple is a lithograph after one of Picasso's drawings. It was a tedious and antiquated process, which made it difficult to produce many posters at one time. We assume no more than twenty were printed, to be hung where tickets could be purchased or in a few friendly cafes. By contrast, Brodovitch's winning image was printed in large enough numbers to be hung on the hoardings of Paris. The image is not recorded by Bloch, as it was not officially produced as a lithograph by the artist. This poster shows how deeply Picasso was involved in the artistic life of Montparnasse; entering artistic competitions was not his style, but it shows that he was committed to the movement. rare. We could locate only one other copy at auction. Czwiklitzer 57.