Francisco Goya

Joan Mir

Rembrandt van Rijn

THE PARK WEST

OLD AND MODERN MASTERS COLLECTION

Marc Chagall

Pablo Picasso

Durer Rembrandt Goya Picasso Chagall Miro Dali

Salvador Dal

Albrecht Drer

The Park West Old and Modern Masters Collection

Where we are?
Why we are here?
What are we accomplishing?
How do we do this?

Durer Rembrandt Goya Picasso Chagall Miro Dali

ALBRECHT DURER
1471-1528
Son of a goldsmith
Apprenticed to painter Michael Wolgemut (1434-1519)
1512 appointed as Court Painter to Emperor Maximilian (1459-1519) Holy Roman Empire
and Germany
Durer traveled extensively, wrote copiously, and reflected on Humanism, science and mathematics.
He fully absorbed and expanded the sophisticated dialog between scientific theory and art of the
time and the Humanist movement. He produced his own treatise on human proportion in 1528.
His genius was multi-faceted, but manifested art historically in the blend of Northern and
Southern cannons.
Found more appreciation for his work outside of Germany, and to reach his market he created over
2000 drawings, 70 paintings and an astonishing body of graphic works including 250 woodcuts,
more than 100 engravings.
How were his prints sold? Why did the blocks survive?
Series in Woodcut
The Large Passion (1498-1510) slide 2-151520 with text
The Apocalypse (1498) slide 3-71221 with text
The Small Passion (1509-1511) slide 4-62820 with test
The Life of the Virgin (1502-1511) slide 5-145820 with text
Engravings and etchings
Walter Strauss, The Complete Engravings, Etchings and Drypoints of Albrecht Durer, (Dover, 1972)
Durers Engravings Represent the quintessence of his efforts and thoughts and most succinctly
demonstrate the development of this profoundly intellectual artist. It is here that Durer demonstrates to
the world what can be achieved in Black and White.
S.R. Kohler (catalog of the first American exhibition of Durers graphic works in the U.S.; Boston, 1888)

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It is precisely their enigmatic character which proves to be their strength, and this enigmatical
character which again is due to the curious mixture of allegory and realism, of vague idea and definite
form, which characterizes them and invests them with the charm of a vivid dream.
Individual etchings
The Small Passion
Famous engravings of Durer for research:
Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)
Melecholia (1514)
Adam and Eve (1504)
St. Gerome in his Study (1514)
REMBRANDT
1606-1669 (July 15th-400 year birthday) Leiden, Holland
Son of miller
Parents invested heavily in his education although of modest means
Disillusioned with studies, left to study art
Was a prodigy-moved to Amsterdam to study with Peter Lastman
Returned to Leiden in 6 months, mastered his studies, began taking pupils at age 22
Moved to Amsterdam 1631, married Saskia (cousin of a dealer) 1634.
Wealthy patrons commissioned his works, portraits and religious subjects
Family tragedy occurred simultaneously to his success
1635-41 four children born all died except Titus; 1642 Saskia died at age 30.
Hendrickje Stouffels became mistress and common law wife @ 1649.
Declared bankruptcy in 1656, auctioned off his possessions.
Hendrickje died in 1663; Titus died in 1668 (age 27), Rembrandt died 11 months later on
October 4, 1669.
Approximately 300 etchings created (differing opinions by catalogers)
81 plates survived
Why states?
The later states and receuils:
Pierre Mariette (1634-1716)
Started to collect and print plates @ 1652 printed the first re-issues but did not rework them. He
printed them as late as 1696.
From 1669-1767 the whereabouts of the bulk of the surviving Rembrandt plates is shrouded in
mystery. In 1767 an auction of the estate of Pieter de Hahn was held and 53 Rembrandt plates were
purchased by Charles Henri Watelet.
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When Watelet died in 1785, he owned at least 78 plates, many which he re-worked. He starting
printing them as early as 1760. He reworked them beautifully and often succeeded in getting the
impressions pulled as close as possible to Rembrandts intention.
The receuils (collections)
Pierre Francois Basan purchased the Watelet collection, and published the first receuil and continued
to do so from 1789-1797. The collection included 80 Rembrandts and other artists and sold for 96
livres ($ 8.00, today)
Henri Louis Basan released his receuils between 1807-1808.
Auguste Jean issued the next receuil around 1810. Widow Jean in 1826.
Michel Beranard acquired the plates from the widow (who died in 1846) and issued his receuils
from 1846-1906.
In 1906 Alvin Beaumont (in conjunction with Bernard) issued his receuil (missing two images)
In London, in 1816 J.M. Creery issued his A collection of 200 Original Etchings which contained
6 Rembrandts not in the Basan-Baumont receuils.
The posthumous Rembrandt states and receuils
Watelet 1760
P.F. Basan 1789-1797
H.L Basan 1807-1808
Jean 1810-1826
Bernard 1846-1906
Beaumont 1906
Creery editions (6 plates) 1816
Dr. Robert Lee Humber acquired the plates in 1938 from Alvin Beaumont. He did little to advertise
this fact and they were placed on permanent loan in 1956 at the North Carolina Museum of Art in
Raleigh until 1970 when Humber died and they were vaulted. In spring of 1993 they were sold on the
London market.
Catalogs raissone
(B.) Adam Bartsch 1797
(H.) Arthur Hind 1912
(B.B.) Bjorklund and Barnard 1955
(N.U) G.W. Nowell Eusticke 1967

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FRANCISCO GOYA
Born 1746, Fuendetodos, Spain
Died Bordeaux, France 1828
His father was a gilder, and he was apprenticed at 14 to the painter, Jose Luzan. He further studied in
Italy and later returned to Spain and painted frescos for his local cathedral.
From 1775-1792, he painted designs for the Royal Tapestry factory in Madrid, and began to paint
images of everyday life. This had a profound effect on his art along with the influence of Velazquez. He
was elected to the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1780, named painter to the king in 1786, and
made a court painter in 1789.
1792 he became ill and as a result permanently deaf. This profoundly influenced his art which became
darker and more concerned with satirical views of society and with his own imaginations and inventions.
He introduced an earthly realism to his religious works, painted his portraits as he saw the sitters, and
created his masterpieces in etching.
Goya served as director of painting at the Royal Academy from 1795 to 1797 and was appointed first
Spanish court painter in 1799. During the Napoleanic invasion and the Spanish War of Independence
(1808-1814) he served as court painter to the French. Upon the restoration of the Spanish monarchy,
he was pardoned but his work was not favored by the new king.
In 1824, after the failure to restore the liberal government in Spain, he went into voluntary exile and
died in Bordeaux , France in 1828.
Etchings:
Catalog raissone: Tomas Harris, 1964
Innovative in his imagery and technique. The first great master of aquatint and a pioneer
of lithography.
Los Caprichos, 1799
" capricious affairs which attempted to ridicule, to upbraid prejudice, imposture and hypocrisy and
other evils which have been hallowed by time".---Goya on Los Caprichos
80 etchings with drypoint and aquatint
First edition (made for Goya) and first offered for sale in 1799 (approx 300 sets)
Second edition 1855 (size unknown-apparently small)
Third edition 1868 (size unknown-apparently small)
Fourth edition 1878 (65 sets)
Fifth edition 1881 and 1886 (210 sets)
Sixth edition 1890-1900 (230 sets)
Seventh edition 1903-1905 (110 sets)
Eighth edition 1905 and 1907 (180 sets)
Tenth edition 1918 and 1928 (170 sets + some single impressions)
Eleventh edition 1929 (100 sets)
Twelfth edition 1937 (5 on Old Japan, 15 on Imperial Japon, 120 on Arches)
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Los Desastres de la Guerra, c.1809-1820

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself Emperor of France; in 1808 he invaded Spain. Sending
the royal family into exile, he installed his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. This action incensed
the native populace and precipitated the Spanish War of Independence. Between 1808 and 1813,
Spaniards fought a guerrilla war against the greatest army in Europe to free themselves of French
domination.
Rather than depicting heroic soldiers and scenes of glorious battle, Goya produced stark, sobering
images of brutality, slaughter and misery. His images exposed the horror of war, from the ferocity of
village fighting, to the terrible famine that ravaged Madrid in 1811-12, claiming 20,000 lives. In the
series the Goya comments on the war's political, religious, and ideological aspects and ramifications.
With a stark intensity unprecedented in the history of art, these prints convey the barbarity and futility
of war.
80 etchings with aquatint, burin, and drypoint
First edition (March 1863) (total edition of 500)
Second 1892 (100 sets)
Third 1903 (100 sets)
Fourth 1906 (275)
Fifth 1923 (100 sets)
Sixth 1930 (unknown size-apparently small)
Seventh 1937 (during the Spanish Civil War)
(5 on Old Japan, 15 on Imperial Japon, 120 on Arches)
La Tauromaquia (1815-1816)
The series is based upon the national pastime of Spain, the bullfight, and was less of a threat to the
established institutions during goyas life. In 1816 the series of thirty-three etchings was published by
Goya himself when he was seventy years old.
Goya had many reasons for choosing the bullfight as a subject to pursue in printmaking. He was a
connoisseur of the sport. He attended the bullfight all his life and was reportedly very close in
acquaintance with many of the fighters. Throughout his artistic career, Goya did 125 paintings,
drawings, and prints on the subject of the Corrida. Bullfighting had reached its artistic and technical
peak in Spain between the years 1789 and 1805 and this coincided with one of Goya's most
productive periods.
33 etchings with aquatint, burin and drypoint.
First edition (made for Goya) 1816 (edition unknown-appears to be small)
Second 1855 (edition unknown-appears to be small)
Third 1876 (edition unknown-appears to be small)
Fourth 1905 (100 sets)
Fifth 1921 (200 sets)
Sixth 1928 for the centenary of Goyas death (edition of 200 on two papers)
Seventh 1937, during the Spanish Civil War (edition of 200 on two papers)
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Los Proverbios (1816)

The series is constructed from Goyas past memories, is laden with allegory, and full of hard-edged
pessimism and a true apotheosis of the irrational.
18 etchings with aquatint, burin and drypoint
First edition 1864 (300 sets)
Second 1875 (unknown edition appears to be small)
Third 1891 (100 sets)
Fourth 1902 (100 sets)
Fifth 1904 (unknown edition appears to be small)
Sixth 1916 (50 sets)
Seventh 1923 (100 sets)
Eighth 1930 (100 sets)
Ninth 1937 during the Spanish Civil War
(5 on Old Japan, 15 on Imperial Japon, 120 on Arches)
MARC CHAGALL
Born 1887 Vitebsk, Russia
Died 1985, Vence
Studied with Leon Bakst (designer, artist) in Russia
1912 first journeys to Paris. Chagall gets to know the futurists, Fauves, cubists. He meets Picasso,
Braque, Leger, Modigliani and others. He sets up a studio in the la Ruche.
He returns to Russia to live in 1914 at the outbreak of the war. In 1918 is named commissioner of
the arts in Vitebsk. Becomes director of the arts academy in Vitebsk in 1919 (Malevich also
teaches there).
He returns to France in 1923 and meets Vollard. For Vollard he creates his first and most
memorable suites of etchings:
Mein Leiben (My Life) 1923
20 etchings with drypoint
110 sets (26 on Japon ancien; 84 on laid)
Les Ames Mortes (Dead Souls by Nicholai Gogol-1809-1852) 1923-27 (completed in 1948)
96 etchings
368 sets on Arches
La Fables of Fontaine 1927-1930 (completed in 1952)
100 etchings
200 suites on Rives, hand-colored by the artist (unsigned)
100 examples not hand-colored, signed n pencil and annotated.

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La Bible 1931-1939 (completed in 1956)

105 etchings
275 on Montval
20 hors commerce on Montval
100 deluxe hand-colored in watercolor and signed in pencil with the initials
In 1941 Chagall leaves France during WWII to America where he was invited to live to escape
hostilities toward Jews in Europe.
Brief outline of achievements:
1945 does Stravinskys Firebird for the Ballet Theater of New York
1946 One man show at the Museum of Modern Art New York
1947 One man show Museum of Modern Art, Paris
(Chagall creates his first color lithographs)
1948 returns to Paris. Teriade becomes his publisher
1950 Moves to Vence, creates his first ceramics
1957 first mosaics
1960 completes stained glass windows for cathedral of Metz
1961 completes the Jerusalem Windows.
1964 installs panels of the ceiling of the Paris Opera
1967 large exhibition at the Louvre
1969-1970 major exhibition of Chagalls works at the Petit Palais, Paris: paintings, gouaches,
sculpture, ceramics, stained glass windows, sketches and theatrical designs
1977 Stained glass windows at the Chicago Art Institute
Lithography
Chagall develops his relationships with Charles Sorlier and Fernand Mourlot, lithographers and Aime
Maeght publisher and gallery owner, and he begins his great period of color lithography.
Chagalls contribution to lithography, the white stone and technical mastery
Daphnis and Chloe (1961)
Exodus (1966) 24 color lithographs
Circus (1967)
Lodyssee (1974) 43 color lithographs (6 double pages, 37 single pages)
Creation of deluxe books
The Bible (1956) 16 color lithographs (12 on versos)
Drawings for the Bible (1960) 24 color lithographs
Catalogs raisonne
Etchings, editions Kornfeld
Books, Patrick Cramer (1995, Geneva)
Lithographs, Mourlot/Sorlier (six volumes, 1960-1986 with Andre Sauret)

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Facts and insights:

Chagall created a lithograph on the last day of his life, March 28, 1985.
His contribution to the art of lithography is richer than that of any other master. Roger Passeron from
Volume VI of the catalogs.
When I judge art I take my painting and put it next to a God-made object like a tree or a flower. If it
clashes, it is not art....Art is the increasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never
succeeding." Marc Chagall
Highest price fetched for a Chagall painting: Anniversaire $ 13,500,000 (May 17, 1990) source: Art
sales index.
PABLO PICASSO
Picasso's audience meaning people who had heard of him and seen his work, at least in
reproduction was in the tens, possibly hundreds, of millions. He and his work were the subjects of
unending analysis, gossip, dislike, adoration and rumor.
Picasso's oeuvre filled the world, and he left permanent marks on every discipline he entered. His work
expanded fractally, one image breeding new clusters of others, right up to his death.-Robert Hughes,
Time Magazine
Born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain
Father was a painter. Family moved to Barcelona in 1895.
Studied at the La Lonja art academy, and passed his entry exam in one day (one month exam). His
father was so astonished by his sons genius that he gave him his brushes and said that he would
never paint again.
First exhibition in 1900 in Barcelona
Settled in Paris in 1904 and met Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Vollard, Gertrude and Leo Stein
Blue period (1901-1904)
Rose period (1905)
Created the most important modern painting in history Les Demoiselles dAvignon in 1907
Cubism: Analytic (1908-1911) Synthetic (1912-1913)
Moved past cubism to the disappointment of his disciples
Began theater and ballet collaborations in 1916
Married Olga 1918
Worked in neo-classic style 1920s on (although evidenced in early works created simultaneously
to cubism)
1925-1930 involved to a degree with surrealists
1932 his fame grew dramatically along with the publication of the first volume of the Zervos catalog
1936 Spanish Civil War affected Picasso greatly and he created Guernica
1944 association with communist party began

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 Although the Nazis believed his art was degenerate, he was protected during the German
occupation by his fame
From the late 1940s he lived in the south of France
Married Jacqueline in 1961, moved to Mougins
Died April 18, 1973
The Park West Picasso collection:
Unique works: A discussion and review of some highlights.
Linocuts:
Picasso's use of the medium of the linoleum block as a matrix for his original printmaking, derived from
his desire to find a technique that would allow him to immediately create and pull his own proofs. He
left Paris to live in the south of France in 1958, and there began to experiment with the technique of
the linoleum cut, a medium used locally to create posters to advertise the local bull fights.
He eventually devised a revolutionary method, where he would continue to carve and print from the
same block as he added each successive color. In effect, reducing the matrix while creating the printed
image. Although created over a period of only 5 years, Picasso's linocuts have become amongst his
most desirable and historically important graphic works.
Picasso created 149 linocuts between 1959 and 1965.
Recommended reading: Picasso Linoleum Cuts, Bacchanals, Women, Bulls, and Bullfights; intro by
Wilhelm Boeck; Harry Abrams, NY 1963 reprinted in 1988
Important works in color
Picasso collaborated with many publishers to create works for collectors that were derived from his
paintings and drawings. These works known as afters because they were done after an existing
work, rather than made directly onto the matrix by the artist were created in various media, including:
aquatints, lithographs, collotypes, and pochoirs. The publishers included Paul Rosenberg, Guy Spitzer,
the brothers Crommelynck, Jacques Villon, Ambroise Vollard, Harry Abrams, Bernheim-Jeune Gallerie,
Henri Deschamps (for Mourlot) and the Musee Picasso in Barcelona. Afters do not appear in the
catalogs raisonnee of Picassos graphic works.
The Neo-C
Classic period etchings:
Simultaneous to cubism, Picasso was also working in a neo-classic mode. Upon his completion of his
cubist explorations however, he devoted his work to the pursuit of purity in form. The ideal of
classicism is to find the ultimate beauty and thus the ultimate content in the perfection of form. Picasso
embraced this ancient philosophy as the basis for his neo-classic work, but moved beyond it to inject
his own personal, complex and continually changing content into the matrix of classical form.

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Les Metamorphosis by Publius Ovidius Nasa (Ovid) 8 A.D.

1931
30 etchings
Edition of 145 on various papers (some with etched remarques)
Printed 1931 by Louis Fort
Begun in 1930 (Picasso had just found quarters for his young mistress Marie Therese). Les
Metamorphosis was Picassos first illustrated book. It was published by the young bibliophile, Albert
Skira who was finally successful in convincing Picasso to do so after Pierre Matisse, the artists son
encouraged him to choose the Ovid ancient text. Skira went on to publish many important artist books,
including works by Dali (le Chants de Maldoror) and was the founder of the highly influential surrealist
journal, Minotaure.
Le Chef-dOeuvre Inconnu by Honore de Balzac
1931
13 etchings with fronticepiece
Edition of 340 on various papers
99 signed and numbered in brushpoint
Printed in 1931 by Louis Fort
Published by Ambroise Vollard
In the book, Balzac explores the problem of the artist torn between the ecstasies of creation and the
quest for perfection in execution. Eventually the artist depicted destroys his own works and commits
suicide. Picasso does not illustrate the novel literally but deals with the novels deeper meaning,
especially the artists relationship to his model.
Lysistrada by Aristophanes (411 B.C.)
1934
6 etchings (one with aquatint)
Edition of 1500 on Rives
Printed in 1934 by Ateleir Lacouriere, Paris
Published by the Limited Editions Book Club, Westport, CN
The book was written in 411 B.C. when a war between Athens and Sparta had been ongoing for 20
years. In the novel, Lysistrada, tired of the loss of husbands and sons from battles, convinces the
Athenian women to leaves their husbands beds until they settle for peace.
The choice of the Limited Editions Book Club to commission Picasso grew from his illustrations in the
Ovid Metamorphoses, and his use of purity of line and balanced composition which was perfectly suited
to classical literature.

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The Suite Vollard

1930-1937
100 etchings
Edition of 303
250 examples on Montval wove (260 according to Baer)
50 examples on Montval wove with large margins (watermark montgolfier)
3 examples on vellum
Printed by Atelier Lacourier
Published by Ambroise Vollard in 1939
The collection of 100 prints by Pablo Picasso known as the Vollard Suite, is one of the most important
graphic series in the history of art and comparable in quality and importance only to the prints of
Rembrandt and Goya, takes its name from the dealer Ambroise Vollard, for whom Picasso etched the
copper plates between September 1930 and June 1937. The genesis of the suite grew from a deal that
Picasso and Vollard made to trade 97 etching plates Picasso had just finished creating, for two Renoir
and Cezanne paintings from Vollards personal collection. Picasso finished three portraits of Vollard to
make the series an even 100 and the suite was born.
Vollards deal with Picasso did not include signing them. Picasso signed examples for Vollard and some
complete suites. Later after Vollards death in 1939, the French dealer Henri Petiet acquired the
balance of Suite Vollard prints and brought them to Picasso for signing. Albert Scaglione knew Petiet
who told him stories of his Sunday meetings with Picasso to pay him to sign prints (see Park West
Gallery Picasso exhibition Five decades of Collecting invitation).
The five major themes - The Battle of Love, The Sculptor's Studio, Rembrandt, The Minotaur, and the
portraits of Vollard at first seem disconnected but upon viewing the suite in its entirety one senses a
stylistic and thematic tone throughout. Picassos young mistress and muse Marie-Therese Walter is at
the center of the suite. She is found throughout with her wide, oval face centered by a Roman nose
bridging straight from the forehead and crowned with short, cropped hair.
Park West owns the largest collection of Picasso Suite Vollard etchings in the world, and is the driving
force in the world market for sales of these neo-classic graphic masterpieces.
The 347 Series
From the 16th of March through 5th of October, 1968
Before the steel facing and beveling of the plates, 5 unsigned proofs on Rives
After steel facing and beveling,
Edition of 50, hand-signed and numbered on velin de Rives
17 artist proofs on the same paper, also hand-signed
Published by Galerie Louise Leiris in 1969.

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Note: The 347 series was not Picassos last series of etchings. His final works in the medium were the
156 Gravures series which was completed in 1970 and published by Louise Leiris. Since Picasso died
before signing the works, a stamp was authorized by the estate and the works were stamp signed.
According to Brigitte Baer, Picassos iconography in the series was primarily inspired by film and
television. She suggests that the series was created in the shadow of films such as Ben Hur, Italian art
films that Picasso was enjoying at the time, and even spaghetti westerns, which amused the European
intelligentsia. Although these subjects may or may not be clearly seen in the works, Baer suggests that
the concept of fictional depictions of various characters found in the series is related to the idea of film
and television and that Picasso delighted in portraying both the public and private adventures of his
fictional characters.
La Celestine
Picasso created 66 etchings depicting the dramatic novel written by
Fernando de Rojas between April 11 and August 18, 1968. The story was first published (in 21 acts)
in 1499. Cast between the Middle ages and the Renaissance, La Celestina is one of the major works of
Spanish literature.
The series was published in illustrated book form in 1971 and limited to 400 copies on Richard de Bas
laid paper (watermarked La Celestine. In addition, he included the works in the 347 series, and they
were printed with large margins with an identical tirage to the remaining etchings in the 347 series.
Ceramics
In the summer of 1937, Picasso and Dora Maar visited Mougins near Cannes and ventured into the
town of Vallauris, whose main industry since Roman times was making ceramics. Picasso recognized at
once this was a medium he could explore, but he did not begin his efforts in the medium for ten years.
He returned to Vallauris in the summer of 1946 to attend an annual potters exhibition there. He met
Georges and Suzanne Ramie the owners of the Madoura atelier, and visited their studio later the same
day, where he modeled two subjects that he left to be baked. One year later he returned and asked
about his pieces. He was delighted to see them in excellent condition and at once began to work there.
Picasso created numerous unique ceramic works, but the Raimies devised techniques through which his
designs could be faithfully replicated and created like prints in limited editions. Thus Picassos body of
work in ceramic multiples began.
Roland Penrose, Picassos friend wrote, The project for reaching a wider public made Picasso
enthusiastic. It gave employment to the local craftsmen and greatly increased the numbers of those who
could enjoy his workthe utilitarian aspect of ceramics was submerged by delight in the medium as a
form of art which combines the elements of polychrome sculpture, painting and collage. In Vallauris
Picasso had found a new playground where anything could be seduced by him into becoming a
delightful toy. The solitary concentration necessary for painting could be relaxed among his family of
craftsmen who were his friends. The origin of his inspiration is in fact in play, and his never ending
game with objects and ideas is an essential part of the process of creation.
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JOAN MIRO
Born in Barcelona, Spain 1893, died 1983 Majorca, Spain
Miro was the son of a jewelry maker. He began his studies as an artist at the age of 14, but was
eventually dissuaded by his parents from pursuing a career in art, and he was finally trained in business
and accounting. He first moved to Paris in 1920, after convincing his parents to allow him to pursue
his interest in art. There he met Picasso, and in 1924 he met Andre Breton, the movements founder
and writer of the surrealist manifesto. Miros art developed into a surrealist imagery derived from prehistoric art, Catalan folk art, the art of children, and one of the most important elements of surrealism:
randomness and chance.
He achieved international fame in the 1930s and returned to Spain in 1940. His work was exhibited
throughout the world in many important museum collections and he held two retrospectives at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1951 and 1959. In 1956 Miro settled in Majorca, Spain in a
studio that eventually was transformed into the Miro Museum.
Miro became a precursor for much of modern abstract art, and was seminal in the development of the
concept and notion of visual energy. Many historians believe that without Miro, there would not have
been the abstract expressionist movement and the emergence of such important artists as de Kooning,
Motherwell, Pollack, Gorky, Franz Kline, Frankenthaler, Rothko and others.
Michel Leiris, French novelist and writer, in the first volume of the Miro catalog raisonne of lithography
wrote, the best way to approach a work by Miro: Empty yourself of preconceptions, look at it
without any reservations, and bathe your eyes in it as in water that can wash away the dust that
accumulates around so many masterpieces. Thanks to such rediscovered candor, the doors of poetry in
us will be opened.
Aquatints
Catalog raisonne for intaglio works:
Miro Engravings, Jacques Dupin, 1989 Rizzoli NY (published in Spain by Poligrafa)
Miro achieved great expressive range and extended the technique of etching and aquatint through his
use of carborundum. Another name for silicon carbide, carborundum is an abrasive substance used to
build up the surface of the plate which when printed creates a raised craggy relief impression on the
paper.
One of Miros most famous carborundum etchings, Le Somnambule fetched $ 154,000 at auction
(11/89) and sold in excess of 100,000 three more times that year.
We currently have one in inventory with a Park West price of $ 98,500.

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Lithographs
Catalog raisonne for lithographs:
Miro Lithographs (six volumes)
First published n 1972, edited by Patrick Cramer for the final volume published n 1992, Maeght
publisher, Paris
Miro created an astonishing 1269 lithographs between the years of 1930 and 1981. His first great suite of
lithographs, The Barcelona Series (1944), consisted of 50 black and white lithographs. The edition was
7. Five suites on Torras Juvinya paper and one suite each for the artist and publisher, Joan Prats.
The Broder collection
Park West successfully negotiated through a representative with the estate of Louis Broder, a highly
influential and successful publisher for many important modern artists to acquire the entire remaining
inventory of lithographs (1400 impressions) published by Broder in 1970-71. Four suites were
included in the collection:

The Seers 1971, six images

The Perseides 1970, five images
Migratory Bird 1970, five images
Lizard with Golden Feathers 1971 (thirteen images-nine were remaining)

Other lithographs from the Park West collection

SALVADOR DALI
Salvador Dal was born Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dal y Domenech in the Catalan town of Figueras,
Spain, on May 11, 1904. In 1921 he enrolled in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
in Madrid, where he became a friend of Federico Garca Lorca and Luis Buuel. His first solo show was
held in 1925 at the Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona. In 1926 Dal was expelled from the Academia and
the following year he visited Paris and met Picasso. He collaborated with Buuel on the film Un Chien
andalou in 1928. At the end of the year he returned to Paris and met and Paul Eluard, whom at the
time was married to Gala, who later married Dali. About this time Dal produced his first Surrealist
publications and illustrated the works of Surrealist writers and poets. His first solo show in the United
States took place at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1933.
Dal was censured by the Surrealists in 1934. Their belief was that his art possessed too much craft
and demonstrated the technical brilliance that was an anathema to surrealism. Toward the end of the
decade he made several trips to Italy to study the art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In
1940 Dal fled to the United States, where he worked on theatrical productions, wrote, illustrated
books, and painted. A major retrospective of his work opened in 1941 at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York and traveled throughout the United States. In 1942 Dal published his autobiography and
began exhibiting at M. Knoedler and Co. in New York. He returned to Europe in 1948, settling in Port
Lligat, Spain. His first paintings with religious subjects date from 194849. In 1954 a Dal
retrospective was held at the Palazzo Pallavicini in Rome and in 1964 an important retrospective of his
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work was shown in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto. He continued painting, writing, and illustrating during
the 1960s. The Salvador Dal Museum in Cleveland was inaugurated in 1971 and was founded by
Reynolds and Eleanor Morse. Later the Morses moved the museum to St. Petersburg, Florida. In 1980 a
major Dal retrospective was held at the Muse National dArt Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, in
Paris, and his work was exhibited at the Tate Gallery, London. Dali died on January 23, 1989, in Figueras.
Important facts about the Park West Dali collection and information about Dalis graphic works:
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy was published by the French art publishing firm, Les Heures Claires who were
brought into complete the project by Joseph Foret who took over the project after it was abandoned by
the Italian government. Initially the Italian government decided to create the project in commemoration
of Dantes 500th birthday. After receiving great deal of criticism about commissioning a Spanish artist
to create a project dedicated to Italys greatest poet, the project was abandoned.
Dali worked on the paintings for the series beginning in 1951 and the wood-engravings were created
from1960-64. 100 images exist in the suite (34 inferno; 33 purgatory; and 33 paradise). The wood
blocks were prepared in the studio of Raymond Jacquet who supervised the team of artisans who
engraved the wood-blocks used for the printing. More than 3000 blocks were used in the creation of
the works and many were destroyed through the reductive print technique, similar to Picassos use of
the linocut matrix. This is evidenced by the successive proofs (called decompositions) of a singular
image (with each color being added sequentially one over the other) that were released with deluxe
examples of the suites.
Jean Estrade was the Artistic Director for Les Heures Claires and worked closely with Dali as the editor
of the Divine Comedy. Park West established a long term relationship with Mr. Estrade, and secured
the rights to sell his entire inventory of Divine Comedy wood-engravings. Over the years, Park West
also handled examples of the Divine Comedy engravings that were hand-signed by Dali for Mr. Estrade,
and also drawings and mixed media unique works from Mr. Estrades collection.
Please note, as we do acquire examples of hand-signed Divine Comedy wood engravings with different
provenance, please be certain to check in your catalog description for the correct information to be
dispensed to our clients when presenting these works.
Dr. Giuseppe Albaretto and Dr. Mara Albaretto
They were friends and patrons of Dali who amassed the largest collection of Dali artworks in existence.
They were also publishers of many Dali graphic works. Dr. Albaretto purchased Les Heures Claires in
the late1960s and eventually moved the inventory to Turin Italy. He maintained offices in France and
Italy and published his editions with Dali under the name of Les Hueres Claires.
Park West purchased the entire remaining collection of graphic works from the Albaretto collection, and
has sold and continues to archive paintings and drawings with provenance from the Albaretto collection.

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The Sacra Biblia

The Sacra Bibla was published by Rizzoli Editions, Italy in 1969. The story goes that Dr. Albaretto, a
devout Catholic, was concerned for Dalis spiritual health because of his wife Galas debauchery and
avariciousness. Albaretto believed that the only way to set Dali onto the path of redemption was
through the Bible, and that the only way to get Dali to read it was to commission him to illustrate it.
Due to the tremendous cost involved in the project, the complete run of deluxe books was never
completed and consequently entire sets of the Sacra Biblia are very rare.
Through Dr. Albaretto a collector named Roberto Mastella arranged to have Dali hand-sign 10 sets of
the Sacra Biblia and examples of loose sheets that were never bound into the books. Park West
acquired nine sets of the ten sets, and the loose sheets and sold the Mastella/Albaretto collection.
These works are essentially sold out.
Pierre Argillet
The French dealer and publisher Pierre Argillet was a publisher of Dalis etchings in the 1960s and
1970s. Park West has acquired several unique works from the Argillet collection, many of which were
used as studies for the creation of the etchings published by Argillet in the 1970s.
Bernard Ewell
Bernard Ewell is a member of the American Society of Appraisers and is a world renowned expert on
the artwork of Salvador Dali.
Mr. Ewell has:
Authenticated the Albaretto Dali collection
Appraised on two occasions The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
Authenticated the Park West Gallery Dali collections
Mr. Ewells biography:
Bernard Ewell is an internationally recognized expert and authority on the works of Salvador Dali. He is
an Accredited Senior Appraiser who has provided professional services since 1972 and has specialized
in the works of Salvador Dali since 1980. He has appraised over 20,000 graphic works attributed to
Dali and also examined over 800 unique, original drawings and paintings. In 1987, 1993 and 1998
he appraised the collection of The Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mr. Ewell has been
certified by the Albaretto Collection in Turin, Italy - the worlds largest collection of original artworks by
the Spanish Master.
As a recognized expert in the field, Mr. Ewell has provided appraisals, court reports and testimony for
the Federal Trade Commission, the F.B.I., the I.R.S., the U.S. Attorneys of New York and Hawaii, the
U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the
Attorneys General of New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Missouri, and numerous local law enforcement
agencies and private attorneys. He also served as a consultant for the CBS News 60 Minutes
broadcast on the Dali market and Money magazine, Forbes magazine, and numerous newspapers.
Working with the Wisconsin Attorney General, he co-authored the Art Multiples Law, designed to
serve as a model for other states.
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