"Longitude" from Corps perdu
Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881–1973
1949, published 1950
An aquatint print by Pablo Picasso from his illustrated book Corps perdu that pairs loose, gestural ink marks with the printed word “LONGITUDE” to treat image and text as a single poetic proposition.
You’re struck by broad, splattered black forms that read like blown-ink flowers and smeared horizon lines, all interrupted by the crisp serif word “LONGITUDE” so that the abstract marks feel like mapped places or notations.
Made in the postwar years, this work shows Picasso expanding printmaking’s vocabulary—melding calligraphic gesture and typography to blur map, poem, and picture and to influence later artists’ use of text in graphic art.
Medium
Aquatint from an illustrated book with twenty engravings, ten aquatints (one with drypoint), one drypoint, and one etching (including wrapper front)
Dimensions
plate: 16 1/16 x 12 1/16" (40.8 x 30.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
995.1964.9
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
